Hill Road should be starting point for hawker policy

Pic/Nimesh Dave

Residents on and around Hill Road are a happy lot. As reported by this newspaper, the busy stretch has been free of hawkers since early January. This, residents said, was due to a concerted effort by concerned citizens and the BMC, with a major part of the credit going to the local police. The cops have apparently led the charge in ensuring that illegal hawkers, once identified and evicted by the civic body, do not return, thanks to regular patrolling of the area.

While this is indeed good news, there is a whole lot more to be done by the city when it comes to hawkers and formulating a proper town vending policy.

Sadly, the BMC has messed this up on several fronts. First, it has dragged its feet on forming a Town Vending Committee as per long-standing legislation. Second, it has made a hash of actually counting the number of hawkers dotting the city's streets. And then there is the simple question of who is a legitimate hawker and who is illegal, considering the civic body has been doling out hawker loans for all and sundry under a central programme to boost the numbers for the ruling party.

The moment officialdom accepts and acknowledges that hawkers are as much a part of the townscape as any other infrastructure, the problem is half-solved. Everything else flows from this acceptance. But the civic body has buried its head in the sand for several years.

So much so, that the Bombay High Court recently felt compelled to take up the issue suo motu and guide the civic body on how to go about things.

For starters, the high court has asked the BMC how exactly it plans to make this city "actually walkable". The court awaits the civic body's response. As do Mumbai and its citizens.