Now, blue lines to identify vending zones in Shimla

In order to set up vending zones across the town, the Municipal Corporation, Shimla, here today initiated the work of marking of the blue line areas.

Violators to be fined

The street vendors will only be allowed to set up their stalls within the marked area and no one will be allowed to sell their goods beyond the area. Anyone found guilty will be fined as per the rules. — Surender Chauhan, Shimla, Mayor

Under this, 51 areas, having dimensions of 5x3 feet area, were marked with blue lines.

In the first phase, blue lines were marked from the CTO till the middle of the Lower Bazaar. However, street vendors in Lower Bazaar expressed their displeasure at the allotted spots. They said the area that had been marked was very small and it would be very difficult for the vendors to set up their stalls within the boundaries of the marked area. They said this would also affect their businesses and they might suffer huge losses in future.

Mayor, Municipal Corporation, Shimla, Surender Chauhan, said as decided earlier, the corporation had started to mark the vending zones with blue lines. “The marking of vending zones with blue lines will be done across the town and completed soon,” he said.

“The street vendors will only be allowed to set up their stalls within the marked area and no one will be allowed to sell their goods beyond the area. Anyone found guilty will be fined as per the rules” said the Mayor.

Talking about the issues of street vendors, the Mayor said the corporation was working as per the provisions of the Street Vending Act. “We would consider their demands and see if anything could be done from our end,” he said.

At present, the Town Vending Committee of Municipal Corporation, Shimla, is formulating the street vending policy under which street vendors will only be allowed to sell their goods from identified vending zones. No street vendor will be allowed to sell his goods in the areas that have been declared non-vending zones. Earlier this year, the town Vending Committee had identified vending and non-vending zones across the town.

In September, Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Vikramadiya Singh, while chairing a meeting regarding the policy, directed the MC to complete all formalities regarding vending zones in the city by December 30. In August, a special house meeting was also called during which discussions were held regarding the vending and non-vending zones.