Madras HC directs GCC to set up panel for each zone to identify vending, non-vending areas

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court pulled up the Chennai Corporation for constituting only one town vending committee to decide vending and non-vending zones for the entire city and directed the corporation to write to the State to form a committee for each zone.

A special bench of Justices R Suresh Kumar and AD Jagadish Chandira came down heavily on the Chennai Corporation for identifying only 537 areas to refer to the town vending committee to declare as vending zones and 1,884 areas as non-vending zones, out of the 36,000 areas identified to be declared either.

The bench also expressed its dissatisfaction as only one town vending committee was constituted under the Corporation Commissioner to undertake such a herculean task, "even as several thousands of such areas are still to be classified, if the work is undertaken at this pace it would take several years to complete," held the bench.

To streamline the process of declaring the areas as vending or non-vending zones, the bench directed the State and Chennai Corporation to form a town vending committee at each zone and a grievance redressal committee to resolve the grievances of hawkers, within two months.

The bench directed that the grievance redressal committee should be formed with a former civil judge or judicial magistrate as chairman and two professionals as members, under the provisions of the Street Vendors Act, 2014. It posted the matter to April 28 for filing a compliance report.

The standing counsel for the corporation filed the comprehensive report regarding the town vending committee pursuant to the order of the court.