CM issues stay on BMC plan to relocate licenced hawkers
The stay was given by Deshmukh on July 7 after hawkers representatives and associations met him, asking for a stay. We cannot shift the licenced hawkers in non-hawking zones till the state governments hawkers policy is finalised, said Additional Municipal Commissioner (city) R A Rajeev in the review meeting of standing committee members on Wednesday.
NGO Citispace has already filed a contempt of court on the CMs stay, stating that Deshmukh cannot take any decision when the matter was already being heard in the Supreme Court.
The state government has asked for another six months time to draft the policy for rehabilitation of licenced and non-licenced hawkers. In 2003, the Supreme Court had directed the BMC to finalise hawking and non-hawking zones through its three-member appointed committee and begin reallocation till the state governments policy is implemented. Last month, the committee declared that hawking activities on a total of 221 roads across the city and 22,012 pitches of one metre square area were designated for licenced hawkers. According to BMC, there are around 21,000 hawkers of which 15,500 are licensed.
The civic administration had also announced that from June 26 to July 11, notices will be issued to hawkers and from July 14 to July 25, pitches will be allocated to authorised hawkers in the hawking zones. However, this action has now been indefinitely postponed.
Corporators slammed the civic administration for not taking action on unauthorised hawkers, whose number has increased to more than four lakh across the city. There is a need to view the hawkers problem from the socio-economic point as both citizens and hawkers need each other, said Congress corporator Sameer Desai.
BJP corporator, Yogesh Sagar recommended weekly bazaars on rotation in each of the 227 wards in the city, where hawkers can be given a street on a particular day for their activities. In olden days, we had weekly bazaars where citizens could shop from hawkers. This same practice in rotation on different days should be introduced in an area and will be useful for everyone, he said. Civic officials have agreed to add the recommendation to the state governments policy.
The hawkerss case is one of the costliest, and the BMC has spent money and energy on it for the last five years, fighting the case at the Supreme Court. Any step we take on hawkers results in a counter-complaint or court case by NGOs or hawkers association, Rajeev said.