When will you implement policy: Hawkers ask BMC

A hawker sells flowers near Dadar market. Around 16,000 vendors were eligible in 2020. File pic

Hawkers have again demanded implementation of the hawkers policy which was in process when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, bringing it to a halt. The policy was passed in 2014 but is yet to be implemented in the city, even after seven years. The policy came into effect after the Supreme Court passed an order asking for the implementation of the national hawkers policy 2009, and the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014. However, it was only four years later that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) started the process.

The civic body received around 89,000 applications of which around 16,000 vendors were found eligible in 2020. BMC also identified and marked 85,891 pitches on 1,366 roads across the city. But the number dropped to 30,830 pitches on 404 roads after several residents objected.

The BMC was in the process to form zonal town vending committees and allocate pitches in February 2020, when the process stopped due to lockdown. "After February 2020, the whole process stopped. As per the policy, there should be a survey every five years. The last survey took place five years ago. But the policy still hasn't been implemented. So, we have written a letter to the municipal commissioner to accommodate eligible vendors from the last survey even though the corporation will start a new survey soon," said Dayashankar Singh, president of Azad Hawkers Union.

Viren Shah, president of Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association, said, "It took many years of hard work of 35 town vending committees, residence associations, traders associations, hawkers unions, and NGOs who visited sites to finalise the pitches. However, the whole process is now at a standstill. It is the corporation's duty to implement the decision at zonal levels."

Meanwhile, in the law committee meeting held in October 2020, corporators demanded that they be made members in zonal level town vending committees and passed a resolution accordingly. "Since there is no provision of involving corporators, the BMC sought clarity from the urban development department but is yet to receive a response," said a senior official from BMC's licence department.