Pune street vendors fined Rs 750 despite late bills, Janiv seeks withdrawal of penalty

Licensed street vendors in Pune did not receive their fee bills until the deadline had passed, yet a penalty of Rs 750 is being levied on them, the NGO Janiv has claimed. The organisation wants the Pune Municipal Corporation to withdraw the penalty immediately. It has also asked the civic body to give vendors a six-month extension to pay the fees and to let them pay in instalments.

Sanjay Shanke, Maharashtra state secretary of Janiv, has submitted a memorandum on the issue to the Mayor and the Municipal Commissioner. Shanke is also a member of the town vending committees of the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations. The Commissioner also chairs the town vending committee, which means the people to whom the memorandum has been addressed head the committee.

In the memorandum, Shanke has pointed out that the Pune civic body's encroachment department was late in distributing fee bills to licensed vendors. He has criticised the delay by the department in distributing the bills.

According to the memorandum, vendors must pay the fees for October, November and December in advance, before October 20. But the organisation says the bills had not reached the vendors even after the deadline passed.

According to the organisation, bills had not been distributed through the ward offices even by October 24. Shanke asked how vendors could pay within the deadline if the bills did not reach them on time.

He said vendors who then go to the concerned office to pay are charged a penalty of Rs 750 on top of the original amount.

The organisation's point is that vendors should not have to bear the cost of the civic administration's delay. It has demanded that the penalty be cancelled immediately and that the amount be recovered from the officials responsible for the delay in distributing the bills.

Janiv has also demanded a six-month extension for licensed vendors to pay the fees, and has asked the civic body to make arrangements for payment in instalments. The organisation said this would ease the burden on vendors who have been put in difficulty by the late bills.

The memorandum says the Mayor and the Municipal Commissioner should intervene so that the financial consequences of administrative delay do not fall on the vendors. The organisation has also appealed for an early decision on waiving the penalty, extending the deadline and allowing instalments.