Certificates of vending to be issued to the Chennai street vendors
Posted on: 20/Dec/2019 10:07:18 AM
The sources in the civic body have confirmed now that GCC or Greater Chennai Corporation would soon start issuing certificates of vending to street vendors as per the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014.
Till now, the GCC has issued biometric ID cards to as many as 23.154 street vendors and these vendors would be allowed to trade in the specific vending zones. It must be noted that the civic body would be issuing certificates of vending to these street vendors. Important information is this certificate would be similar to the trade license that is given to the commercial establishments.
An official belonging to GCC revealed that the exact location of the stall in the vending zone plus the type of trade the vendor has undertaken and details about when the vendor is active etc would be known. The certificate issued would also have personal details of the vendors. By this move, GCC would be able to regulate the street vendors better because the vendors would be restricted to a specific vending zone.
This new process of issuing certificated to those vendors with ID cards will start after a month. For a time of 5 years, the certificate issued would be valid and it has to be renewed once in 3 years.
There are many vendors in the non-vending zones and they would be slowly rehabilitated to nearby streets or to the spaces present in the vending zones etc. For the sake of deciding on such issues, a committee under the regional deputy commissioner, local police and other government agencies would be formed. The point is it would be a gradual process.
Stretches for a total of 24.44 km have been let out to the vendors and around 5.4 km of platform space in Chennai is encroached upon. This was as per the information that was submitted in the Madras HC.
The civic body has got the responsibility of regulating the public spaces in Chennai city and it is said that the entire exercise of enumeration of vendors, identification of vending/non-vending zones and issuing of ID cards forms a part of the regulating work.
