| Pedestrians face difficulties, administration in deep slumber | | Street vendors occupy footpaths in Srinagar | |  S Tahir-ul Haq
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Jan 2: Despite many policies and schemes in hand, government and concerned departments have failed to rehabilitate or shift local vendors somewhere else beyond occupying footpaths in the main city of Lalchowk Srinagar, so that the pedestrians will not suffer at large in future.
A pedestrian in Srinagar said that, the footpath vendors have occupied space on the main roads of Lalchowk City of Srinagar, on daily basis it is witnessed that there remains a huge traffic jam on the roads, pedestrians craving for a smooth walk, especially at some of the places like Amira Kadal, Goni Khan, Hari Singh High Street, Polo view, Batamaloo and Parimpora Mundi.
Bashir Ahmad of Budgam who had visited Srinagar hospital said that, there is hardly any space left for people to move on the Amira Kadal Bridge as most of the bridge is occupied by vendors and fishermen, the government seems nowhere, otherwise they should have find an alternative for their settlement, but unfortunately they are not paying any heed towards the problems that the general public is facing.
It is a herculean task for the government to remove the different vendors from the pavements to ensure smooth movement pedestrians and traffic as well. The problem is not only in Srinagar, but street vendors have occupied space in every district of Kashmir division, and Srinagar is the summer capital of JK, but the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has done nothing concrete in this regard, said a local resident, Shafat told early Times.
He said that, last year the concerned authorities have started a campaign against the removal of street vendors but that was to please the general public and to make them fool by this move, otherwise they are the big defaulters who don't want the street vendors to vacate the places.
Due to some pressure whatsoever, the vendors were removed but next day they again occupy their spaces. One can easily understand that something is wrong about this issue, but people can easily understand that something is wrong, said locals.
They also said that, earlier the High Court had issued some directions but practically the concerned department has not implemented that on the ground, otherwise the illegal vendors may not had occupied a huge space on the roads, even though streets are also occupied by different kind of vendors.
Government should make a concrete plan and policies for the rehabilitation of the vendors, so that they will also not suffer, as most of the people are unemployed here, and government must also think about this, said a group of locals from Srinagar.
They added that, it is a very serious issue, and government must take all stake holders in confidence so that they can find out the permanent solution for the rehabilitation of these local street vendors. |
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