Dhar civic body plans to shift vendor to hawkers' zone to clear encroachments

Dhar (Madhya Pradesh): In a step towards clearing out encroachments, the civic body in Dhar plans to relocate street vendors and hawkers from non-vending zone to vending zone on Dhar link road.

Dhar will soon come up with a hawkers' zone (under construction on Dhar Link road) that will act as a hub for almost all of these vendors. By amending the present policy of allotment of shops, the Municipal Council is planning to relocate street vendors at Adarsh Road. However, the PIC and the general assembly have yet to approve the proposal.

In order to lessen traffic congestion on Adarsh Road and the connecting roads, the Municipal Council has developed a hawkers' zone for street vendors in front of Modi Pump along the Dhar Link road. Due to the presence of around 100 street vendors on the road and the footpaths, traffic jams often occur in the area. Citizens accuse roadside vendors of forcing them to walk on roads, sometimes leading to fatal accidents. These hawkers would be temporarily allotted shed-shops at only Rs 10-15 per day.

The change in the policy would be implemented after getting approval from both councils. As per the pre-allocation policy, around Rs 20-40 thousand taken from 185 street-vendors would be returned. Municipal Council CMO Nishikant Shukla said that a draft is being prepared for the amendment in the present allocation policy. Amount taken under present policy would be returned once the new policy gets the nod.