Six months on, displaced Morhabadi vendors yet to be rehabilitated

Ranchi: Hundreds of vendors who were displaced from Morhabadi ground six months back following a shoot-out, are yet to be rehabilitated by the municipal corporation.
Though a few have been allowed to put up shops, lack of parking space and crammed up stalls have made it difficult for the vendors to do business. The matter, which is at present sub-judice in court, has 202 vendors who are party to the writ filed in the district court and continue to fight for their right to livelihood.The administration is still in the planning phase to make a permanent settlement for the vendors.
Ranchi municipal commissioner Shashi Ranjan said that process is on to identify vending zones in the city to find a permanent solution for the vendors. “We also plan to adjust them in the urban haats which is on our cards,” Ranjan said. The president of Morhabadi Dukandar Sangh, Rahul Kumar, said, “RMC had earlier told the court that it would ensure all vendors are relocated within a year. However, the work for the vendor's market has now been halted for six months as the Tana Bhagats have occupied the land where RMC wants to open urban haat.”
Kumar said that the RMC has only identified 80 vendors and rehabilitated them temporarily, while there were 289 vendors earning their livelihoods in Morhabadi earlier.