Hawkers’ registration drive: BMC to soon get software to upload data

Under fire from corporators and activists, the BMC may get the software for the scrutiny of forms submitted by hawkers as part of the registration drive by the end of the month.

Under fire from corporators and activists, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) may get the software for the scrutiny of forms submitted by hawkers as part of the registration drive by the end of the month.

Around 241 teams from the civic body had undertaken a 15-day drive in July. The civic body had distributed around 1.28 lakh forms, of which it received 95,000 forms with the required proofs. The civic officials will now feed the details of the hawkers into the software to avoid duplication. All penalty receipts submitted by the hawkers will be cross-checked with the civic body’s records.

“We expect the software to be functional by early November and will start entering the data immediately. The creation of vending zones, too, will start soon,” said BG Pawar, deputy municipal commissioner (encroachment).

The software will help the civic body keep track of each vendor, after the creation of vending zones, and the allotment of licence numbers and vending certificates. The BMC also plans to link Aadhaar number to the licence.

Several hawkers’ organisations and corporators have alleged that many genuine hawkers were left out of the registration process.