NEW DELHI: Concerned over street food vendors operating in unhygienic conditions, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said he will write to state governments to provide them dedicated space for selling street food.

“Street food vendors issue is an important and serious matter for us. People sell street food in very unhygienic conditions. It is a big challenge. There is a need to reserve a street/space for vendors to sell street foods for which, state governments’ support is required,” Paswan told reporters.

The state governments will have to allot a dedicated space to street food vendors and ensure hygiene in the interest of consumers, he said. “I will soon write to state governments in this regard. I have discussed with some states,” he noted. To create a permanent mechanism under the cleanliness campaign, Paswan said the Consumer Affairs Department has decided to launch two new schemes — clean consumer fora and clean market — for the next two years. Under the Clean Consumer Fora, financial assistance will be provided to 600-odd district level consumer courts for sanitation facility, he said. Under the Clean Market scheme, the voluntary consumer associations will be associated and asked to adopt a market place where they can carry out awareness activities on cleanliness. They will have to undertake cleanliness of the market place along with market associations/local authorities including provision of sanitation facilities for consumers and with exclusive sanitation facilities in each market place for street vendor, he added. Both Food and Consumer Affairs Departments had separately conducted a fortnightly cleanliness campaign last month as part of the Swacch Bharat Mission.—PTI