Street vendors affiliated with the Meghalaya Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers Association (MGSPHA) organized an unexpected protest on Friday at the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) office, expressing their dissatisfaction regarding the ongoing delay in the issuance of Certificates of Vending (CoVs) to qualified hawkers.
The association raised strong objections to the vending zones allocated at the MUDA Parking Lot and in front of the SBI Main Branch, criticizing these locations as cramped and inappropriate for conducting business.
The protesters voiced their concerns that numerous vendors, who have not received CoVs, have been deprived of their sole source of income for weeks, with no official updates regarding the status of their applications.
Democratic rights activist Angela Rangad urged for the immediate assembly of the Provision Town Vending Committee (PTVC), asserting that this committee serves as the proper legal framework to review applications and address complaints related to the denial of vending certificates. She cautioned that if the PTVC was not convened promptly, vendors would remain in their current locations and escalate their protest.
Rangad noted that the recent relocation of hawkers to the MUDA parking area had resulted in many eligible vendors from the Khyndai Lad region being left without CoVs.
She expressed concerns regarding the fairness and transparency of the process, questioning why legitimate hawkers were being denied their rights and how the SMB planned to verify authenticity without the oversight of the PTVC.
She stressed that the issuance of CoVs could not be managed solely by the SMB and warned that individual processing of applications at the office level could result in corruption or improper allocation of certificates.
Rangad made it clear that the sit-in protest would persist until authorities agreed to hold a PTVC meeting. She further questioned the undermining of a statutory body like the PTVC, stating that if such a legally established mechanism was disregarded, there would be no credible avenue for redress.