Civic body to carry out fresh survey for hawkers’ zone in Mumbai

Mumbai: The hawkers’ survey carried out by the Brihanmumbai municipal corporation (BMC) a couple of years ago, has proved futile, as the BMC is likely to conduct a fresh survey to demarcate hawkers in the city. The civic body has started the process of forming new town vending committee to decide eligibility of city’s hawkers.

The BMC in 2014 had started surveying hawkers, which involved counting of hawkers and demarcation of hawking zones in the city. The survey followed a 2013 Supreme Court order to implement the national hawking policy of 2009 and Street Vendors’ (protection of livelihood and regulation of street vending) Act, 2014.

In the registration drive, the civic body had distributed 1.28 lakh forms. Of them, nearly 99,000 hawkers had submitted necessary documents to the civic body.

However, with the state government deciding to implement its new hawkers’ policy from January 2017, the survey carried out by the earlier town vending committee is likely to be rendered null and void.

A fresh survey is likely to be carried out by the new committee. “We have started the process of implementing new hawkers’ policy, under which a the new 20-member town vending committee will be formed. The committee appointment process has also been started,” said Ranjit Dhakne, deputy municipal commissioner.

According to the civic officials, the new town vending committee will consist of municipal commissioner, police commissioner, traffic police commissioner, MMRDA commissioner, NGO members, citizens representatives, hawkers organisation members etc. Apart from deciding eligibility of hawkers, the committee will also demarcate hawkers’ zones in the city.