Mumbai: BMC meeting tomorrow to finalise hawkers list for election

The BMC will be holding a meeting of the Town Vending Committee (TVC) on Wednesday to finalise the hawkers' list for the election process.

Hawkers union to meet BMC chief to submit objections

The implementation of the hawkers policy will move further after representatives from the community get elected to the TVC. However, the earlier two meetings were postponed by the civic authorities at the last moment. The hawkers union has decided to meet the civic chief, Iqbal Singh Chahal, to submit their objections.

The hawker policy was framed to provide designated places for eligible hawkers. The TVC has the authority to implement the hawker's policy. The committee is headed by the civic chief, which also has representatives from various departments of BMC, police department, members of the hawker association and the civic society. The BMC started the process of electing representatives from the hawker's committee last year and has placed a list of eligible hawkers before the TVC for its approval.

Hawkers upset after two meeting cancelled

Earlier, two meetings held on February 28 and March 21 were cancelled at the last minute, which upset the hawkers. The president of the Mumbai Hawkers’ Union Shashank Rao said, “The BMC has to conduct a survey after every five years. However, they have prepared a list of 32,000 hawkers based on a faulty survey conducted in 2014. There are around 2.5 to 3 lakh hawkers in the city, and we have demanded to first carry out the survey. We will be sending our objections to the civic chief.

The president of Azad Hawkers Union Dayashankar Singh said, "Many hawkers might have been disqualified for not having proof of carrying out hawking business prior to 2014. Several of them may not have been eligible because they failed to submit a domicile certificate. This all needs to be verified, and we will register our objections with the BMC Commissioner.

Important data regarding hawkers

Action taken from January to December 2022

Total hawkers removed: 1,60,366

Fine collected: Rs2.24 crore

Hawkers surveyed in 2014: 1,28,444

Applications submitted: 99,435

No of eligible hawkers published in first list in 2019: 15,631