Mumbai: BMC gets 3,165 suggestions for marking hawking zones

Pic for representation

Implementation of the Town Vending Act has been delayed for over four years, but the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is finally making its best efforts to issue licences to hawkers and mark zones for them. Responding to BMC's request for suggestions and objections on a list of places where the hawking zones would come up, published a couple of months back, 1,474 people have sent letters to the civic body and 1,691 others have emailed them regarding the matter.

According to sources, the list issued by BMC includes areas near schools, hospitals and religious spots. However, the civic body has received much criticism for marking hawking zones near KEM Hospital.

While the maximum number of objections (569) has come in from S ward (Bhandup area), the civic body has received 218 suggestions from Sion, Matunga, Dadar and Wadala. The number of objections that came in from the M East and B wards was nine and seven respectively.

Sources said that BMC would scrutinize the suggestions and incorporate them before implementing the Town Vending Act. Only after this, hawkers would be issued licences and given specific spots to carry out their businesses.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior civic official said, "After going through all the suggestions and objections if we feel that any of it needs to be incorporated then we'll do it. Implementation of the Act has been delayed for over four years, but it will be implemented soon." Even after repeated attempts to contact Nidhi Choudhari, deputy municipal commissioner, she could not be reached for a comment.

569
No. of objections received from S ward (Bhandup area)

218
No. of suggestions received from Sion, Matunga, Dadar and Wadala

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates