BMC to intensify action against hawkers outside railway stations

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is likely to intensify its drive against hawkers and illegal encroachers that have been setting up stalls around the vicinity of railway stations and roads, by forming monitoring squads at the basic municipal ward level.

The city’s new police commissioner, Sanjay Pandey, after taking charge has launched an aggressive campaign for de-cluttering public spaces in Mumbai.

Last week in a joint meeting of senior BMC and Mumbai police officials it was decided that no hawkers will be allowed within a 150- metre radius of railway stations. The meeting was also attended by railway officials, members of hawker union and NGOs.

Senior BMC officials said that the Supreme Court (SC) has already directed in a ruling that all the local municipal bodies should ensure that hawkers and encroachers aren’t allowed within 150 metre radius of railway stations.

“We had started taking aggressive action against hawkers since January and have started to serve them notices to move them out of the 150-metre radius of railway stations. Now we have decided jointly with Mumbai Police officials and railway personnel that stricter monitoring will be done in this case,” said Chanda Jadhav, deputy municipal commissioner, removal of encroachments.

Jadhav said that the BMC have already formed monitoring squads at the municipal ward level to keep a close watch on this situation. The officials also maintained that in the past one year, the BMC had been receiving enormous complaints related to hawking and illegal roadside encroachments.

“This rule has been there for the last four years and we have been regularly taking action. However, after the Covid-19 outbreak, the drive lost its course in many parts and we had again started to intensify our action,” said Jadhav.

Viren Shah, president of Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association (FRTWA) who was also present in the meeting said that the state government should now implement the Town Vending Committee (TVC) the proposal of which was floated three years back.

“All the guidelines of the TVC have already been rolled out and more than one lakh retailers have already registered to get officially acknowledged as city hawkers. However, the committee is yet to be formed and the guidelines are yet to be implemented,” said Shah.

Earlier last week, the BMC along with Mumbai police had decided that it will earmark at least one unused vacant plot in every municipal ward in which abandoned vehicles from the roadside would be transferred and will be later either be scrapped or be auctioned from there.