Vendors left in limbo as PMC fails to deliver vending zone

Patna: The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has missed the deadline to relocate around 280 vendors from J P Ganga Path to a designated vending zone near Digha roundabout.“Although the district administration promised the handover within a period of 45 days, the site remains incomplete,” alleged Raman Kumar Nirala, vice president of the JP Gangapath Street Vendors’ Association. The vendors currently operate from the riverbank, where they face sand, dust and a lack of sanitation. Nirala said, “Now that 45 days are over, our association has decided to hold an internal meeting and then go to the PMC to ask for an update on the vending zone that was to be handed over to us by the beginning of April.”He added that the land earmarked for the vending zone is still being levelled and filled with mud. “By its look, it does not seem like it would be completed in the next six months,” he said.While the project, estimated at Rs3 crore, aims to provide paver blocks, highmast lights and sanitation facilities, PMC officials said the work is yet to fully begin as land acquisition remains incomplete.Livelihoods have been further hit by the ongoing LPG crisis, with prices reaching Rs300 per kg. Nirala said around 50 vendors have shut their stalls and engaged themselves as daily wage workers to sustain themselves, while many others have switched to coal.Though most vendors now operate from the riverbank, some continue to set up stalls along the JP sidewalk, risking fines of around Rs5,000 during anti-encroachment drives.Nirala said the association plans to urge the PMC to allow vendors to return to the sidewalk until the vending zone is ready, as customers tend to avoid food exposed to sand along the riverbank.Concerns have also been raised that prefabricated shops being developed by Patna Smart City Limited may be rented out to larger food brands instead of being allotted to displaced vendors.