Cop-BMC-neta trio gives cover to hawkers: Citizen activists

While the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been undertaking hawker-eviction drives following the stampede at Elphinstone Road station, residents groups and civic activists – who have been pushing for action against illegal hawkers for years – fear the crackdown may just be a cosmetic exercise.

They claim that before the recent massive outrage from citizens, their grievances about encroachment fell on deaf ears as hawkers regularly greased the palms of civic staff and policemen. Thus illegal hawking in neighbourhoods across the city was allowed to carry on with impunity.

"Hawkers give at least Rs 100 every day to the BMC and police," said Nikhil Desai, co-ordinator of Action for Good Governance and Networking in India, "All senior BMC officials are aware of this. The current drive is just a knee-jerk reaction.

"If they are really serious, why don't they immediately form the Town Vending Committee that is supposed to demarcate hawking zones and follow court orders?"

Sources in BMC admit to corruption within the ranks, but pass the buck on to the police and local politicians. "There are times when we call up the police asking them to provide security when we decide to raid a particular area," a senior BMC officer requesting anonymity told DNA, "By the time we reach the spot or the police arrive, the hawkers have already vanished. It is quite possible some junior civic staff may be alerting them. Not all civic staff or policemen are involved in these illegal activities. But it is very difficult to identify who might be leaking the information. It is not easy to take action against hawkers as there is also involvement of local politicians."

Desai refutes BMC's claim that they have cleared hawkers from all railway stations, saying there are at least 100 hawkers outside Matunga station. "On Monday," he says, "I wrote to Deputy Municipal Commissioner Narendra Barde and also met F-North ward officer Keshav Ubale, and written instructions were passed on to the ward's Removal of Encroachments officer. However, the officer told me that he did not have the JCB to remove the stalls."
Desai says he had to request the ward's Solid Waste Management department and arrange for the JCB himself, after which the hawkers outside Matunga station were removed. "But, as usual, the road was filled with hawkers that very evening," Desai said.

Another civic activist, Vasant Patil from Kandivli, said the identity and contact details of residents who lodge complaints against hawkers have been leaked to the hawkers, resulting in threats to the complainants.
"The hawkers are aided by the connivance of BMC, police and local politicians," Patil said, "I know many incidents where people visit ward offices and lodge written or oral complaints against hawkers. Within a short while, the complainant gets a call from a hawker leader, asking him/her to withdraw the compliant or face the consequences. After such experiences, many stop complaining. The question arises: How does the contact number of the complainant reach the hawkers?"

Nita Bajpai, secretary of Gulmohar Residents Group, Juhu said, "We have already lost six to seven lives to unhygienic street food. We have complained to the police and at the BMC ward office several times, but the hawkers give them some money and the officers go away. Such officers should be punished. We want footpaths to be free for pedestrians and we will keep our fight going."

Advocate Nitin Nikam, secretary of Tilak Nagar Residents Welfare Association, says that even when action is taken, it is short-lived due to the unholy nexus. "The BMC does take action against hawkers, but only after repeated complaints. Even when action is taken, the hawkers put up their stalls at the same place the next day."