Cuttack: The Cuttack Municipal Corporation’s (CMC) plan to set up exclusive vending zones fordahibara-aloodum, a popular street food in the Silver City, has been stuck in the midway.
The civic body has established only one vending zone out of five in the last four years.
The CMC had decided to set up five exclusive vending zones in the city for dahibara-aloodum sellers by spending around Rs 15 lakh in 2014. It had identified five places at Bidanasi, OMP Square, Biju Patnaik Square, Khapuria and Zobra to set up the vending zones.
Till date, the CMC has set up only one vending zone while it is yet to complete construction work on the remaining four zones.
“The CMC has failed to construct four vending zones for dahibara-aloodum sellers. The construction work has been left in the midway. The civic body should look into the issue and take immediate measures to complete the project,” said corporator Giribala Behera.
Chiranjay Sahu, another corporator, alleged that the project has failed to meet the objectives due to the callousness of CMC authorities.
Chairman of CMC standing committee on licence, Bikash Behera, said the Engineering Department of the civic body has failed to construct the vending zones for dahibara-aloodum as per schedule.
On the other hand, many dahibara-aloodum vendors have expressed their displeasure over selection of locations for the vending zones. They claimed that the five vending zones are not sufficient to accommodate 400 dahibara-aloodum vendors of the city.
“The places identified for these five vending zones are not suitable for dahibara-aloodum sale. These places do not witness the congregation of people in large numbers,” said Alok Sahu, a street food vendor.
CMC Commissioner Sarat Chandra Nayak said they would look into all aspects of the project and take necessary steps in this regard.
