An inquiry has been ordered into alleged irregularities in a survey on street vendors and hawkers commissioned by the Municipal Corporation, Gurgaon, following instructions from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner P C Meena has ordered a probe into the survey on hawkers in the city after a direction from the Prime Minister, whose intervention was sought in the matter by an NGO.
The additional deputy commissioner, appointed to conduct the investigation, has ordered senior MCG town-planner and a representative of NGO People's Voice to be present in his office on April 30.
NGO president Sharad Goel has alleged irregularities in the survey conducted for MCG by the Delhi-based School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) for a fee of Rs 34 lakh.
Goel said the survey had found there were only 2,714 street vendors in the city although officials at MCG, in private conversation, agree that the number was closer to 20,000.
The survey mentions only the street-vendors' name, his father's name and the village of origin, information for which MCG had spent approximately Rs 1,250 per street-vendor. Goel also alleged that most of the data is inaccurate.
He claimed that when attempts were made to contact the street vendors mentioned in the survey, not a single one of them was found at the address mentioned in the report.
The survey was commissioned in line with the Union Housing and Urban Alleviation ministry's 'National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, 2009', which makes civic bodies duty-bound to provide fixed spots in different markets for street vendors and hawkers to sell their goods.
Goel said the survey remarkably found that not a single street vendor in Gurgaon owned either a mobile or landline phone.
He alleged that the MCG had done nothing for the welfare of street vendors and hawkers in the city.
Goel said they had earlier complained to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Chief Secretary P K Chaudhary, apart from approaching the director of the state vigilance bureau and the MCG commissioner, on the issue.
However, with no action forthcoming on those complaints, the NGO had reported the alleged scam to the PM, who has now ordered an inquiry.
