Following a Bombay High Court order, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has driven out over 20,000 hawkers from across the city over the past one month. However, removing hawkers has never been an easy task for civic officials.
While hawkers in Mumbai claim they are being made scapegoats after the stampede at Elphinstone Road station, and that they are being unnecessarily targeted, civic staff involved in eviction drives say they work against stiff resistance as hawkers, backed by vested interests, threaten them constantly.
The ugly side of Mumbai's hawker problem can be gauged by these incidents: An Assistant Municipal Commissioner was forced to keep a revolver on him after he was threatened by hawkers at Sandhurst Road; seven civic officials were beaten up by hawkers in Andheri, and some cases of hawkers threatening to harm themselves to rile up crowds against civic staff.
Following a Bombay High Court order, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has driven out over 20,000 hawkers from across the city over the past one month. However, removing hawkers has never been an easy task for civic officials.
In August this year, hawkers in Andheri allegedly attacked Devendra Jain, Assistant Municipal Commissioner of K-East ward, during an eviction drive. Apart from Jain, six other civic officials from BMC's Removal of Encroachments (RE) department also received injuries.
A junior engineer and a security officer were hospitalised after the assault. The hawkers not only rained blows on the civic staff, they did not even spare policemen present at the spot.
"Driving out illegal hawkers is a double-edged sword for civic officials. We have to face the ire of senior officials as well as residents if we do not remove hawkers; and if we do, hawkers resist us and sometimes they even get violent," said Jain.
Jain said that there is an organised syndicate backing hawkers, which offers them protection in return for money. The modus operandi of the syndicate is to reach the site where civic officials are taking action against hawkers, and then instigate people against the officers, said the official. "Goons who are on the payrolls of these vested interests join the hawkers in assaulting civic officials," Jain said.
While driving out hawkers, Jain recalls instances when hawkers threatened to stab themselves or self immolate to create panic and fear among officials. "They adopt various ways to instill fear among civic officials, and they do it when police officials are not present during the drive," said Jain.
"On one occasion, hawkers came with a morcha to the ward office around 12am, and left for home only at 10pm," he added.
Udaykumar Shiroorkar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner of B ward, is known for his tough action against illegal hawkers. "There was a huge problem of illegal hawkers outside Sandhrust Road station, and it was necessary to send out a stern message by driving them out from the area. However, because of this action against hawkers and other illegal encroachments, I began receiving threats from some miscreants," Shiroorkar said.
"The police then suggested that I keep a licensed revolver. Because of the threats, there were concerns about the safety of my daughter as well. She had to lose an academic year as she could not continue her education because of the threats," added Shiroorkar.
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