Manmohan bats for urban street vendors

Prime minister Manmohan Singh took up the cause of urban street vendors on Monday, asking all states to implement the revised National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, 2009, as a “personal intervention”.

“I would ask you all not just to implement the policy, but also to make necessary changes in the master plan and city/local area plans to make space for urban street vendors,” Singh said in the letter to all the chief ministers.

The policy, which was first framed in 2004, aimed at enabling urban street vendors to pursue economic activity without harassment and earmark locations where such activities were to be carried out, Singh said in his letter to all states. The revised policy, formulated this year, underscored the need for a legislative framework to enable vendors to carry out an honest living without harassment from any quarter, Singh said, adding that a model bill had been drafted to protect the livelihood of street vendors and regulate street vending.

Singh said states should “take into account the natural propensity of street vendors to work in certain places where there is a demand for their goods/services or the formation of natural markets, traffic congestion and other factors”.

The revised policy and model bill have already been forwarded by the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation to the states and union territories, Singh said.

The PM hoped that the states would take steps to “accord a new deal to urban street vendors as a group which needs space and facilities for  its legitimate activities”.