By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Aug 1: Street vendors under the banner of the Meghalaya Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers Association (MGSPHA) staged a surprise protest on Friday at the office of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB), registering their discontent over the continued delay in issuing Certificates of Vending (CoVs) to eligible hawkers.
The association voiced strong objection to the vending zones designated at the MUDA Parking Lot and opposite the SBI Main Branch, criticising them as cramped and unsuitable for conducting business.
The protesters expressed concern that several vendors, left without CoVs, had now been deprived of their only source of livelihood for weeks, without any official communication on the status of their applications.
Democratic rights activist Angela Rangad called for the immediate convening of the Provision Town Vending Committee (PTVC), asserting that the committee was the appropriate legal mechanism to scrutinise applications and address grievances related to the denial of vending certificates. She warned that if the PTVC was not called into session urgently, vendors would not vacate their present locations and the protest would be intensified.
According to Rangad, the recent relocation of hawkers to the MUDA parking zone had left many eligible vendors from the Khyndai Lad area without CoVs.
She raised concerns about the fairness and transparency of the process, questioning why genuine hawkers were being denied their rights and how the SMB intended to verify authenticity without the oversight of the PTVC.
She emphasised that the issuance of CoVs could not be handled unilaterally by the SMB and cautioned that individual handling of applications at the office level could lead to corruption or wrongful allocation of certificates.
Rangad made it clear that the sit-in demonstration would continue until authorities agreed to convene a PTVC meeting. She further questioned the undermining of a statutory body like the PTVC, stating that if such a legally constituted mechanism was ignored, there would be no credible avenue left for the hawkers to seek redress.
She also noted that the association had earlier negotiated to secure the vending zone at MUDA, rejecting the government’s proposal to shift hawkers to the basement level, which was found to be unacceptable.
