BMC to evict illegal hawkers from 20 congested locations
This means that the demand of seven hawkers’ unions to incorporate and authorise up to 300,000 hawkers will not be included in this process
MUMBAI: The BMC has identified 20 locations in the city that are congested with unauthorised hawkers and has devised an action plan to evict them, which will be presented to the Bombay high court on Monday. Some of the locations identified are CSMT, Churchgate, Colaba Causeway, Dadar Station West, LBS Road, Hill Road and Kurla West.
The report to be submitted in court on Monday also lists the 32,415 hawkers to be authorised by the BMC’s apex committee by August 31.
A senior civic official from the BMC’s license department told HT that in addition to the municipal commissioner-headed apex committee, there were seven town-vending zonal committees, which would have representatives from the authorised hawkers. This means that the demand of seven hawkers’ unions to incorporate and authorise up to 300,000 hawkers will not be included in this process.
Shashank Rao, president of the 50-year-old Mumbai Hawkers’ Union, told HT that the seven hawkers’ unions had objected to the BMC’s list of 32,415 hawkers, as 10,000 hawkers on the list were the original officially licensed hawkers of the city. “So, in effect they have included only 22,415 new hawkers,” he said.
Rao added that the new list was incorrect on another count since the Street Vendors Livelihood Act (2014) allows giving hawking licenses to 2.5% of the city’s total population. “This means that more than 300,000 hawkers can be accommodated,” he said. “Not doing this will help neither the hawkers nor the people of Mumbai. The whole point of this exercise is to organise hawkers, not eliminate them.”
The Street Vendors Livelihood Act (2014) also states that an election must be held with the registered hawkers, who will be on the town-vending zonal committees. “The BMC, by conducting elections among only 32,415 hawkers, is excluding 90 percent of the city’s hawkers,” said Rao. “The Act itself says that a survey of hawkers has to be done every five years. They did it in 2014, they had to do it in 2019 and until 2024 no fresh survey was conducted.”
Rao added that the BMC was also contradicting itself on the eligibility of hawkers. “On the one hand, it says that only 32,415 hawkers are legal,” he said. “On the other, it disbursed loans under the PM Svanidhi scheme with a letter of recognition and recognised 1.50 lakh hawkers by issuing loans to them.”
The trade union leader said that if the BMC ignored the existence of most Mumbai hawkers, the proliferation of illegal hawkers would continue, which would benefit only bribe-taking corrupt officers. “They are going to enjoy themselves while people and street vendors will be the losers,” he said. “I personally believe that the BMC has planned the entire thing in such a way that illegal hawkers will have to pay bribes to civic officials. The revenue generated from illegal hawkers runs into crores for the BMC.”
On July 2, the Bombay high court had criticised the BMC and police for their inaction against unauthorised hawkers and street vendors who had, it noted, “virtually taken over” Mumbai’s streets, leaving footpaths unusable. The court noted that roads were cleared only during visits by the prime minister and other VVIPs. It directed the BMC and police to identify the most congested areas affected by illegal hawking, implement Supreme Court orders against illegal hawking for at least a month, and report back on the challenges and solutions. Additionally, the court requested affidavits from the BMC and police detailing action taken in the past two years to address the issue. The next hearing is on Monday.