Hawkers storing veggies in open drains irks many

Mumbai: A video showing a group of hawkers using open drains as a storage space for vegetables in Vakola has gone viral on social media. Civic officials have alleged the hawkers have done this intentionally to defame the civic body over its “carelessness”.

The footage, which was allegedly shot at Jawaharlal Nehru Road in Vakola, Santacruz (east), shows a group of vegetable sellers removing their goods from gutters that are adjacent to the footpath.

“From the past four months, we have been taking action against the hawkers of that particular area. Our vehicles and staff are present there all the times to prevent the hawkers from conducting business there. This video seems to be a strategy of theirs to defame the civic body because we are not allowing them to sit there," said a civic official who did not wish to be named.

"Work was being carried on the drain in which they were stocking the vegetables as seen in the video," added the official. The area comes under the H-East ward, wherein the staff has been directed by the ward officer, Alka Sasane, to take action repeatedly in the same area.

Since the past few months, hawkers encroaching pedestrian spaces near railway stations and footpaths have been in the crosshairs of the civic body. Several hawkers faced public ire in the wake of the Elphinstone Road bridge stampede in September last year where 23 lives were lost. In the month of October last year, around 600 hawkers faced civic action.