RANCHI: Ranchi Municipal Corporation RMC ) is all set to start shifting street vendors into the Atal Smriti vendor market from Tuesday in order to remove the encroachers from road between Kutchery chowk to Sarjana chowk.A total of 416 vendors classified under three categories will be allotted space in the market complex. Out of 416 vendors 302 are in single occupancy category, 102 are in two-in-one category (Two vendors of the same family) and 12 are in the three-in-one category (three of the same family in one shop). Civic body has also planned to organize lottery for the vendors to allot space according to their business.Speaking to TOI, city manager with RMC, Vikash Kumar said: “The shifting process will start from Tuesday and we are also planning to conduct lottery as we have categorized the vendors into groups so that vendors engaged in a similar kind of trade could be allotted shops zone wise.”Vendors have been categorised according to trade as garment, blanket, leather items, footwear among others and their lottery will be done according to their categories to avoid any confusion on allotment of shops.Notably, RMC received 660 applications from vendors for getting a shop in the newly constructed market in the first phase. However that didn’t happen as the town vending committee of RMC which has 12 elected members cancelled around 150 claims after a thorough background verification which was conducted twice. RMC then conducted a revised survey after which 448 vendors were given approval for allotment of space in the market which later came down to 416 as several were categorized in two-in-one and three-in-one category.TOI spoke to a few vendors and they were happy with the fact that they will get a permanent address for business soon.Krishna Sao, who sells blanket near Ranchi university gate for the last 15 years said: “I had never thought that we will ever get a permanent address for setting up shop in my life time. But I am happy that we will be moving into the market.”Farooq Ansari who sells bag near firayalal chowk for the last 22 years said: “I had lost all hopes as my name didn’t appear in the first list. However, I am thankful to the civic body that they conducted a revised survey or else I would have lost my livelihood.”Narendra Pandey, member of Town vending committee of RMC and president of Ranchi Hawkers association said: “98% of vendors are satisfied with the survey as the genuine vendors haven’t been left out. A few people tried to outsmart authorities by claiming themselves as vendors but we identified them.”

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