Shillong, Oct 18: The state cabinet on Wednesday put restrictions on vending activities in the city after the fire incident in Thana Road on Saturday.
According to the government, the fire tenders could not pass through the road at Khyndailad due to the presence of hawkers close to the middle of the road.
According to the cabinet decision, the hawkers should possess trade license in areas that are outside the 3 normal areas under the control of the Shillong Municipal Board.
Legal vendors should also hav Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) , certificate of residence for at least 3 years in Meghalaya and they should have been vending in a particular spot for six months.
A Town Vending Committee will identify legal vendors.
“We plan to initiate a survey of the street vendors and process the applications based on the criteria laid down and will map out vending and no vending zones. We also plan to provision dedicated vending zones and market spaces to the street vendors”, the government said.
Through this, the the state government envisages to strike a balance between the need of providing livelihood to street vendors and also the need to ensure issues like law and order, decongestion, safety for pedestrians among others, the cabinet felt.
The government said in order to regulate street vending and to protect the right of vendors, the Centre came up with the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 whose rules were to be framed by the state government. To frame the rules, the Draft Meghalaya Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Scheme 2023 was conceived which was approved by the cabinet with a few amendments.
