Only about 350 hawkers have applied for vending certificates — or licences — in the four months since the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) invited the applications.
According to a rough estimate, there are over 2 lakh stalls on Calcutta’s pavements.
When the civic body had proposed to issue licenses to hawkers in 2015, close to 59,000 hawkers had submitted applications.
The licenses were not issued eventually.
Hawkers armed with a vending certificate cannot be evicted if they follow rules. CMC officials said the certificate can be withdrawn if a hawker is found violating rules.
Hawkers now keep violating rules but there is hardly any action as the town vending committee, which is empowered by a central act to recommend action against errant vendors to the civic body, hardly acts.
Sources said the lack of a system to issue vending licences provides the committee with a ground to dither on taking action. Once a licence, which is linked to a series of conditions, is issued, the committee will hardly have any reason not to recommend action against errant hawkers.
CMC officials said they suspect the fear of losing a certificate for not following rules and reluctance among hawker unions are the reasons behind the low number of applications.
The CMC started inviting applications in August.
The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014 says that street vendors should be provided with vending certificates.
“We have received only about 350 applications so far for the vending certificate. It seems the unions are not motivating the hawkers to send applications,” said an official.
“The certificate will be issued on the condition that the hawker cannot sell the place. Only a kin can use the space in the hawker’s absence. Giving the space to anyone else will lead to cancellation of the certificate or penalty,” said a CMC official.
Debashis Das, a hawker union leader and a member of the town vending committee, said at least 2,000 applications are pending with the unions.
“The CMC has only issued 19 certificates. The rest of the 350 applications are pending with them. So we are not pushing any more hawker to apply for the certificate. Close to 2,000 applications are pending with the unions,” Das said.
On Saturday, mayor Firhad Hakim had asked the CMC commissioner to sent a letter to the police commissioner pointing out that hawkers in Gariahat are again flouting rules.
“The hawkers in Gariahat have again started using plastic. I could understand the reason for using plastic during the monsoon. But they are using plastic even in winter. The plastic sheets must be removed,” Hakim said during a news conference on Saturday.
