Shillong, Nov 27: The Meghalaya and Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers and Street Vendors Association today participated in the subcommittee meeting that was examining claims and objections for hawkers of the Civil Hospital area.
During the meeting, the association reiterated that relocation to the temporary space will be done only after an execution of a proper Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the hawkers collectively.
The hawkers will only move when all of them collectively have been issued CoVs in a transparent manner in the presence of PTVC members and the MoU signed, the association said.
Meanwhile, the association said it takes strong exception to the illegal attempt to evict mobile and seasonal hawkers in the Khyndailad area.
“There have been no discussions and SOPs regarding this category of vendors and this is a blatant violation of the Street Vendors Act 2014,” association advisor Angela Rangad said.
She said that discussions and decisions in the PTVC regarding respacing of the stretch of MUDA frontage to accommodate fruit sellers, Kwai sellers etc., was dishonoured by a unilateral notification from the office of Commissioner and Secretary urban affairs in gross violation of the law.
“The Association will not allow such a collapse of governance and arbitrary actions and will fight to uphold the law and constitutional rights of the most marginalised to earn a livelihood,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya Pradesh Mahila Congress slammed the government stating that when it has failed to provide jobs it begins to harass the poor who are struggling just to survive.
Mahila Congress President Joplyn Scott Shylla said the tea sellers, fruit sellers, women and men, who wake before dawn to earn even a few rupees, are being pushed off the roads, as if their crime is to feed their families with honesty and dignity.
“When unemployment is rising, when families are struggling, when youth are desperate for work the government should be helping people stand on their feet. But here we are, watching a government that cannot create employment now snatching away the tiny livelihoods people create for themselves,” Shylla said.
