‘Amman municipality working to remove vendors’ street stalls’

AMMAN – Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) teams are intensifying their inspection campaigns targeting street vendors in the capital during Ramadan, forcing many of them to remove their goods from the streets. 

Ahmad Ebbini, director of the GAM department to monitor street vendors, said the campaign is conducted in cooperation with the public security and gendarmerie departments.

“We need them to provide our teams with protection,” he told The Jordan Times. 

Ebbini added that the teams have managed to remove many street vendors, but did not disclose any figures. 

“We have covered a total of 20 areas in the capital,” he noted. 

Jabal Hussein and downtown Amman are among the main areas they are focusing on during the fasting month, according to the GAM official. 

“With the approach of Eid Al Fitr holiday, the number of street vendors is on the rise so we are working hard to ensure that the streets will be clean,” he added. 

In the days leading up to the Muslim feast marking the end of the fasting month, several vendors set up street stalls, selling goods at low prices and harming the business of shop owners.

Ebbini said the teams are also focusing on street vendors selling firecrackers. 

“We have confiscated many firecrackers and we refer those who sell them to the governor,” he added.

Zarqa Municipality is also intensifying its inspection campaigns over the sale of firecrackers in the city amidst a growing number of noise-related complaints, Mayor Emad Momani told The Jordan Times recently.

During Ramadan, children set off firecrackers straight after iftar and continue until it is time for suhour, the pre-dawn meal consumed early in the morning before the day-long fast begins.

As of July 29 last year, all firecrackers were banned from entering the domestic market.

At the time, the Jordan Standards and Metrology Organisation warned that anyone found selling fireworks and firecrackers will be referred to specialised courts.

Traders selling fireworks and firecrackers, as well as pellet guns, face four months in prison and a fine of up to JD5,000.

But every year customs agents foil several attempts to smuggle hundreds of cartons of fireworks and firecrackers as importers hide the explosives in containers carrying other products.