A proposal submitted by a delegation of vendors demanding that they be allowed to operate their businesses has been approved by the Metropolitan Police, Bishnu Joshi, Inspector of Metro Police said.[break]
The vendors will be allowed to operate from the day of Fulpati until Purnima, and four days during the Tihar festival.
Under normal circumstances, street vendors are supposed to run their businesses on the periphery of Dharahara, Sundhara, and Khulamanch starting from 4 PM. They are supposed to run their businesses using small spaces towards the wall of Sudhara and leave the other end open, Joshi said.
“However, during the festival, all the bans will be lifted, and vendors will be allowed to run their businesses from morning till evening,” Joshi said. Moreover, vendors will also be allowed to use both sides of the footpaths, provided they leave space for pedestrians. Likewise, they also will be allowed to use the overhead bridges to sell their items.
As many people come for shopping to these areas during the festival, pedestrian traffic is likely to be affected by street hawkers. Hence, the vendors´ committee will also deploy volunteers to ease the traffic. “Since the delegation has promised that vendors will self regulate themselves, we´ll not go to the spot for monitoring.
However, regular monitoring from vehicles will be done, and in case of conflict, we´ll interfere,” Joshi said. Umesh KC, 40, a street vendor was screaming on top of his voice in Sundhara to sell a t-shirt for Rs 250 on Tuesday.
KC who didn´t know that they would be allowed to run their shops during the festival without obstruction was jubilant upon hearing the news. “It´s very good news,” KC said. “That will help me earn some extra money which I can use for Dashain.” On an average, KC earns Rs 2,000 per day by selling cloths.
On 17th October, 2008, then home minister Bam Dev Gautam banned street vendors from operating in these areas. Gautam had formed a study team headed by the then mayor of Kathmandu, Keshab Sthapit, who was asked to identify appropriate places for relocating them.
Following the agitation from the vendors, an understanding was reached on providing them specific places to run their businesses.
Currently, Kathmandu is home to around 25,000 street hawkers, of which most had come during the Maoists insurgency.
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