Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Wednesday visited the Hawkers’ Market at Polo, a designated space for street vendors, and handed over cheques of ₹20,000 each under the CM Livelihood Grant as one-time assistance to help vendors strengthen their livelihoods. The visit came amid continuing challenges in relocating and regulating street vendors, with the Government seeking to balance their livelihoods with concerns over blocked pavements, public inconvenience, traffic disruption and the overall appearance of Shillong.
Speaking to media persons, Sangma said, “The mission of the government is really to ensure that we balance things. And when I say balance, we need to keep in mind the livelihood of the people. All of these people have earnings from this small shop, they have or space they have, so our intention is to protect that to the maximum extent possible.” He said vending at several locations had become disorganised, with stalls occupying footpaths and affecting public movement. “So, these are the two factors which we’re trying to balance. They will never be a perfect solution. We know that then there will always be challenges. They will always be compromises. so the objective of the government is to find the best solution. The best mix, and the best possible way in which we can Create a best win-win solution, so that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The Chief Minister thanked hawkers for their cooperation and urged those at locations where difficulties persist to work with the authorities. “We are not here to make life difficult for anyone. We’re not here, definitely not here to take away the livelihood. We understand the challenges they face, but at the same time, we have to keep public order. We have to keep the pavements and the footpaths also in proper shape so that the general public does not face inconvenience”, he said. He also referred to legal constraints facing the Government, saying, “There is no perfect solution we are trying to work out, we are appealing to them, we have constraints under which we are working, we have challenges because the court also is there, which has given strict instruction, we have to comply with that too. So in all these situation and concerns that are there, we are doing our best to balance things out. Let us try to find a compromise, let us try to move forward , this is being done for the larger interest of the city as a whole.”
Sangma said the cooperation of hawkers had already helped clear several stretches of the city. “Lot of our streets have cleared up, lots of our pavement which have been blocked earlier has been opened up. This is only been possible because hawkers were also supportive. Few locations more, I hope same will be achieved.”
