Shillong, Jul 27: Although it has proven divisive and controversial in some quarters, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma was able to joke about the removal of hawkers last week from the Khyndailad area in a speech on Friday, saying that he “never knew the road was so broad”.
Sangma was speaking at the launch of a leisure centre in Lapalang when he made the comment. He devoted much of the speech to talking up the value of entrepreneurs, though he was clearly referring to the likes of those behind the leisure centre rather than street hawkers, even though they are but two sides of the same coin.
“I’m happy to see Khyndailad free and open now. I joked with my people that I never knew the road was so broad. We have been working for the past three years on this (relocation),” Sangma said.
He explained that much of the delay was because there were two sets of laws – one state and the other central – relevant to hawkers and street vendors and this led to a court case.
“Many people don’t know that there was a court case regarding the relocation. And this was because the state and central governments had each passed a law on street hawkers at around the same time and there were some places where the laws conflicted. After the case was brought it was decided to revoke our act and follow the national one,” he said. “Hawkers have now got a decent space where they don’t have to worry about the rain… It is a win-win situation and now beautification will start, hopefully before Christmas.”
The relocation of hawkers to the nearby MUDA parking lot has indeed given more space for pedestrians to walk around Khyndailad, except that is when a car, SUV or pickup truck comes down the road, pushing the pedestrians to either side.
At Friday’s function, Sangma was reminded by the Secretary of the Lapalang Dorbar Shnong that representatives of the locality had met him earlier in the year to seek his sanction for an indoor stadium in the neighbourhood. The combination of an indoor stadium and a leisure centre based around swimming would position Lapalang at the forefront of sports in the area.
The CM responded in his speech that he remembered the meeting well and that the government would look on the proposal positively. However, he refrained from making an outright promise that it would approve the project.
Instead Sangma commented on the appalling state of the roads in Lapalang, saying that, while travelling to the venue, he immediately rang up the Deputy Chief Minister and Public Works Department engineer. He was categorical in telling the audience that the road would be fixed soon, to general applause, because he believes that roads are a cornerstone of overall economic development.
