Trichy: Fearing uncertainty once the Smart City plan comes into effect, roadside vendors along the city streets leading to Rockfort have asked the civic body not to evict them from their spots.Street vendors petitioned the district administration on Monday seeking its intervention to support their livelihood and sought constitution of the vending committee - a panel comprising representatives of street vendors to regulate their presence in a way without affecting public movement.The vendors said that the Corporation was keen on implementing the smart city mission inclusive of area based development (ABD) plan in a 7 sq km radius of Trichy’s iconic hillock Rockfort, and may evict them from spots where they had been doing business, reportedly for decades.Stating that the civic body should constitute a vending committee instead of going for eviction, the street vendors said that a vending committee will regulate their presence by earmarking places where to do business and where not to. However, in Trichy, the vending committee comprising 15 members with the corporation commissioner as chairman was yet to kick off - reasons cited being lack of cooperation and support from street vendors apart from less emphasis from the civic body to constitute the committee.“We are not against the smart city mission, but our business should not be wiped out in the name of smart city programme. Unemployment drove us to do business on the streets, and losing the business would put our families in economic crisis,” said A Asraf Ali, general secretary of Manithaneya Varthagargal Nalasangam.Corporation sources said that a vending committee would also prepare a street vending plan through which relocation of street vendors is quite possible to avoid heavy concentration of hawkers choking the traffic in congested commercial streets.Apart from regulating the street vendors, the committee that earmark appropriate places to set up temporary stalls will help the civic body increase its revenue by charging an annual vending fee from each of the identified street vendors to use earmarked vending zone.When contacted, official sources with the Trichy Corporation said that survey to identify street vendors ws in progress. After the survey, the mandate for electing representatives of street vendors to the vending committee would be conducted.

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