The Hindu : New Delhi News : Mayor writes to Sheila on tehbazari regularisation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 25, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

Mayor writes to Sheila on tehbazari regularisation

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Delhi Mayor Arti Mehra has written to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit apprising her of the latest developments in implementation of the national policy on urban street vendors and requested her to allot space on roads belonging to the Public Works Department for allotment of “tehbazari” vend spots.

Responding to an earlier letter sent by Ms. Dikshit, the Mayor said there was no delay on the part of the MCD in implementing the policy and a total of 131,807 applications had been received by the civic body.

“We want to request the PWD to leave a space of five feet on their broad roads for footpath and give tehbazari in new areas since the number of existing tehbazari is already very high and finding new areas in some existing market areas is next to impossible due to the congestion,” she added.

According to the MCD, it has been facing a lot of constraint owing to legal restrains in removing unauthorised squatters and vendors and settling eligible squatters on sites occupied by unauthorised vendors.

Court guidelines

Ms. Mehra said most existing tehbazari sites had changed hands and many of the vendors have not applied for transfer or fresh allotment for fear of being deprived of their existing sites. “The Supreme Court too in its guidelines has not permitted us to recognise persons who have changed hands in the allotted authorised sites,” she said.

“The Court has been requested to direct the Delhi Development Authority and other land-owning authorities in Delhi to provide space to the MCD for settlement of squatters and vendors as per policy and in consonance with the provisions of Master Plan for Delhi -2021. It has also been requested to permit the MCD to take action against encroachers and violators in order to bring tehbazari to a uniform size and manner.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi