Of 5 lakh street vendors in the Capital, only 14,500 have licenses; others rue they have to bribe officials to save their livelihood
Sujjan Lal, a fruit vendor at the Lajpat Nagar market, has been paying Rs 500 to Delhi Police personnel and municipal officials daily in order to keep his cart on the road. Every day, no matter how much he earns, this "share" has to be kept for the authorities. Lal tries to blunt the sting by calling this bribe 'rent' for the space.
"I can hardly save anything. There are no regulations for street vendors in Delhi. As soon as the money comes, it goes to these officers," said Lal, now in his forties.
Just like Lal, as many as 5,00,000 street vendors in the Capital are struggling under this Gunda Raj as only 14,500 of them have licenses to sell their commodities. Other vendors have to pay bribes on a monthly basis to both the corporation officials as well as the police to save their business.
According to sources, the licensing process had to be put in place jointly by the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). "The Delhi government failed to put in place the street vending scheme, as per the Act passed in the Parliament in 2014. The Delhi High Court had asserted that the vendors should not be harassed till a conclusion is reached on the matter. Despite this, street vendors are being harassed by the police and corporations on a daily basis across Delhi," a National Association of Street Vendors of India member said.
"Once a cart is picked, we do not get our belongings back. We are poor people. We even got a stay order from the Delhi High Court. Still, they come and take away our belongings," said Ram Singh, another vendor at Madhu Vihar.
The matter has attained a political angle ahead of the upcoming municipal polls in the Capital, with parties trying several ways to woo this voter base. As part of that attempt, Congress members on Monday visited an eating joint, popular for its chaat, in Bharat Nagar. The party has prepared a list of 50 eateries where these meetings, titled Dil ki Baat, Dilli ke Saath, will be organised in the next few days.
"Our party has always always been working for the street vendors. We brought in the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. Once we win these municipal polls, we will ensure that the vendors get their licenses, so that they don't have to bribe the officials any more," Delhi Congress Chief Ajay Maken said.
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