Shillong, Aug 8: The Meghalaya and Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers and Street Vendors’ Association (MGSPHSVA), one of the organisations representing hawkers in dealings with the state government and Shillong Municipal Board, has accused the Chairperson of the Provisional Town Vending Committee (PTVC) of demonstrating a lack of urgency in starting the process to examine the claims of genuine street vendors who have yet to receive a Certificate of Vending (CoV).
Without a CoV these hawkers cannot legally engage in their trade and have consequently been without their livelihood for several weeks now.
A meeting of the PTVC was held Wednesday to the general satisfaction of the Shillong Roadside Hawkers Association (SRHA), a different body of vendors. The PTVC had not met since June and the Chairperson was pushed into calling for a meeting after a large protest organised by the MGSPHSVA on August 1.
It was decided at the meeting on Wednesday that a sub-committee would be formed to look into the issue of genuine hawkers not being issued with a CoV.
However, the MGSPHSVA why the membership of the sub-committee was not settled on at the meeting itself but pushed to a later date that has still not been set.
“It was pointed out by us that many hawkers are in a dire situation owing to the wrongful denial of CoV to them. They have been suffering since July 17, 2025 when they were not permitted to vend outside in Khyndailad and further exacerbated when after the haphazard and forceful relocation on July 24, 2025 they were left with no vending options and which has continued till date,” the MGSPHSVA said in its letter. “These are genuine hawkers who have been surveyed and no reasons as per law have been given to them for this wrongful denial. We have in detail submitted these anomalies in our communications as pointed to you in our letters indicated above, but you chose to ignore these.”
The association demanded that the sub-committee sits immediately to iron out the “anomalies” in CoV so stalls can be allocated immediately to those who have thus far been denied space.
The MGSPHSVA also claimed that the number of stalls set up in the MUDA parking lot for the relocation of street hawkers has gone beyond the number previously agreed upon and this had led to overcrowding, which could be bad for the health and safety of hawkers and shoppers alike.
The Chairperson was also told that it is wrong for the authorities to seemingly backtrack from a PTVC decision that certain hawkers would be allowed to sell their wares – such as kwai, souvenirs, fruits, etc – at the front of the MUDA building. “Please note that such hawkers who have been forcefully relocated inside are facing severe drop in sales. We object to this unilateral decision of taking away the MUDA frontage from street vendors,” the association said.
One of the other persistent gripes of the MGSPHSVA is the alleged issuance of CoVs to non-genuine hawkers, such as those who run their own physical shops. Ignoring these “glaring illegalities” allows for corrupt practices and the MGSPHSVA will take legal action if needed to resolve this.
Furthermore, the MGSPHSVA wants a complete list of those hawkers who have been issued with CoVs along with their stall number. The association also demanded all the estimates, utilisation and expenditure, process of allocating the contract and names of contractors who were assigned the work of making the hawker stalls in MUDA.
