The municipal corporation has given licences to only 19 hawkers to sell their wares on Hill Road at Bandra (West) — one of the city’s popular shopping destinations.
The municipal corporation has given licences to only 19 hawkers to sell their wares on Hill Road at Bandra (West) — one of the city’s popular shopping destinations. The local Advanced Locality Management members were shocked to learn this through a Right to Information (RTI) query.
According to the residents, there are approximately 250 illegal hawkers on Hill Road, which is non-hawking zone.
“Noticing the rise in number of hawkers on the road, we filed an RTI application to know how many of them own licences. To our surprise, only a few do. Now, we have submitted a list of the illegal hawkers to the ward officials to initiate necessary action,” said Parul Menezes, secretary of the St Peter’s Church civic cell.
“We want the road to be hawker-free and not look like a mela every day,” Menezes added.
Residents claim that the civic authorities are not taking any concrete action to clear the road of hawkers.
“With the hawkers taking over the footpaths, we have no option but to walk on the road, and this lead to traffic congestion in the area. I wonder how the officials will reach any spot in this area in case of a calamity,” said a resident of Ice Factory Lane, who did not want to be identified. “Moreover, just before the civic officials conduct a raid, the hawkers move their goods to adjacent lanes as if they knew the officials were coming. Does the BMC really have a proper action plan or it’s just an eyewash?”
“Every day, there are one or two civic vehicles on Hill Road, but they do not take any action against the illegal hawkers. So, even the civic officials are occupying the space on the road and adding to the traffic congestion. Why are they wasting the taxpayers’ money?” asked Shyama Kulkarni, trustee of the NGO AGNI.
Sunil Dhamane, assistant commissioner of H (West) ward was unavailable for comment despite repeated calls and text messages.
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