50% eligible hawkers vote in maiden town vending committee polls
Civic officials said that the ballot boxes have been kept safely and results will be declared after a Supreme Court order.
3 min read
According to BMC’s data, 63.59 per cent of votes were polled in the zone 7, which covers the Kandivali, Borivali and Dahisar areas in western suburbs, followed by 58.5 per cent in zone 6, which covers the areas Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Bhandup and Mulund.
As many as 15,537 out of the total 32,415 eligible hawkers in Mumbai voted Thursday, in the maiden election held for electing members of the Town Vending Committee (TVC), recording a turnout of 49.46 per cent.
Civic officials said that the ballot boxes have been kept safely and results will be declared after a Supreme Court order.
According to BMC’s data, 63.59 per cent of votes were polled in the zone 7, which covers the Kandivali, Borivali and Dahisar areas in western suburbs, followed by 58.5 per cent in zone 6, which covers the areas Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Bhandup and Mulund.
Zone 5 which covers the areas Kurla, Chandivali, Saki Naka and Powai recorded 52.54 per cent.
The TVC is a proposed apex body of hawkers on the Mumbai committee. There will be one central committee which will look above the seven zonal committees, each of these zonal committees will have 20 members, out of which, 12 members will be nominated by the hawkers, meanwhile the remaining eight members will be elected representatives of the hawkers, who are being chosen through this election.
The TVC elections came after a decade-long delay since the Street Vendors Act was enacted in 2014. Expressing dissatisfaction with the delay, the High Court directed the BMC on August 1 to complete the election by the end of August and to regulate street vending activities as per the Act by the end of September.
In 2014, the BMC conducted a survey distributing 128,000 applications and receiving 99,435 from hawkers. After scrutiny, the BMC finalized a list of 22,027 hawkers. Along with the previously licensed 10,000, only 32,407 hawkers are eligible to vote in the TVC elections.
“Following the elections, there will be one apex TVC and seven zonal TVCs, each comprising eight elected hawker members who will replace members from hawker unions,” an official said.
Legally, the city has 10,360 licensed hawkers and 22,027 surveyed hawkers. However, the actual number, including unlicensed hawkers, is much higher, with hawker unions estimating at least 300,000.
A 1998 TISS-YUVA study had already identified 102,401 hawkers occupying municipal lands in the city.
According to the Street Vendors Act, 40 per cent of each committee must be hawkers, with one-third of the members being women vendors, and representation for minority groups and persons with disabilities.
On July 29, a lottery was held, in the presence of a returning officer appointed by the state labour commissioner, to select the eight women representatives for the committee.
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