NEW DELHI : Delhi is set to become the first state to regularize hawkers and roadside vendors, by implementing the Street Vending Act by the end of December.

The decision, announced by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday, comes less than five months before the assembly elections. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is expected to have a stiff fight with the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress.

Hawkers and roadside vendors have been a key constituency for the AAP, which came to power in 2015, winning 67 of the 70 seats in Delhi.

“Hawkers and unauthorized pavement sellers play an important role in the day-to-day lives of people in any city. In other developed countries, there is a legal framework and have proper rules for them. Here, they are being extorted; they are forced to give bribes and are pushed around. They are not organized and, hence, there are traffic violations," Kejriwal told a news conference. “Keeping all this in mind, in 2014, a Street Vending Act was passed, but was never applied anywhere. Delhi government will be the first to apply that rule."

The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, which came into force from 1 May of that year, looks to protect the rights of urban street vendors and regulate street vending activities.

Kejriwal said street vendors’ committees have been formed and, once surveys are completed, vendors will receive certificates of vending and official identification cards.

“Post this, there will be no extortion because they will get a legal identification. They will also get a fixed spot. It is unfortunate that there was no legal status given to them and, hence, what they do is called illegal," the chief minister said. “They are troubled by all departments. It is necessary to bring them under a legal framework."

If a hawker or vendor wants to start business he or she will have to apply to the town vending committee, he added.

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