IMPHAL, Oct 19 � Street vendors in the State capital here have urged the Manipur Government for immediate compliance of the Supreme Court order to allow operation of all the existing vendors/hawkers until the creation of vending/hawking zones is completed as per the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors 2009.
A letter in this regard has been sent to the Chief Secretary PC Lawmkunga and the police by Khwairamband Keithel Lambi-Mataida Potpham Phambi Lup (KKLMPP), a women street vendors body on Saturday.
�We have requested the State Chief Secretary for immediate compliance of the court order and protection of the rights of the vendors�, said legal counsel Laimayum Sevananda Sharma.
All the municipal bodies in India has to constitute a Town Vending Committee (TVC) which will comprise all stake- holders such as representatives of police, traffic police, NGOs and street vendors as per the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors.
Accordingly, the Prime Minister in his August 4, 2009, letter to Chief Ministers asked them to ensure that urban street vendors be given due recognition at the national, state and local levels to pursue economic activities without harassment and simultaneously chart out such locations on which such activity may be pursued within an earmarked vending zones, according to the letter of KKLMPP.
Meanwhile, the KKLMPP has lodged a complaint with the Imphal police station in connection with the alleged assault of a vendor by some women police personnel while she was selling vegetables on the roadside of the busy Khwairamband Keithel in Imphal on October 6.
There are about 4,000 street vendors in Imphal who sell items such as vegetables, fishes, clothes, etc., as per a survey record of Imphal Municipal Council conducted in 2010.