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Journalism of Courage
STATING that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) cannot evict any hawker from the city, Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam Monday said that he will file a contempt petition against the municipal commissioner. Earlier in July, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta had issued a circular to civic officials asking them to take action against the unauthorised street vendors in the city. BMC, which began a massive crackdown as per , has evicted more than 40,000 hawkers in the city.
In a press conference held at the Mumbai Congress office, Nirupam said that by evicting hawkers, the corporation is going against Section 3 of the Centre’s ‘The Street Vendor, Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending Act, 2014.’ Nirupam, along with a few other hawker union leaders, had petitioned in the Bombay High Court in August.
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A copy of the HC order given by Nirupam states that as per the section 3 of the Act, no street vendor shall be evicted “to whom the provisions of the Act are applicable”.
“This means that till the act has been completely implemented, there are no legal or illegal hawkers in the city. BMC can only take action against hawkers for supplying contaminated food, but it cannot evict hawkers as per the Act. By going against the law, the commissioner is only inviting a contempt case,” Nirupam said.
Last year, the civic body had begun surveying the hawkers and received around 99,000 forms.
The survey followed the Supreme Court order in 2013 to implement the national hawking policy of 2009. According to the policy, 2.5 per cent of the city’s population can go about hawking, which means it would be around 3.1 lakh hawkers in Mumbai.
When contacted, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta refused to comment on the issue.
mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com
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