Civic body begins ward-level survey to identify hawking areas

On July 18, the civic body kick-started the mammoth task of registering unlicensed street vendors in the city. In the process, 1.28 lakh registration forms were distributed. The registration has been carried out in accordance with the newly enacted National Hawkers Policy, 2009, and a Supreme Court judgement of September 2013. Prior to this, Mumbai had merely 15,159 licensed street vendors” “The licences of the old street vendors will be scrapped, and instead these hawkers will be included in the new list of license holders wherein registered hawkers will receive vending certificates as per the provisions of the Street Vendors Act,” the civic official said.

However, during the distribution of registration forms, many cases of bogus registrations in various ward offices were reported on account of which a lengthy process of verification is currently underway at the civic body. To establish the applicant’s authenticity, the administration has sought to see if the vendor has been previously fined, or prosecuted during one of its anti-hawking drives in the past. September 9, 2013 (the date of the SC judgement) has been set as the eligibility cut-off date for these hawkers. So far, the BMC has managed to verify the registration of about 1 lakh hawkers.

To avoid double applications, the BMC is also in the process of developing an online software for identity verification. As per the administration’s current policy, each family is allowed only one hawking license and there are plans to link this registration to the individual’s Aadhar card number.

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com