Lucknow, Apr 7 (IANS): The Lucknow Police have sought power from the state government to remove encroachment and also confiscate goods of illegal street vendors in a bid to improve traffic flow.

Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP), law and order, Upendra Kumar Agarwal, has written a letter to the police commissioner, SB Shirodkar, in this regard.

The letter will be sent to the government through the DGP.

At present, the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) is authorised to remove such encroachments. The need for it arose after police cleared the encroachment outside the KGMU in Chowk but all the vendors returned.

Agarwal said that police cannot remove street vendors, nor can they confiscate their goods, as per rules.

“Under the Street Vendors Act-2014 and UP Street Vendors Rules 2017, the LMC has been given the right to issue licences and create vending zones. In case of violation, the rules clearly state that the corporation can evict any street vendor. It is clear from sections 20 and 21 that the police cannot remove the street vendors, nor can they confiscate their goods. In such a situation, it would be wrong to expect that the police will not allow such encroachments,” he said.

The JCP asked for details about this from the LMC, and it came to light that there are only 121 vending zones in the city and only 10,370 vendors have been given licences.

“However, there are more than 1.5 lakh street vendors in Lucknow,” said Agarwal.

Agarwal has written in the letter that if street vendors are not controlled and regulated, then the traffic problem will be very serious in the future. Along with this, there will be a threat to the security system of Lucknow as well because their registration is not being done anywhere.

Agarwal said that by amending the Act of the corporation, the police should also be given the right to remove encroachment and take action.