Hawkers’ union questions BMC’s action against them, demands meeting with Gagrani

Mumbai, India – Feb 29, 2024: Hawkers on the footpath outside Dadar station area, in Mumbai, India, on Thursday, Feb 29, 2024.

Mumbai: In light of BMC’s increased action against street vendors across the city after the Bombay high court’s reproach, a hawkers’ union on Friday wrote to the municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani questioning the grounds on which the action is being taken against them and demanded a meeting with him.

The main contention of the Janwadi Hawkers Sabha, associated with the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), a national-level trade union in India, is that the provisions of the Street Vendors Act, 2014, have not been followed, giving the hawkers no chance to be considered authorised.

Ravindra Madane, general secretary of the union, which has 5,000 hawkers under it, explained where the implementation of the act was stuck. “The state government had earlier formulated a scheme under the Street Vendors Act, 2014, but that was struck down in 2017 by the Bombay high court as unconstitutional. After that, the state government has not bothered formulating a revised scheme, despite our drafts to the government,” said Madane.

He added, “Apart from this, the BMC conducted a survey of hawkers in 2014, who have received a survey certificate and are protected under the Act till licences are given out properly. But the BMC continues action on them too. The corporation is supposed to conduct a survey of hawkers every five years, but it has not done so after 2014.”

The union stated they did not have an issue with the action, but should be as per the Act. “The Act says 2.5% of the population can be hawkers. Neither have these been finalised, nor have hawking zones been decided. How can blatant indiscriminate action on hawkers continue despite it?” he asked.

In May 2023, the town vending committee (TVC), headed by the BMC which is the authority to implement the hawker’s policy, had decided on a list of 32,000 authorised hawkers, which was criticised by multiple unions on the grounds it excluded most hawkers.

The last meeting of the BMC with the TVC took place on January 18 of this year, said Dayashankar Singh, from the Azad Hawkers Union. “It was all just a formality. The municipal commissioner told us that the TVC election would be conducted, but they keep delaying it.”

Ashwini Joshi, additional municipal commissioner (city), in charge of encroachments, said, “It has been over three months that we have written to the labour commissioner asking them to conduct the elections for the TVC. But they have not responded to us yet. Till then, we consider the 32,000 surveyed hawkers as authorised, who are eligible to vote in the elections, and we are not taking action on them.”

At the HC’s hearing on June 24, senior advocate SU Kamdar, representing the BMC, informed the court that a returning officer had been appointed for the vending committee elections, which are expected to be complete in eight weeks, The court asked the BMC to complete it within four.

Read more news like this on HindustanTimes.com