18 citizen associations and Advanced Locality Management (ALM) groups from Andheri, Juhu and Vile Parle met the recently-appointed BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta on Thursday evening to discuss the new hawking zone policy, and to express their concerns about the draft development plan.
18 citizen associations and Advanced Locality Management (ALM) groups from Andheri, Juhu and Vile Parle met the recently-appointed BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta on Thursday evening to discuss the new hawking zone policy, and to express their concerns about the draft development plan.
The citizens' groups, led by local Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Ameet Satam, informed the civic chief about their displeasure about the recently-marked hawking pitches in their area, which they say are causing great inconvenience to them.
"We are not against hawkers. We are objecting to the logic which BMC is applying towards laying the pitches. Also the error-filled controversial Development Plan (DP) 2034 is problematic," said Satam, adding that the marking of pitches was done without taking into confidence the major stakeholders of the area, be it hawkers or citizens.
Associations such as Juhu Citizens' Welfare Group, Juhu Tara Road ALM, Lalu Bhai Park ALM, among others were present at the meeting. MLA Ameet Satam said he wanted to give the municipal commissioner a citizens' perspective off the draft DP 2014, which has failed on several fronts such as social amenities and open spaces.
Zahida Banatwalla from the NGO AGNI, said, "Hawkers occupy foothpaths, leaving no space for people to walk," she said. "The maximum portion of the road is used by those hawkers who cook food, which should not be permitted at any cost," added Banatwalla.
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