Over 1,800 streets in Calcutta that do not have pavements could be categorised as no-vending zones, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has concluded after a survey conducted across the city.
There are another 124 streets where the pavement is less than 4ft-wide. The CMC wants to declare these streets, too, as no-vending zones.
A fresh survey is required on another 280 streets.
The CMC has submitted these observations in an affidavit to Calcutta High Court.
An official of the civic body said that the list of vending and no-vending zones will be published on the website of the CMC so residents and others can give suggestions or raise objections.
“The list will be published on our website by next week. People will get about a fortnight to give suggestions or raise objections,” said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, applicable across the country except Jammu and Kashmir, defines a “vending zone” as an area or a place or a location “for the specific use by street vendors for street vending”.
No-vending zones are places that should be free of hawkers.
The high court had asked the CMC to identify the list of vending and no-vending zones. Sources in the civic body told Metro that the CMC has informed the court only about the number of streets that could be declared as no-vending zones. The affidavit does not have the names of the roads.
“The list of no-vending zones that we have prepared after our survey is a draft list. It may change after it is made public, based on feedback received from people,” said the official.
The survey was conducted by the CMC’s engineering and solid waste management departments over the past two months.
Officials said that the 124 streets where the width of the pavement is less than 4ft should not be allowed for street vending.
The rules for street vending prepared by the state government say that hawkers can set up their stalls on a third of the width of the pavement and the rest should be free for pedestrians.
“As for the pavements that are less than 4ft-wide, it would not be possible to have space to set up stalls after leaving two-thirds of the width of the sidewalk for pedestrians. So, these streets, too, can be classified as no-vending zones,” said the official.
Across the city, hawkers keep flouting rules framed for them. Some of the other rules mention that hawkers should not set up stalls on a road and no part of the stall should encroach on a road. Also, no stall should be set up facing a road.
CMC officials said that identifying and declaring vending and no-vending zones was necessary because without such a definitive list they cannot take any action against hawkers who have set up stalls on pavements that had no hawkers previously.
The town vending committee has the power to suspend, cancel the certificate of vending issued to a hawker or impose a penalty in case a hawker violates the conditions for street vending.
According to the 2014 act, every town and city in the country should have its own town vending committee.