No decision taken on making vendors display IDs, clarifies Himachal govt
In damage control mode after minister Vikramaditya Singh's announcement on mandatory display of names by street vendors, the Himachal Pradesh government on Thursday said no such decision had been taken.
A spokesperson of the state government clarified that the government had not taken any decision to mandatorily display nameplates or other identification by the vendors on their stalls. He said the government is committed to addressing the concerns of street vendors and would consider all suggestions carefully before taking any decision.
Amidst fear of remarks by Vikramaditya threatening to snowball into a controversy and damaging the party’s polls prospects in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, even the minister issued a clarification, under duress from the party high command, sources said.
The spokesperson said a committee, comprising both the Congress and BJP MLAs, had already been constituted to address the matter. It is based on the recommendations by the committee headed by Industries and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan on formulation of the street vendor’s policy that a final decision will be taken.
The other members of the committee are Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Anirudh Singh, Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh and MLAs Anil Sharma, Satpal Satti, Randhir Sharma and Harish Janartha.
He said the committee would review suggestions of various stakeholders before submitting its recommendations to the state government. He said once their detailed recommendations are submitted, the cabinet would carefully evaluate them before taking any decision.
Meanwhile, Himachal Congress in-charge Rajeev Shukla clarified that there was no move by the state government to make it mandatory for vendors to display their names and identification. “The issue is unnecessarily being raked up. It is wrong to draw parallels with Uttar Pradesh, where display of identity cards is mandatory as no such decision has been taken,” said Shukla.
