By IANS,
New Delhi : The series of bomb blasts that ripped through the capital Saturday have forced municipal authorities here to look afresh at existing vending and monitoring policies.
For starters, in a move to make civic vigilance more transparent, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) that manages the heart of the capital, has decided to issue about 2000 smart cards to licensed pavement vendors in the coming few months.
“The policy to issue the smart cards will be implemented with immediate effect – all pavement shopkeepers and cart-vendors who hold licenses would be issued smart cards. The cards cannot be duplicated and will contain all necessary information about the licensee,” NDMC chief spokesperson Anand Tiwari told IANS.
When asked if the decision to implement the policy now was linked to Saturday’s blasts Tiwari said: “The policy to issue these cards was under process even before the blasts took place. Its significance has only increased after the blasts.”
Of the five blasts that occurred, two were barely a kilometre from each other in public dustbins in the city’s commercial hub of Connaught Place. This area comes under NDMC limits.
The agency will also launch a drive to remove unlicensed vendors from pavements of markets like Connaught Place, Janpath and Sarojini Nagar.
It has officially instructed supervisors to check dustbins and garbage dumps every day and submit regular reports.
However, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, whose area of responsibility covers a larger part of the national capital, said that although it did not have an action plan on vendors, it would review its existing policies.
“Our vending policy is still under implementation. Saturday’s blasts were a shock but we are still considering revising existing monitoring policy to step up vigilance,” MCD spokesperson Deep Mathur told IANS, adding that the agency was not working on a scheme like NDMC’s smart card policy.
Mathur also said that the MCD could call on an extensive network of rag pickers and cleaners who had been alerted.
“They are in touch with our officers to help keep vigil on suspicious activities,” he added.
Interestingly the spokesperson averred that the agency would also consider placing the MCD dustbins in isolated areas instead of markets – so that they are kept at a safe distance from the public.