The Meghalaya & Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers & Street Vendors Association (MGSPHSVA) has lodged a complaint with Chief Secretary MS Rao over the state’s delay in implementing the central act on hawking, the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014.
The Chief Secretary is the nodal officer appointed by the High Court of Meghalaya to oversee the issue of hawking and street vending, the MGSPHSVA said, adding, “It is shocking that the head bureaucrat of Meghalaya is not fulfilling his constitutionally mandated duty and is indulging in anti-people actions.”
The association is also demanding an immediate participatory in-situ survey of hawkers and street vendors and constitution of Town Vending Committee with 40 percent of the membership drawn from the hawking community and 10 percent from NGOs working with the community. This committee would then issue vending licences to “guanine” hawkers and street vendors as identified in the survey.
It also called for space to be set aside for hawkers in “natural and heritage markets” of Shillong, such as Khyndailad, Iewdih, Polo, etc, based on their holding capacity. This should also apply on the outskirts of Shillong and other district towns.
The MGSPHSVA also highlighted the work it undertook during the first and second waves of the Covid-19 pandemic, wherein hawkers and vendors were trained in Covid best practices and their numbers regulated per day. This process could have been streamlined had the central act already been implemented in Meghalaya, it added.
