State to have law for street vendors

PATNA: Urban Development and Housing Department minister Prem Kumar on Friday said the state government was committed to formulate and implement an urban street vendor policy and model law.
Inaugurating a two-day national workshop on ‘Implementation of Urban Street Vendor Policy and Model Law’ here, the minister said that population was increasing and a large number of poor people were forced to live and do business on footpath.“They have to face a lot of problems, which is a matter of consideration for the government,” the minister pointed out. He said even the Centre was eager to solve the problem of street vendors and had even asked the state governments to formulate a policy for it. “The Bihar government is all set to formulate a law for the benefit of vendors,” the minister added.
The workshop has been sponsored by the ministry of urban development and housing, Government of India, and organised by the regional centre for Urban and Environment Studies, Lucknow.
Speaking on the occasion, director, Bihar Urban Development Agency (BUDA), Patna, D K Shukla said that Patna had 30,000 street vendors as per a survey carried out in 20 towns of Bihar. Most of these vendors were engaged in sale of fruits, food, clothes, vegetables besides meat/and fish.
He said that vending soon gets converted into a permanent business and there is need to have a policy to regulate it. Shukla said that there was a plan to earmark space for vendors in different towns. He said that pilot projects have been started at Patna, Begusarai, Motihari and Gaya where vending zones had been created along roadside.
Later in the day, delegates from different states also spoke on the issue.