The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) on Monday undertook a massive crackdown on unauthorised structures built on the roads by hawkers and evicted as many as 500 hawkers from M G road, East street, Centre street, Jan Mohammad street, Chhatrapati Shivaji market and adjoining roads. The move came after the PCB was lambasted by the traders’ association, cantonment residents, and members of civil society.
The board’s anti-encroachment squad, armed with cutters, removed the illegal iron structures built by the hawkers in the presence of a large number of policemen. At Fashion street, the board had to face stiff opposition as hawkers took back the confiscated goods that were kept inside a PCB vehicle. Around 50 kiosks, 100 handcarts and various goods were seized by the board administration during the daylong crackdown.
Subrat Pal, CEO, PCB, said, “We will continue strong action against all unauthorised and illegal structures built by the hawkers. We have sought police presence during our drive, which has been uniform across the entire area. There has been some resistance from the hawkers, and we have dealt with them as per the Cantonment Act and legal provisions.”
Earlier, the Pune Cantonment Traders’ Association had pointed out that the hawkers were merely fronts for various illegal businesses set up jointly by a section of former elected members and influential local youths. “If former elected members and groups continue in this manner, the situation in the cantonment board is likely to deteriorate further due to the rising hawker menace in the area and the lack of effective action against them. The unauthorised hawker economy is growing stronger each day, and has emerged as a challenge to the administration. We request the sub area to intervene in the matter and ensure that all roads are wiped clean of the hawkers who are a major menace to the law and to local residents,” representatives of traders’ body said.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, the Pune Cantonment Traders’ Association had pointed out that the hawkers were merely fronts for various illegal businesses set up jointly by a section of former elected members and influential local youths. “If former elected members and groups continue in this manner, the situation in the cantonment board is likely to deteriorate further due to the rising hawker menace in the area and the lack of effective action against them. The unauthorised hawker economy is growing stronger each day, and has emerged as a challenge to the administration. We request the sub area to intervene in the matter and ensure that all roads are wiped clean of the hawkers who are a major menace to the law and to local residents,” representatives of traders’ body said.
{{/usCountry}}While social activist Rajabhau Chavan said, “All major roads in the cantonment are seeing illegal occupation by hawkers, and taxpaying businessmen are losing ground because these hawkers are occupying prime spaces on the roads. This has to be dealt with as a national problem, and the road rights guaranteed as per the Constitution to the citizens must be restored by permanently removing the hawkers from the area.”
The anti-encroachment squad in its report stated that there was an urgent need to regulate the hawkers as their numerical strength was far superior to the holding capacity of the road. The report further stated that the movement of these ‘mobile vendors’ aka street vendors from one place to another might lead to accidents and untoward incidents.