The Times of India 21.01.2011
LMC to rehabilitate roadside vendors
LUCKNOW: The vendors dotting city footpaths only to be either chased
away by a municipal squad and police may finally be rehabilitated.
(LMC) decided to begin the exercise to ascertain the extent of vacant
land available in the city where these vendors could be rehabilitated.
The members of Lucknow Footpath Vyapar Samanvay Samiti (LFVSS) met municipal commissioner S K Singh who assured them of taking adequate steps to get them rehabilitated.
Singh said the LMC
would consider constructing small 64 sq feet shops made out of fibre
sheets for the vendors. These shops would come up on vacant plots,
essentially those which do not have any legal dispute.
“The
shops would be of same dimensions and same colour in different zones of
the city,” he said. The construction cost of these shops would also be
considerably less.
The municipal commissioner also asked the
officials to ascertain if the land around the water bodies in the city
could be used as a vending zone. Singh said that the LMC would also
examine the areas which have been occupied by the vendors.
In
the first phase, the vendors would be identified and registered. “But
they would still be limited to a certain area and not allowed to
sprawl,” the municipal commissioner said.
The members of LFVSS wanted to know if the vendors could be allowed to operate from where they are presently operating.
The samiti also urged the municipal commissioner to include the vendors in the overall relocation process.
The samiti members sought to know if the vendors would be kept away from the purview of an encroachment drive.