Priyanka Gandhi (Photo: AP)

Residents of M.B. Marg and Old Custom House Road in Colaba have decided to come out in support of the hawkers of Colaba Causeway, some of whom have been barred from doing business following the fire that consumed Metro House last week.

The residents will sign a petition and submit it to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), requesting the civic body to allow the hawkers to occupy the footpath.

Asha Lobo, a resident of Janki House at the Causeway, said, “The street has a charm because of its street shopping. If the hawkers are gone, Colaba Causeway will not get half the tourists and shoppers it gets now.”

Ms Lobo has decided to initiate a door-to-door petition to take signatures from willing residents of the street and submit it to the A ward office at the earliest.

Meanwhile, contrary to BMC’s claims that there are about 300 illegal hawkers in the Causeway area, the hawkers themselves have pegged these numbers at 70. Harish Biragani, a hawker who has been doing business on the street for over 20 years now, said, “There are a total of 160 to 170 hawkers on the Causeway, of which 100 have licences. The licences of others have either been suspended or are in the process of being issued by the BMC.”

Amarnath Yadav, also a hawker at Colaba, said, “We have paid the fees to the BMC for licences and even have the receipts. If the civic body has not been able to process the forms, it is not our fault. Even the shop-keepers want us here as their business booms owing to street shoppers.”

Colaba’s hawkers are part of the Bombay Hawkers Union, and have decided to write to the BMC requesting it to allow the hawkers to continue doing business as usual.

Shashank Rao, president of Bombay Hawkers Union, said, “What is happening to the hawkers at Colaba is wrong and we are going to come up with a course of action. But we will certainly take it up with the BMC.”