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.

The Hindu               27.12.2013

Ibrahim takes charge as Deputy Commissioner

A.B. Ibrahim, was the Managing Director of the Chamundeshwari Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) in Mysore, took charge as the new Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada on Thursday. Mr. Ibrahim, who is also the administrator of the Mangalore City Corporation (MCC), has promised time-bound completion of the projects of the civic body.

A decade ago, he had served as the Commissioner of the MCC for two years. The term ended in 1999. When pointed out that a few problems — for instance, the construction of a city bus stand or a ranga mandira — still persisted 14 years later, Mr. Ibrahim said he will convey a meeting with corporation authorities and chalk out “time-bound” programmes. Responding to another query, he said the schedule of the annual Karavali Utsav would be decided in two days.

Mr. Ibrahim joined the Karnataka Administrative Service in 1990. Since then, he has served as the special land acquisition officer for Konkan Railways, Assistant Commissioner in Sakhleshpur and Hassan, Managing Director of KEONICS, and later MD of Mysore Lamps Limited, Bangalore, among others. He takes the charge from Thulasi Maddineni, Chief Executive Officer of the Zilla Panchayat, who was in-charge of the post after N. Prakash was transferred recently.

The District Administration has not yet received a written order from the Union government making Aadhaar mandatory to avail LPG subsidies.

Responding to a query, Additional Deputy Commissioner K. Dayananda said though there have been reports that the Union Government would enforce the Direct Benefit Transfer from January 1, the order had not yet reached the District Administration here. “Once we get the order, we will peruse through the Supreme Court judgment that prohibits Aadhaar from being made mandatory, and we’ll make a decision,” he said.