Street vendors protest against SMB eviction drive at Khyndailad, demands rectifying flaws

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 30, 2025

Hawkers and street vendors refused to move from the Khyndailad area in protest against the eviction drive conducted by the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) on Monday morning.

According to the Meghalaya and Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers and Street Vendors Association (MGSPHSVA), hawkers and street vendors will shift only after the flaws are rectified by the provisional town vending committee (PTVC).

The eviction drive, conducted in presence of magistrates and police, came after the state government had on June 21 notified the upper floor of the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) as a ‘vending zone’ and the remaining part of Khyndailad area as a ‘no vending zone’.

Angela Rangad, leader of the Thma U Rangli Juki, who backed the MGSPHSVA, slammed the SMB for trying to create a law and order problem by attempting to forcefully evict the hawkers and vendors.

“We will not allow the SMB to forcefully evict the hawkers. We will shift only when we are made of the plan,” she told reporters.

Rangad said the MGSPHSVA has been demanding since January for the SMB to stop the process but they instead went ahead to construct the place at the MUDA basement without the approval of the PTVC. She also alleged that the place identified at MUDA basement is not fit for hawking and it is not safe for both hawkers and customers.

“They (SMB) were supposed to place the plan before the PTVC. This is because we are the legitimate members of the TVC and we are the ones to decide how to move forward (the proposed relocation of hawkers),” she said.

“We don’t say we will not shift but we will shift based on conditions,” Rangad said while reiterating the need to rectify these flaws.

When asked to pin-point what these flaws are, the TUR leader said, “From the beginning, we say let us conduct the insitu survey to know who are eligible hawkers and street vendors, conduct claims and objection to see whether this survey really include genuine hawkers or if there are any who are taking advantage of this and the process has reach to the stage of issuing licenses. As PTVC members, we had pointed out that we know very well that there are people who owned big shops, but they were issued with hawkers’ licenses.”

“Therefore, we demand that such flaws need to be rectified before going ahead with the matter because you will create more problems if you are issuing licenses to non-deserving people.”

Rangad also cited that “A woman, who has been sitting here for more than 30 years, is not getting a license. This shows that the digital survey has failed.”

“The digital survey did not have photos of the hawkers, whose names appeared in the list,” she alleged.