‘Amman inspectors shut down 30 street stalls daily in Ramadan’

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) inspection teams have been removing at least 30 street stalls every day since the beginning of Ramadan, an official said on Monday. 

There are 21 inspection campaigns working every day in three shifts in cooperation with the public security and gendarmerie departments to shut down street stalls, said Ahmad Ebbini, the director of the GAM department concerned with monitoring the marketplace and street vendors. 

Each campaign has seven teams, Ebbini said, noting that the number of street vendors has dropped this year, compared to last Ramadan. 

“The teams confiscate the goods,” he said, adding that food or beverage is destroyed, while vendors selling firecrackers are detained.

So far, three firecracker street stalls have been removed, a lower figure than in previous years due to “intensified” prohibition measures by the Jordan Customs Department (JCD), the official said.

During Ramadan, children set off firecrackers straight after the fast-breaking iftar meal at sunset, and continue until the time of suhour, the meal consumed early in the morning before the daylong fast begins.

All firecrackers were banned from the domestic market in 2014. Officials said in previous remarks to The Jordan Times that firecrackers found on the market have been smuggled in. 

Last October, two large containers of fireworks exploded in the JCD’s yards in Amman, killing seven people and injuring dozens more.

Mais Mohammad, a resident of the capital’s Marka neighbourhood, said stalls near the main street connecting the Amman Civil Airport to the industrial area are “very annoying”.

“They are very close to houses and the vendors are usually loud and tend to misbehave,” she told The Jordan Times on Monday.

But Mohammad Khatib said he is a regular shopper at street stalls near Al Husseini Mosque in downtown Amman.

“I find simple electronic devices and other goods for much lower prices than in licensed shops,” he said.