The Indian Express               31.12.2013

City may soon have hawkers on their best behaviour

Soon, you could have well-groomed and disciplined hawkers in the
city, who will wear special uniforms and sport a logo. The Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has recently set up a town vending
committee to implement the hawkers policy, has proposed these
suggestions for approval.

The committee was set up with an aim to identify and demarcate
hawking and non-hawking zones and grant licenses to unauthorised
hawkers. The committee, comprising 35 members and headed by the
municipal commissioner, also includes citizens groups, hawkers’ union
representatives, police and civic officials.

Apart from uniforms and logo, the civic administration has also
suggested time restrictions for hawkers, provision of identity card, and
training programmes through hawkers’ union.

Citing tiffs between hawkers and citizens in the past, Deputy
Municipal Commissioner Anand Wagaralkar said, “We are proposing various
measures to groom hawkers to avoid arguments between citizens and
hawkers. Hawkers and hawking zones are needed for the city, but they
need to be taught certain basics. Many times, hawkers’ behaviour
inconveniences citizens,” he said.

There are about three lakh hawkers in the city, of which only
18,000 have a BMC licence. The civic administration is scrutinising
details of more than two lakh illegal hawkers in the city to see who can
be granted licences.

Corporators from the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
have asked the civic administration to give preference to sons of the
soil when permitting new hawkers to sell their wares.

The Supreme Court had in September directed states to form town
vending committees to survey the existing hawkers and approve licences
of unauthorised ones.

The Central government Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood
and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2012, is pending before the
Parliament. According to the policy, the percentage of hawkers granted
licences should not exceed 2.5 per cent of the city’s population.