Street Vendors Protest MCG Eviction Drives

GURUGRAM: A large number of street vendors and workers staged a protest outside the Municipal Commissioner's office on Thursday against alleged arbitrary eviction drives and bulldozer action that they said was destroying their livelihoods.

Led by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions and the Rehri-Patri Mazdoor Union, the protesters took out a procession through the city before reaching the Commissioner's office, where they submitted a memorandum of demands to the Joint Commissioner. Union leaders including CITU State general secretary Jai Bhagwan and Rehri-Patri Mazdoor Union Gurugram president Ashok Singh said the government had no right to destroy self-employment when it had failed to provide adequate jobs.

They cited the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, under which street vendors can constitute up to 2.5 percent of a city's population. They said an administrative survey had identified around 40,000 street vendors in Gurugram and that vending zones had been designated for them. They alleged that although many vendors had registered, thousands of families continued to face eviction, that bulldozers were being used to remove carts and goods worth lakhs of rupees, and that existing vending zones were also being dismantled.

Leaders further alleged that the Town Vending Committee, constituted under the 2014 Act, had not met for nearly three years despite a legal requirement to meet at least once every three months. They said the Municipal Commissioner, who chairs the TVC, should convene it immediately. Demands included stopping alleged arbitrary action, protecting existing vending zones until alternatives are ready, developing new zones, time-bound disposal of pending Certificates of Vending and renewals, an inquiry into alleged irregularities in certification, and protection of eligible vendors including PM-SVANidhi beneficiaries.

The union also demanded that the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran and other departments comply with the Street Vendors Act and TVC decisions. A meeting between union representatives and the Municipal Commissioner has been scheduled for 16 September to discuss the memorandum.

The protest places livelihood law, vending-zone maps and committee functioning at the centre of a dispute that civic agencies will have to answer at the mid-September meeting. Claims of arbitrary demolition remain the unions' version until MCG places its own record on record. Until then, the 40,000-vendor survey figure and the alleged three-year TVC silence give the memorandum its main factual anchors. The 16 September meeting with the Municipal Commissioner is the next formal checkpoint for the memorandum.