KOCHI: Kochi corporation authorities have started eviction of unauthorized street vendors from footpaths and streets. It is following the intervention of the high court that the local body authorities started to remove the street vending stalls.
Officials with the corporation have started the removal of stalls along the High Court-Ernakulathappan temple stretch. Police provided support to the civic body officials in evicting the stalls. “There will not be any political intervention in the matter,” mayor M Anilkumar said. “We have already identified some areas which can be earmarked as street vending zones,” he said.
But, the increasing number of street vendors is giving a headache to the corporation authorities. As per sources with the corporation, a place to rehabilitate only a couple of dozens of vendors has been identified so far. At the same time, the list of vendors to whom the corporation plans to issue licence would come to more than 1,800. The corporation authorities have issued licence to around 1,300 vendors so far. “We may not be able to rehabilitate all the vendors on our own. What we can do is to identify non-vending zones. The vendors should identify places to run their stalls on their own,” sources with the corporation said.
The corporation has authorized an agency to identify the places which can be earmarked as street vending zones. The local body authorities will take a final call in this regard in consultation with the MLAs and MP. At the same time, there are complaints that the local body authorities are not consulting councillors while preparing the list of vendors who can be given licences. The authorities should hold discussion with us while fixing the street vending zones, councillors demand.
There are allegations that names of undeserving people have crept into the list of those eligible for getting licences to run street vending stalls. Though division level Jagratha Samitis have been constituted for the purpose, it is yet to be active.
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