Coimbatore lags behind other local bodies in regulating street hawkers. While enumeration and bio-metric identity cards of street hawkers have been completed in almost all the urban local bodies in the state, it is just Coimbatore corporation that has not completed the process yet.
In cities like Madurai, Erode, Vellore, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Tanjavur and Tirupur, biometric identity cards are ready and will be distributed after the elections. But in Coimbatore, the city corporation has not even gathered bio-metric information of the hawkers though they had set a deadline as October 28, 2015 for it.
Corporation city health officer K Santhosh Kumar said that the previous company that was handed over the contract had delayed the process. "So in January we issued the work order to another contractor who had to create the software and arrange for the bio-metric machines," he said. The contractor when contacted said that the delay was because they had to arrange for a room and other processes needed to be carried out before the work could be carried out.
The project of issuing ID cards to street vendors was initiated by the National Urban Livelihood Missions (NULM) and the process of survey began in May, 2014 in the city. Another company named Info Maps had conducted a survey and identified over 6,000 street vendors and divided them under various categories. Each hawker was asked over 117 questions to ensure that a socio-economic profile of every person could be recorded. These cards, which are otherwise known as smart cards, would help the vendors get financial assistance from the state governments as well. "The survey was completed by the previous company and the data has been handed over to the civic body," said an official.
Corporation officials said that the new company had got all the approvals and had also arranged for the bio-metric machines and the room to conduct it. "By the time the software and other things could be arranged, election dates were announced. We will complete the process very soon after the elections," said an official. Though Coimbatore lags behind, the officials want to make the system eror-free. "We need to ensure that there are no duplications. Each vendor needs to be personally called for the bio-metric process and details need to be cross-verified. We will complete it as soon as possible after the elections," said the official.
The civic body,however, has not set up a committee for monitoring this. A vending committee was to be set up in which the corporation commissioner would be the chairman. Officials from other departments such as town planning, health, social work, labour, police and NGOs would also be members. The officials had said that the committee would discuss the issues of the street hawkers and suggest viable zones in the city such as, no vending zone, partial vending zone and full time vending zones. Even that has been pending.
In cities like Madurai, Erode, Vellore, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Tanjavur and Tirupur, biometric identity cards are ready and will be distributed after the elections. But in Coimbatore, the city corporation has not even gathered bio-metric information of the hawkers though they had set a deadline as October 28, 2015 for it.
Corporation city health officer K Santhosh Kumar said that the previous company that was handed over the contract had delayed the process. "So in January we issued the work order to another contractor who had to create the software and arrange for the bio-metric machines," he said. The contractor when contacted said that the delay was because they had to arrange for a room and other processes needed to be carried out before the work could be carried out.
The project of issuing ID cards to street vendors was initiated by the National Urban Livelihood Missions (NULM) and the process of survey began in May, 2014 in the city. Another company named Info Maps had conducted a survey and identified over 6,000 street vendors and divided them under various categories. Each hawker was asked over 117 questions to ensure that a socio-economic profile of every person could be recorded. These cards, which are otherwise known as smart cards, would help the vendors get financial assistance from the state governments as well. "The survey was completed by the previous company and the data has been handed over to the civic body," said an official.
Corporation officials said that the new company had got all the approvals and had also arranged for the bio-metric machines and the room to conduct it. "By the time the software and other things could be arranged, election dates were announced. We will complete the process very soon after the elections," said an official. Though Coimbatore lags behind, the officials want to make the system eror-free. "We need to ensure that there are no duplications. Each vendor needs to be personally called for the bio-metric process and details need to be cross-verified. We will complete it as soon as possible after the elections," said the official.
The civic body,however, has not set up a committee for monitoring this. A vending committee was to be set up in which the corporation commissioner would be the chairman. Officials from other departments such as town planning, health, social work, labour, police and NGOs would also be members. The officials had said that the committee would discuss the issues of the street hawkers and suggest viable zones in the city such as, no vending zone, partial vending zone and full time vending zones. Even that has been pending.