Municipality Of Port-Louis: Draw In The Absence Of Hawkers

Except that representatives of major concerned have not responded to the invitation of the Municipality of Port Louis to attend. Yesterday , they made an injunction dismissed by the Supreme Court. However, the municipality has been invited to come and explain the criteria for selection of candidates for this year .There was a major police mobilization headquarters of the Mauritius Turf Club this morning.
All arrangements were made to conduct the draw for the allocation of stalls to vendors in the capital. At 9 h 30 , scheduled for this time period , no representative of the four associations of street vendors were present. Speaking , Dorine Chukowry , Deputy Lord Mayor , lamented : " An erroneous information circulating since this morning, saying that the draw had been canceled on a court order . However, the copy I received from the Supreme Court clearly stated that the application of hawkers was rejected. We will proceed to draw as expected.
"The latter said that the representatives of the vendors were asked to exercise for the sake of transparency. " We also invited all counselors , whether the majority or the minority , representatives of High Powered Committee which was chaired by the Minister Bachoo . There are among us two bailiffs , police, MTC staff , representatives of the legal department and the audit ...
This is to say how much we want this thing to be done in a transparent manner . "The draw this morning concerned locations on two sites: Decaen and Transportation Center . Three categories of spaces have been allocated : non- food stuffs , food stuffs and vegetables and fruits . There are a total of 963 stalls to be allocated, while the number of candidates stood at 1738 for both sites. "We were forced to make a roaster because we want to give a chance to a maximum of people to work .
Everyone will operate three to four times a week . Moreover, we encourage them to enter the legality . "moratorium PeriodIt is this decision of the Municipality of Port Louis which is disputed by the vendors . According to Hyder Raman , president of the Street Vendors Association ( SVA ), " at no time was there any question of work three times a week during the negotiation meetings with the municipality. "Moreover, Hyder adds Raman , " there is a fifty merchants with a hawker licenses and operating in the capital for more than 15 years whose names are not on the shortlist .
This is because the municipality has established discriminatory criteria , favoring merchants living in the capital . "Hyder Raman also returns to the injunction hawkers rejected by the Supreme Court yesterday. "The court did not accept our request to prohibit the draw today, but it has asked the municipality to come and explain the criteria on October 16 . "For its part, Dorine Chukowry stated that the results of the draw will be presented to the council next week. " Once this list is endorsed, we will publish in newspapers of general circulation . We will also allow time for merchants to come and sign the contract. After this date, the stalls will be allocated to others. "The deputy mayor added that moratorium period is also given to dealers to operate on two sites mentioned .
It may well work for free until December 2013. It was not until the next year they will start paying the municipality.For the draw , each merchant located on the shortlist is rated number one . Locations , ascending , their were allocated according to the numbers drawn for . For example , the first shot fired in the draw this morning was number 213. The dealer with that number thus assigned stall number 1 Decaen .At the time of going to press , we learned that two representatives of associations of merchants had finally manifested in Mauritius Turf Club and said they would attend the second part of the draw to be held in the afternoon.They explained their absence from the morning exercise that a private radio had announced the cancellation of the draw .

ALLOCATION OF STALLS : The judge calls the mayor of Port -Louis on October 16As we proceed with the allocation of stalls to vendors operating in the streets of Port -Louis , the Voice of Hawkers Association (HAV) has lodged a motion yesterday morning before the Judge in Chambers , in which it claims an order for municipal procedure is stopped . Taking this case, the judge Saheed Bhaukaurally however, has not issued the interim order sought . Instead, he ordered the mayor to come and explain Oct. 16 .
In his order , the judge stated that: " Upon the implementation of MD Ramdhur , for the application covered and Effective Considering the praecipe and the affidavit , both, dated October 1 , 2013, filed in Support of the Application together with the documentation thereto APPENDIXD , I decline to grant the interim order Prayed for . Instead , let the spond (note: the council ) and co- Respondents ( the police commissioner , the chief bailiff of the Supreme Court and the Mauritius Turf Club) APPEAR before me on Wednesday 16 October 2013 at 9.30 a. m. to Show Cause why the order set out in the praecipe shoulds not be Granted . "In his affidavit, Abdool Ahmid Neeamuth , spokesman of the association in the circumstances indicated that the members of VHA are residents of the capital and make their trade in the streets of Port- Louis , stating that they hold license of the municipal government for this purpose."The members of the application covered Have Been allowed to transact Their trade by the spond for the last 10 years and Developed They hav a wide" customer "over the years as the general public Prefers to buy products from them" , he argues .Abdool Ahmid Neeamuth argues that the members of VHA "have never Caused any unreasonable obstruction Might Have All which inconvenienced other persons and They Did not make excessive use of the road of Port -Louis to the prejudice of others , Including the users of the road " .
In addition , he believes that his friends are citizens from the " poor class ", which depend mainly on their business to meet their needs and those of their families.The spokesman vendors mentioned eligibility criteria such as Expressions of Interest as defined in Notice 20/2012 , observing the section of the Local Government Act 2011. One of the criteria specifies that the merchant in order to obtain a stall must have a " good character ", which normally means a criminal record.
However, he laments , " in view of the above , a wide number of the members of the application covered Could not repond to the said expressions of interest ."To challenge this argument , the VHA lodged an application for leave to seek a judicial review of the decision to go ahead with the Expressions of Interest . Until the Court makes its decision on this issue, Mr. Neeamuth believes "urgent" and " necessary" that emits the Interim Court order.