Mumbai: ‘We all can coexist’

A clutch of Colaba locals many of them senior citizens gathered at a garden in the area on Sunday morning The aim was to take stock of numerous problems dogging the precinct some festering as long as five years or more analyse progress if any discuss possible solutions and the way ahead especially with a general election looming next monthSituation getting worseWhen it is regarding the Colaba Causeway it must unfortunately also be about the hawkers A number of residents claimed there has been an escalation in the number of hawkers along the causeway Residents spoke in one voice as they said ldquoThey are now practically snaking inside several lanes We know there are approximately 74 legal hawkers but today we see close to 180 along Causeway so imagine how many of them are illegal This is a tinderbox It is a matter of time before somebody forced to walk on the roads because of the hawker takeover of pavements is grievously injured or there are fatalities due to being hit by a passing vehiclerdquoSubhash Motwani president of the Clean Heritage Colaba Residents Association CHCRA explained ldquoLet us make this clear at the outset that we are not against hawkers or somebody earning a livelihood We only want walkable footpaths and encroachments to be clearedrdquoHawk talkAccording to CHCRA vicepresident Pervez Cooper discussions have been held in the past as well and there was a proposal to shift the causeway hawkers to outsidenear the Museum which sees high tourist traffic ldquoIn this way the footpath here can be cleared We have put forward this proposal at some forums but there is no responserdquo he said Locals also pointed out that a wellorganised demarcated hawkersrsquo plaza would be a winwin for all ldquoLook at China where one has entire buildings for hawkersrdquo said Motwani as others concurred ldquoThese can become tourist attractions and spillover problems like pavement takeovers noise pollution huge traffic jamshellip will all diminish with this solutionrdquo they saidParking woesResidents also pointed out that wares and boxes belonging to hawkers are placed in the many adjoining lanes when there is VIP movement and hawkers are cleared temporarily Double parking is a bugbear A number of residents already pointed to double parking starting on Merryweather Road as the meeting progressed Sunday morning ldquoThe lane becomes completely narrow due to double parking and two cars cannot pass throughrdquo they explained ldquoThis is doubly dangerous because we are often forced to walk on the roads because of encroachments with vehicles very close to usrdquo said a doctor who has a clinic along the roadReal mixMost locals also rued that they were slammed as ldquoelitist super rich and super snootyrdquo the minute they raised genuine concerns Said Motwani and Cooper ldquoThis area has so many unique challenges There is the shopping strip along the causeway which sees a high density of shoppers We have hotels restaurants and bars all catering to tourists too The Gateway of India is a top attraction and then of course we have residents It is possible for everybody to coexist if there is action on complaints with meritrdquoStill simmeringThere was a focus on the still simmering Bombay Port Trust MbPT now known as Mumbai Port Authority issue with many commercial and residential buildings here standing on port trust land Residents were especially bitter as the port trust problem overshadows their lives to a huge extent ldquoWe must highlight that despite reassurances the port trust issue has seen no resolution Carrots have been bandied before us as polls loom In fact this port trust issue has become an election to election gimmickrdquo many stated angrilyYouth neededIn the end with senior residents like Gulnar Karanjia Mehroo Kotval and others at the meet it was evident that citizens voices need to be amplified by younger persons too Residents many of whom called for more camera surveillance in the many byelanes off the main road said ldquoWe have lived in the Colaba of old and witnessed the steady deterioration of the space Maybe the youngsters who have not seen those times do not comprehend fully what is going on and so we see a thin presence at such meetingsrdquoThe gettogether wrapped up with sentiments like boycotting the election as the port trust issue is still up in the air and holding a dharna at Azad Maidan and despite scepticism by many some said meetings like these were useful to some degree in helping chart the way ahead ldquoWe do not know which party will win All we know is that we have to keep pressuring our elected representatives to hear our voices and come up with a solution We need to resist all attempts to divide us citizens and take some of these problems to a logical conclusionrdquo they signed off74Approx no of legal hawkers along Colaba Causeway