750 hawkers take cleanliness pledge, sweep 500kg waste off Dadar’s roads

Over 750 vegetable, fruit, and flower vendors and hawkers in Mumbai participated in a cleanliness rally organised by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The vendors pledged to keep the roads clean and not contribute to garbage. The rally was held to raise awareness of cleanliness on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti and Swachchta Abhiyan. The BMC collected 500 kg of waste during the rally.

More than 750 vegetable, fruit and flower vendors and hawkers swept the roads around Dadar railway station as part of a cleanliness rally carried out by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday.

750 hawkers take cleanliness pledge, sweep 500kg waste off Dadar’s roads

The participants went through MC Jawale Road, D’Silva Road, Kelkar Road and various service roads and at the end of the exercise, took a pledge to keep them clean.

“We took out the rally to spread awareness of the importance and need of cleanliness among people on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti and Swachchta Abhiyan,” said Kazi Irfan, assistant engineer with the solid waste management department of G/North ward. “Alongside, we swept the roads and collected 500 kg of waste.”

The vendors, who were from the Dadar market Federation and the Flower Market Vijainagar and Vegetable Vikreta Sangh, agreed to not contribute to the garbage or allow others to do so either.

Another official from BMC’s solid waste management department said, “As part of the cleanliness campaign, we explained to them the importance of cleanliness and got them to pledge that they would not litter. Since it was the Ganpati festival season the waste was more but now we will go hard on them if the waste is collected outside. We are in talks with the union leaders and the vendors at Dadar to resolve this issue.”

Citizens and citizen activists have time and again taken to social media as well as other platforms to report garbage issues across the Dadar railway station premises.

HT on September 22 reported that just in one day BMC collected around 90 metric tonnes of unused flowers and floral waste in Dadar’s flower market. Curiously, in the middle of the festive season, the market known for both wholesale and retail supply, saw such a huge quantity of produce dumped by the sellers, as there was a dip in the demand for fresh flowers this year.

The Phool Bazaar Vyapari Sangh noted a nearly 50% fall in demand for fresh flowers and decorative leaves this year. The Sangh had put it down to customers’ preference of artificial flowers and toran to fresh ones, forcing the vendors to dump the excess flowers.