The Bombay High Court, while hearing a suo motu PIL recently, pulled up the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for not coming up with a viable solution to the illegal hawker matter, citing safety issues faced by pedestrians due to footpath encroachment. The robust response to this news report is a sign of just how much this resonates with people.

Justice Patel has been quoted in the report as saying that public footpaths and roads cannot be allowed to be taken over completely by vendors and that too, permanently. The court stated that there is a cascading problem as citizens are forced to walk on roads raising the very real prospect of a collision. People and cars also cause frustrating traffic jams.