The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to recover ₹54 crore as rent from hawkers across the city. According to officials, involved in various businesses on streets, hawkers are not paying daily rent to the civic body.
Hawkers get PMC licence to run business by paying daily rent fixed by the civic body and hawkers’ union at ₹25 to ₹200 depending on the size of cart and location. However, the rent dues have touched up to ₹54 crore.
Madhav Jagtap, head, PMC anti-encroachment department, said, “It is expected from hawkers to pay rent regularly. As some of them stated their difficulty in paying the amount physically at centres, we introduced the online facility. Yet, many are still not paying rent.”
The official said that hawkers are given three weeks to pay the dues, failing which the civic body will launch a drive to recover the pending dues.
“We will be left with no option but to seal the stall if dues are not paid,” said Jagtap.
The civic body had in 2017 accepted the demand made by hawkers to bring down the rent amount. PMC had waived off hawker rent charges for almost 17 months during Covid.
{{/usCountry}}The civic body had in 2017 accepted the demand made by hawkers to bring down the rent amount. PMC had waived off hawker rent charges for almost 17 months during Covid.
{{/usCountry}}“Despite taking decisions in favour of hawkers, they are not paying rent to PMC,” said another civic official on condition of anonymity.