BMC’s move on hawking zone ruffles feathers of civic activists – Times of India, Mumbai,10 March 200

If the BMC has its way, hawkers would legally be permitted in already congested areas such as Lohar Chawl Road, Bhuleshwar market, Free Press Journal Marg at Nariman Point, M.G. Road in the Fort area, several stretches of S.V. Road between Bandra and Borivli, Central Avenue Road in Chembur and Hill Road in Bandra.

However, these areas had earlier been declared nohawking zones by the Bombay high court, said Neera Punj of Citi Space, an NGO that is battling the BMCs proposal along with some others mooted by the hawkers union before the supreme court.

For example, she noted, an earlier order of the Bombay high court had declared all of C ward in central Mumbai a no-hawking zone because the area had a high density of pedestrian and vehicular traffic and intense trading activity.

But now, the BMC itself has suggested that the SC allow hawkers in congested Bhuleshwar. Said an angry Ms Punj, We wonder if the BMC is on the side of the tax-payers or the hawkers.

Alarmed by the proliferation of hawkers all over the metropolis, Citi Space, the Association for a Clean and Green Chembur and 40 other organisations and individuals had filed a PIL (public interest litigation) in the Bombay high court in November 1998. Following this, the HC had ordered the creation of hawking and no-hawking zones.

However, the hawkers unions were unhappy with the small number of hawking zones131 to be preciseand appealed to the supreme court, where the matter is likely to come up for hearing later this month. The BMC is one of the respondents to the petition. Its proposal for these hawking zones is contained in its affidavit.

An official of the BMCs licence department, who declined to be identified, defended the affidavit. We have proposed hawking zones by keeping the interests of both citizens and hawkers in mind. We have rejected several hawking zones proposed by the unions and at the same time agreed to some of the other proposals made by them. After all, hawkers do render a service to the public, he added.

Advocate Suresh Gupte, who is appearing before the supreme court on behalf of the residents of Chembur, said the BMCs proposal did not bode well for many arterial roads. For instance, Central Avenue Road in Chembur is the pride of the suburb and is used by a large number of BEST buses, motorists and pedestrians.

It is also used by thousands of students studying in the three schools in the area, Mr Gupte said. The BMC wants hawkers on a large stretch of this road, he added. The whole area will be ruined. Alarmed by this development, the local Advanced Locality Management committee of the area has begun mobilising citizens against the BMCs move.

The Khar Residents Association has already started removing hawkers from 16th Road and 17th Road.

Said association member Anandini Thakoor, We have to do it before the situation takes a turn for the worse. We are determined to restore public spaces for citizens use.

Chairperson of H-West Citizens Trust Shyama Kulkarni and G.U. Chalapuram of the Chembur Citizens Forum said their organisations had already forwarded to Citi Space their objections to the BMCs hawking zone proposals.

The BMC simply lacks the will to tackle the problem, Ms Kulkarni observed. Warned Ms Punj, It is high time citizens realised the danger posed to their areas.