Bhubaneswar: To regulate street vending and contain illegal encroachments, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed formation of seven dedicated enforcement squads at an annual budget of Rs one crore. Each squad will have seven ex-servicemen and two BMC employees. The squads will evict street vendors, remove unauthorised constructions and encroachments.

They will conduct awareness campaigns to educate people about compliance with urban rules and regulations, reduce unauthorised activities, improve management of commercial licences and advertisement policies, thus strengthening urban management and ensuring effective enforcement.
BMC officials, in a statement, stated that delays and inefficiencies in the current system of enforcement under BDA and BMC are affecting timely resolutions and accountability. “BMC did not have a dedicated team to remove unauthorised constructions and encroachments. We used to depend upon BDA squads for eviction drives and faced difficulties in following-up in areas where eviction of encroachments took place as the BDA team was not doing so. Our proposed seven special squads will follow up in the area and stop encroachments after eviction,” said deputy commissioner (Enforcement) Ajay Kumar Mohanty.
He also said BMC will relocate vendors to legalised vending areas close to the streets they have been removed from. “The dedicated teams will reorganise the street vendors in authorised areas,” he said.