CityNews – Military Circle 33 along with the mayor, relevant authorities and several business held a meeting on May 18th to organise the selling of products at Tha Pae Gate.
Following a very successful social media campaign led by Raks Mae Ping group, the municipality were recently pressured to remove all vendors from Tha Pae Gate area, as netizens cited, “to clear the historic public space from personal interest groups.”
The area was cleared in November 2015 of all stalls and returned to the public as a public space.
However, vendors, many of whom have been operating in the area for over ten years, and claim that they number 1,000 families, have pled with the municipality to allow them to continue to sell from the square as their livelihoods are very affected.
It was therefore agreed during this recent meeting that 40% will remain public place and 60% will be used for selling product. The rules are that they are only allowed to set up stalls on Sundays between 6pm to 11pm. A total of 264 suppliers now have permits with 224 being vendors selling wares and 40 being food vendors.
Each vendor must have a Thai ID card, registered as a Chiang Mai resident, be a taxpayer, and be registered at the Chiang Mai Municipality.
The commander of Military Circle 33 said that there was no special interst involved here at all, but that vendors needed their livelihoods and the area needs to also remain public. He asks for the understanding of all citizens.
The Sunday vendors are scheduled to start up again on the 2nd Sunday of June.
The Raks Mae Ping group has recently posted the following:
“The honour of the city is not for 200 people…they [food vendors] have already paid 1,000 baht each for ‘processing’, (40 locks X 1000 = 40,000 baht) and many other expenses.”
One commenter responded, “There is the entire walking street and its environs, why do they need to take over Tha Pae Gate? This is our space, not a small group’s to make money from.”
Related news read:
http://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/news/markets-resume-thapae-vintage-prince-royal-market-stay-closed/
