New Delhi: More than 12 years after the street vendors act was passed by Parliament, Delhi is finally gearing up to hold the elections for the town vending committees (TVCs), which will be empowered to earmark vending zones and regulate street vending activity in the Capital.Final nominations after the scrutiny and withdrawal will be notified on July 13, and elections among vendors with CoVs will be held on August 2, with results on August 4. (HT Archive)A senior Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) official said the civic body issued a notification for the election on Thursday.The MCD regulates street vending under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. The law mandates surveys, the issuance of certificates of vending (CoV), and the creation of TVCs to protect licensed vendors from arbitrary eviction and harassment.The official stated that nominations can be filed from July 3 to 10. “The final nominations after the scrutiny and withdrawal will be notified on July 13, and elections among vendors with CoVs will be held on August 2, with results on August 4,” the official said.“It is informed to all concerned that in accordance with the act the election for 12 members of TVC among registered vendors is scheduled.... All interested eligible street vendors are requested to collect the nomination form,” the notice reads.A TVC will comprise 12 members, of which one seat is reserved for Scheduled Caste, one for SC woman, two for Other Backward Classes, one for OBC woman, one for notified minority, one for person with disability, while three are unreserved in the open category and two for unreserved under the women category.The election process has suffered inordinate delays in Delhi. The first survey of street vendors was initiated by three erstwhile corporations in January 2021, and around 76,301 street vendors were identified by the civic bodies in a year-long exercise disrupted multiple times by the pandemic.The Delhi government had notified 28 vending committees to govern vending activities in the Capital.Arbind Singh, national coordinator of the National Association of Street Vendors of India(NASVI), said the TVC elections are a crucial process for ensuring effective implementation of the street vendors act. “TVCs are the most important democratic institutions created under the act, playing a decisive role in issues such as vendor surveys, certificates of vending, vending zones, relocation, rehabilitation and protection from arbitrary evictions. We welcome MCD’s decision to hold these elections and hope the process will ensure genuine representation of street vendors.”“The mandate of the first TVCs was just to carry out surveys and issue certificates. Now these certificate holders will elect their vending committee. This will pave the way for the creation of vending zones. Delhi still does not have earmarked vending zones under the act. There is a problem of underrepresentation with just 75,000 certificate holders, but once TVCs are formed, it will be genuine progress,” he added.