Action against five firecracker vendors
The civic body took action against firecracker vendors on Saturday, a day after a scuffle broke out between the hawkers and mediapersons in Kalyan’s busy Shivaji Chowk market.
Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) removed five handcarts from the streets.
The crackers were sold illegally and some mediapersons had reached the market to report on Friday.
The firecracker vendors roughed up the mediapersons, abused and pushed them.
A non-cognisable offence was registered against the firecracker vendors at the Mahatma Phule police station.
“A scuffle broke out between them. As per the complaint by the mediapersons, we have registered a non-cognisable offence,” a police officer.
Followed by the incident, local mediapersons demanded that the illegal firecracker vendors be removed from the market areas.
“The vendors stopped us from doing our job and pushed us. When many gathered in our support, they ran away. There is a group of such vendors operating the Kalyan for the past three days,” said Atish Bhoir, 40, who works with a local daily in Kalyan.
KDMC officials, who had turned a blind eye to the illegal firecracker vendors, were forced to take action after the reporters lodged a complaint.
On Saturday morning, a team of eight along with a hawkers evicting vehicle reached Shivaji Chowk market and took away the five handcarts and also seized the firecrackers.
“Firecrackers are not allowed to be sold on streets. They can only be sold in open spaces. These vendors were operating for the past three days and we were planning to take action against them. We will ensure that they do not come back,” said Bharat Pawar, ward officer of KDMC.
“We have our team deployed there,” added Pawar