Street food to be banned in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Hawkers in New Delhi will be banned from selling their famous street food that is cooked in front of customers, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Across the capital, hundreds of people from suited businessmen to rag-swaddled migrant labourers wait for their samosa to cook in a hawker's vat of hot oil or pick up a spice-dusted baked sweet potato.

Guidebooks direct tourists to Parathe Wali Gali in the historic Old Delhi neighbourhood to sample flash-fried parathas as a quintessential part of the Indian experience.

But these culinary traditions could be threatened by a ban soon to be imposed by the Supreme Court as part of new hawking and squatting regulations.

As part of the authorities' effort to transform Delhi into what they call a modern, world-class city, food vendors will be allowed to sell only in small, regulated pockets of the city, and only then cold, packaged food they have prepared at home.

Critics say the ban will be difficult to enforce. Extracting bribes from street vendors is seen as a job perk for New Delhi policemen, they say.

"Food vendors pay thrice the bribe that other hawkers pay," the newspaper quoted activist Madhu Kishwar as saying. "This will just make it worse."