Street vendors’ body slams govt over law violations

Shillong, July 24: The Meghalaya and Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers and Street Vendors’ Association (MGSPHSVA) has condemned the government’s ways to undermine the protections and regulations as laid down by the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation Act) 2014.

That the state government has left out genuine vendors from the master list has also peeved the association.

In a media statement, the association listed its grievances and suggestions, and pointed out the lacunae in the process of vendor identification in the city.

“It is the MGSPHSVA that ensured the Street Vendors Act 2014 is implemented in Meghalaya. If left to the state government, a laissez-faire attitude would have prevailed,” MGSPHSVA said in the statement, adding that following the High Court order of 2022 to implement the central law, rules were “unilaterally brought in without taking into consideration suggestions from the association or the public at large”.

“We have submitted all these grievances to all authorities, including the court, through the special officer,” said MGSPHSVA.

The following are the points raised by MGSPHSVA:

1. The Provisional Town Vending Committee (PTVC), set up in October 2022, ought to function for a year with a set mandate of an in-situ survey, claims and objections and drawing up lists of legitimate vendors, who can, through a process of election, form a full-fledged TVC with 40% hawker representation.

This was not done.

2. MGSPHSVA has assisted the municipal authorities since December 15, 2023, in conducting the in-situ survey across Shillong.
3. This survey threw up 1,400 hawkers. This list was never made public. It was uploaded only on July 16 this year, when the issue was raised in a meeting with the special officer appointed by the Meghalaya High Court.
4. A claims and objections process has never been initiated on this master list of 1,400, but a list with 760 names of eligible vendors was announced and shared by the municipal office. How were 640 people left out arbitrarily with no reason?
5. MGSPHSVA, through its representatives in the PTVC, negotiated to put things in place and even agreed to a pilot of issuing certificates of vending (CoVs) for a stretch of road in the Khyndailad Area. The organisation also submitted SOPs for claims and objections for the exercise.
6. Even while these discussions were ongoing, the association got involved in a PIL regarding congestion and traffic filed against the Government of Meghalaya in 2024.
7. In January 2025, unilaterally and without any discussions and decisions in the PTVC, the municipal authorities started constructing cage-like structures on the ground floor of the MUDA parking lot, Police Bazar, and SMB parking lot opposite the SBI main branch.
8. This prompted MGSPHSVA members in the PTVC to raise questions regarding this, demanding that all decisions, proposals and budgetary expenses involved in this be placed in the PTVC and public domain.
9. After repeated objections and negotiations and after having a general meeting with its members on April 29, 2025, it was decided that respacing and relocation can be attempted if the road level floor of the MUDA parking lot is assigned. It was also decided that the SMB parking lot opposite SBI Main branch is unsuitable.

Some of the conditions for respacing and relocation include:

• The area from Khyndailad to Lad Umsohsun has to be made a pedestrian space, and parking of four-wheelers or two-wheelers should not be allowed on that stretch.
• Shops in that area should not be allowed to take out their wares onto the road. This is particularly for shops under Centre Point Hotel on the left-hand side of the road as one enters from Khyndailad. Similarly, no shops should be allowed to put out wares onto the road or verandah and sell through persons posing as hawkers. They should not be allowed to rent out their verandah spaces for selling goods.
• After all claims and objections processes are done and CoVs issued to genuine hawkers, there will be spaces freed up for which rearrangement and respacing in that stretch can be done. Hawkers selling certain items such as kwai/ cigarettes, local fruits and perishable items can be respaced along this stretch.
• Only those hawkers selling items of clothing, bags, shoes and electronic goods need to be shifted to the road level floor of MUDA.
• The association also insisted that, from the beginning, hawkers have to take part in the overall planning of the stalls.
• Planning must also include the necessities such as a godown, toilets, drinking water facilities and a creche as mandated by the law.
• There has to be a clear undertaking that there will be no reshifting of hawkers from the new space to another location once they set up stalls there.
• There has to be a clear undertaking that there will be no levying of rent and taxes, like electricity and water, for these spaces.
• It must be ensured that the gates leading to the top floor of MUDA complex are not shut and that hawkers have access as they shut shop late and open early.
• As discussed in the PTVC, the stretch from Khyndailad to Tratorria was to be reassigned for food Vendors but MUDA was supposed to report back on the proper drainage and garbage disposal in this area which is rather flat, which was why our architects suggested that perhaps food stalls can also be located inside the parking lot towards the periphery where waste water disposal may prove easier and other dry good items like souvenirs, local fruits etc can be in the MUDA frontage.
• Quinton Road, where the food Vendors are currently located, must be made free from vehicle parking.
• There should be transparency and accountability for all construction and works undertaken in the name of hawkers and street vendors.

The association said the municipal authorities are disregarding court directions by allocating stalls based on a lottery system. There was no discussion or decision in the PTVC, which had not met since June 23.

MGSPHSVA once again flagged the anomalies in renewal dates, place of vending and types of goods, among others, in CoVs.

The association warned that such measures would set a dangerous precedent of illegalities, jeopardising all efforts at decongesting the city.