The Bombay High Court ordered on Wednesday that hawkers will be allowed only in designated hawking zones, however, designated hawking zones are yet to be exhaustively chalked out in the city for its 90,000 licensed hawkers. This is because the Town Vending Committee (TVC) that will survey and demarcate legal and illegal hawking zones in the city is yet to be set up. There were only a few areas identified in 2009 where hawkers were to be permitted.
The formation of the TVC has been delayed for three years, and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is currently awaiting a state government approval on members recommended for the committee.
Proposed in 2014, the formation of the TVC met with opposition from several quarters, which delayed its formation. According to civic officials, it may take another year before the Hawkers Policy is implemented.
Vendors across the city, meanwhile, have been demanding implementation of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. The Act stipulates the formation of a TVC tasked with the job of ensuring that all existing street vendors identified in the survey are accommodated in vending zones subject to a norm conforming to two-and-a-half per cent of the population of the city, in accordance with the plan for street vending and holding capacity of vending zones.
A senior official from the Removal of Encroachments (RE) department of the BMC said, "The BMC has already sent a list of representatives as members of the TVC, to the urban development (UD) department of the state government, a month ago, and is now waiting for the approval."
There will be six members in the TVC. "We are waiting for UD department's approval and once we get it, we can carry out a survey of hawkers in the city and accordingly, their legalities will be decided," said the official.
WHAT’S THE PLAN
- In August 2016, the state government had issued a notification to set up the TVC.
- BMC had published ads in newspapers while preparing the list of representatives to be proposed as members of the committee.
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