Pavement occupying phenomenon in Amouda before feast
Pavement occupying phenomenon in Amouda before feast
With the approach of the feast, the activity of shopping in Amouda town increases and the markets become full with people, but the phenomenon of occupying the pavements by sellers and shopkeepers causes traffic-congested and limit the activity of shopping in Amouda town north of Al-Hassaka.
Despite the legal measures taken by the Municipality of Amouda (28 km west of Qamishli) to reduce the phenomenon of occupying pavement, yet, it is increasing.
Oversold
Shopkeepers consider that the days before the feast is a big chance for selling a largest amount of their goods. For them, it is the best days for selling, especially for accessories and clothes stores. Therefore, sellers and shopkeepers occupy pavements because they have their own sales accounts during the days before the feast that differ from other days.
Ahmad Hesso ,20 years old, have an accessory store, told North Press that he puts his goods on the pavement in front of his store to attract the customers.
On the other side, putting goods on the pavements by shopkeepers limits the activity of pedestrians, it makes the activity of shopping hard, especially during the days before the feast where it becomes too busy.
The activity of shopping increases because of the buying of feast items such as clothes and candies. “Occupying pavements harasses shoppers”, says Fawaz Haj Youssef (44 years old) from Amouda town adding that the municipality takes some procedures for this phenomenon, but the dealers come back and reoccupy the pavement.
It seems that the municipality isn’t serious in issuing warnings to those who occupy pavements.
Not occupying pavement circulation
After it was permitted for a specific tax payment, the presidency of Qamishli province in the Self-Administration issued a circulation of preventing occupying pavements and issued an irregularity for the transgressors.
Co-chair of Amouda municipality, Abbas Dawod confirms to North Press that occupying pavements was permitted for a tax payment before a short period, but now it is not.
The law of preventing reduces putting the goods on the pavements, but the law allowed some stores to place their goods on the pavement depending on the type of the goods.
“They allowed the groceries to put the vegetables on the pavement so that not to be spoiled inside the shop, but without occupying a bigger size.” Dawod said.
There are many commercial kiosks placed on the pavements in the city and their activity of selling and buying is the same as other stores, “It comes after profound study, with specific terms and for a year.
The contract can be terminated in case of non-compliance with the terms.” As the co-chair of the municipality said.
Irregularities
Each municipality related to the Self-Administration of north and east of Syria has five sections: consumer protection, health section, environment section, water section and technical section, the last one controls the markets and issues irregularities to those who occupy pavements.
Dara Oso, the person in charge of Amouda municipality said to North Press that they are working on issuing irregularities and controlling markets adding: “At first we issue a warning, if it is repeated, we breach the seller with 5000 SYP (about 8 $) payment and if it is repeated again the breach increases.”
With the approach of Feast, the shops are busy, sellers place their goods on pavements in order to sell as much as possible, this causes harassment for the pedestrians and limits the activity of the markets in a town where neighboring cities say that they are walking in the middle of the streets, this means that the pavements are narrow for pedestrians.
NPA – Al-Hassaka