Tension gripped the Meghalaya Secretariat on Tuesday as members of the Meghalaya and Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers and Street Vendors Association (MGSPHSVA), backed by Thma U Rangli Juki, staged a massive protest against the alleged illegal eviction drive carried out at Khyndailad in Police Bazar. The protesting hawkers accused the authorities of targeting vendors who held valid certificates of vending, in blatant violation of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.
Angela Rangad, speaking on behalf of the hawkers, lashed out at the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) and its CEO, who also chairs the Provisional Town Vending Committee (PTVC), for authorising the eviction without consulting PTVC members.
“The SMB’s action is not only illegal but dangerous,” Rangad said. “We had gone to court and were working with the PTVC to implement the law, but this eviction violates the very spirit of that process.”
Calling out the state machinery, Rangad added, “There were illegal evictions in the Khyndailad area in Police Bazar, and why they are illegal is because there is no Town Vending Committee. There was a notice that was given supposedly by a Town Vending Committee, but we know there is none. Rather, there is a Provisional Town Vending Committee till date, which was set up in 2022 after the hawkers managed to insist through the court’s order that this law should be implemented in Meghalaya.”
Rangad, who is a member of the PTVC along with three other representatives, said no such eviction was discussed or authorised. “Nowhere have we said that there has to be that kind of eviction. In fact, as per this law, there cannot be evictions. There has to be a process.”
Slamming the unilateral decision by the PTVC chairperson, she said, “Certainly, unilaterally, the chairperson orders this kind of action. There is no way to check certificates of vending, and in fact, because they didn’t know what they were doing and were just trying to use force, use police, they were even picking up goods of people who have a certificate of vending.”
Reiterating the call for legal adherence, Rangad stressed, “From the very beginning till today, we insist that the law has to be implemented in letter and spirit. We don’t want you to just pretend to implement a law because a law can also be taken advantage of by many vested interests.”
She also raised concerns about corruption in the vending certificate process. “The issuing of certificate of vending is very crucial. We don’t want corruption to seep in there. We don’t want people to go and buy a certificate of vending from the municipal authorities. So, we insisted on a proper process of checks.”
The protest follows a recent PTVC objection on June 5 when hawker leaders noticed even shop owners were being issued vending certificates. “Yet, they didn’t listen to us. And yesterday there was a forceful kind of eviction, which is really absolutely illegal.”
Rangad concluded with a sharp rebuke of the state’s political leadership. “Today we have come to protest here because we, being members of the Provisional Town Vending Committee, also have not been consulted, have not been called. Our demand is that there should be an emergency PTVC meeting. And it is pathetic in the state of Meghalaya that legislators who are to oversee a department like Urban Affairs don’t even know what’s going on. Doesn’t even care. But if they are interested, if they want to know, we are all ready to apprise them of the law. And the minister has to know that eventually the buck stops with him. As a person holding the portfolio of Urban Affairs—but he doesn’t seem to care. Doesn’t seem to do anything.”
