Will somebody read the sign!

Hawkers doing brisk business near stations, hospitals and schools with impunity, despite SC ruling debarring them from their premises

Will somebody read the sign!

Hawkers doing brisk business near stations, hospitals and schools with impunity, despite SC ruling debarring them from their premises

Hawkers, debarred by a Supreme Court ruling to function within 150 metres of railway stations, hospitals and schools, are doing brisk business in the forbidden areas with near impunity as the BMC is doing precious little to crack down on the encroachers.

The hawkers outside Borivli station

The SC ruling came in 2003, but the state government is still struggling to formulate a hawkers' policy.
"Last year, the BMC made byelaws and demarcated hawking and non-hawking zones after discussing with several residents.

But none of these rules have been implemented so far," said an official from the BMC's licence department, requesting anonymity.

"There are around 2 lakh hawkers doing business in the city, but only 15,500 of them are registered with us. Though we have formulated hawking and no hawking zones and byelaws, but are yet to implement them as the government is yet to formulate a policy," said D Kharat, BMC's licence head.

There will be some amendments in the policy to incorporate more stringent byelaws for offenders. "For now, the officials from the licence department will be inspecting the area and take action against the hawkers," he said.
But residents of the area feel the BMC is not doing the needful to stop the malpractice.
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Bharat Bafna, a resident of Mulund, said, "I have complained to the T Ward officer several times in the past six months, but no action has been taken so far. The BMC has only put up the boards of hawking or no hawking zones, but there is nobody to put a check on the hawkers encroaching footpaths and by the roads."

Surinder Khubchandani of H West Ward Federation said, "The hawker menace is so predominant in Bandra that they block the entire road, adding to the traffic chaos."

The hawkers outside Andheri station and (right) on the Bandra skywalk

The BMC has already designated 187 hawking zones in the city (ward wise) wherein hawking would be permitted. Hawking 1 zone would have licenced and permanent hawkers, while hawking 2 zones would have temporary vendors.

Hawking zones

After the policy would come into effect, hawking 1 and hawking 2 zones will be designated with permanent and mobile stalls, respectively.

No hawking will be allowed on footpaths, buildings near railway stations, schools, cinemas and bus stations.
Demarcated streets will have night food courts open after 8 pm.

Citizens objecting to hawkers can pay Rs 1,000 and get the BMC to study the possibility of getting areas demarcated as no-hawkers zone, weekly bazaars at designated sites.

The Other Side

Assistant Municipal Commissioner Manik Kshirsagar of H West Ward (Bandra to Santa Cruz) said, "We have been conducting regular raids on hawkers doing business in forbidden areas.

We seize their goods and also penalise them. The fine ranges from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000. And in case of expensive goods, it goes upto Rs 10,000 or more."

Assistant Municipal Commissioner Ramesh Pawar of K West Ward (Juhu, Vile Parle and Andheri) said, "We are carrying out action on the hawkers in phases and impose fine on the illegal ones."