Public feedback to be sought before finalising street vendors’ policy

Shimla: The seven-member committee headed by industries minister Harshwardhan Chauhan for finalising the street vendors’ policy in Himachal Pradesh decided on Thursday to seek suggestions from the public as well as the street vendors besides seeking legal opinion on various issues before coming to any conclusion.The first meeting of the committee was attended by all the members including rural development and panchayati raj minister Anirudh Singh, public works and urban development minister Vikramaditya Singh, Congress MLA Harish Janartha, and BJP MLAs Anil Sharma, Satpal Satti and Randhir Sharma.The industries minister later told mediapersons that all the members gave various suggestions besides seeking clarification on numerous issues during the committee’s two-hour long first meeting on Thursday. Chauhan said since the committee members decided to ask the principal secretary of the urban development dept to invite suggestions and opinion from the public and street vendors on the policy, the next date for the meeting has been fixed for November 4.There is a need to seek legal opinion on various issues and whatever is legally possible will be done in the state’s interest, said Chauhan, adding that during the meeting, the urban development department also apprised the members about the provisions of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, which is a central government Act, the Himachal Pradesh Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Rules, 2016, and other relevant rules.We also published the following articles recently