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BMC sets up group to draft scheme for hawkers

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The civic body is preparing a new scheme to manage hawkers which will cover a whole range of aspects, from the registration process to hawking zones and fees to be charged from vendors.

The scheme is being made under section 38 of the Street Vendors' (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 and should be ready within a month. "The scheme will deal with the actual operative part of the act which includes an assessment of the requirements, obtaining the recommendations of the town vending committee and setting guiding principles," said a senior civic official.

It will be discussed in the municipal general body before it is submitted to the state government for approval. "For instance, the act mandates registration of all hawkers in the city every five years. While the ongoing registration is based on the high court orders, the future planning of the entire process will be based on the scheme being prepared," the official explained.

Seven teams have been set up to draft the scheme. Each of the teams is headed by an assistant municipal commissioner and the work will be coordinated by deputy municipal commissioners Vijay Balamwar and BG Pawar.

The new scheme will describe the mode of survey, list the terms and conditions for issuing the hawkers' registration certificate and the manner and criteria required. It will lay down the period for which the certificate would be valid, how it is to be renewed and the conditions under which it could be canceled.

The scheme will also give details on setting up of food courts, permission and conditions for late-night hawking, and conditions for vending in private places. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is in the process of collecting details of vendors across the city, following a directive from the court earlier this year to register the hawkers.

According to sources, a software is being developed to record the data and the department aims to complete the registration by the end of October. This would give a count of the number of vendors to enable marking the zones and organising the facilities necessary.

A survey conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) almost a decade ago counted about three lakh hawkers in the city. However, civic sources pointed out that till recently only about 15,000 hawkers were licensed.

The street vendor's act mandates the number of hawkers at 2.5 percent of the population of the city.

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