Citizens did their bit on Sunday to help the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) give the final touches to its hawking policy.
Citispace, an NGO which has taken initiatives to have dedicated hawking zones set up in the city, convened a citizen’s meeting at Chheda Nagar. Residents of Chembur, Ghatkopar and Mulund participated in it.
They discussed issues, such as setting up hawking zones, segregating hawkers into stationary and itinerant categories, and the rules that should be governing both of them. The suggestions made and the objections raised by the citizens will have to be sent to the BMC by April 5, following which the civic body will finalise the hawking by-laws.
The residents were wary of the ‘temporary hawkers’ category proposed by the BMC in its draft policy. “This is a serious thing. We fear that it might turn the hawking policy into another SRA scheme. Temporary accommodations given are never time-bound, and end up becoming permanent,” Nayana Kathpaliya, co-convenor, Citispace, said.
“It is important for us citizens to respond to the government. Or else, we will have no right to complain,” Neera Punj, convenor, Citispace, said.
The issue of developers getting TDRs for providing hawking space was also discussed. “Monitoring this will be a
problem. If given TDR, a developer in his bid to exploit commercial space will never hesitate to provide space for hawkers. It will leave a mess behind for residents to deal with,” Rajkumar Sharma, a Chembur resident, said.
Residents felt that the hawking issue was getting complicated. Earlier, there used to be clear demarcations of hawking and no-hawking zones. “Now, there are hawking zone, hawking zone I, temporary hawking zone, hawking zone II, etc,” another resident said.
The residents also opposed the proposal to reduce the mandatory distance that hawkers should keep from places such as railway stations, religious places and educational institutions from 150 metres to 100 metres.
