The Times of India              24.05.2013

PCMC to identify hawker zones

PUNE: The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation will soon finalize locations for setting up hawker zones. The town planning department and the four zonal offices have been appointed to identify the locations.

Additional municipal commissioner Prakash Kadam said the corporation had prepared its own hawker policy in 2009 and had sent it to the state government for approval. In 2012, the Union government had selected the municipal corporation to implement a pilot project with respect to the national policy for hawkers. Accordingly, the corporation has formed a committee of hawkers along with a zonal-level hawkers' committee.

As part of implementation of the pilot project, the standing committee on May 21 approved the fee structure to be collected from hawkers. The civic body has categorized the hawkers into three categories, namely, stationary hawkers, mobile hawkers and weekly bazaar hawkers.

The rates recommended by the city hawkers committee have been approved by the standing committee. The one-time registration fee for all the three categories is Rs 1,000. The annual maintenance fees for stationary hawkers, mobile hawkers and weekly bazaar hawkers are Rs 5,000, Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000, respectively. If the mobile hawker is found to be conducting business in the no-hawker zones, then he will have to pay a fine of Rs 500.

Baba Bagal, administration officer, land and estates department at PMC, said the civic body conducted a survey of hawkers in the city and has instructed them to submit applications for the hawkers' licence. "We have received as many as 9,999 applications till now. These applications will be scrutinized and a list of eligible and ineligible hawkers will be published then. Only the eligible hawkers will be given the licenses," he said.