In a letter to Chief Ministers, he asked them to take personal interest in implementing the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors 2009, which aims at ensuring that they are given due recognition at national, state and local levels.

The policy was aimed at enabling urban street vendors to pursue economic activity without harassment and earmark locations where such activity was to be carried out, he said.

The revised policy underscored the need for a legislative framework to enable them carry out an honest living without harassment from any quarter, he said, adding that a model bill has been drafted to protect livelihood of street vendors and regulate street vending.

The revised policy and model bill have already been forwarded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation to the states and union territories, Singh said in the letter.

The Prime Minister hoped that the states would take steps to "accord a new deal to the urban street vendors as a group who need space and facilities for their legitimate activities".

Seeking their "personal intervention", Singh urged the Chief Ministers to implement the revised policy and take proactive action to enact a legislation for enabling street vendors to do their trade without harassment.

The states could take steps to restructure master plan laws and city/local area plans to make them inclusive and address the requirements of space for street vending as an important urban activity, he said.

"Suitable spatial planning norms for reservation of space for street vendors in accordance with their current population and projected growth may be devised," he suggested.

States could use demarcations like 'Restriction-free Vending Zones', 'Restricted Vending Zones', 'No-vending Zones' and 'Mobile vending Areas' in every city and town, he said.

This could be done taking into account the natural propensity of street vendors to locate in certain places at certain times in response to patterns of demand for their goods and services or the formation of natural markets, traffic congestion and other factors in view, Singh said.

The States also could take steps for convergent delivery of various programmes like Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rojgar Yojana, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, Prime Minister's Employment General Programme, Skill Development Initiative, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and National Social Assistance Programme, he said.