Process to induct hawkers into Town Vending panel to begin from Aug 5

On Monday, the civic body also conducted a draw for the reserved seats for women members of the committee.

According to senior BMC officials, the TVC will comprise 64 hawkers with the seven zonal divisions of the city being represented by its own separate committee. Of the 64 members, the civic body has reserved 24 seats, including eight seats for women, two seats for disabled, five seats for minorities, four OBCs, three for Scheduled Castes and two Scheduled Tribes.

“Under the TVC, there will be one apex committee and seven committees for the seven zones of Mumbai. While each committee will have members from NGOs, residents association etc., eight members will be hawkers for which there will be an election. Collectively, with eight hawkers in each committee, there will be 64 members in the eight committees,” a senior official told The Indian Express.

As per the Street Vendors’ Act of 2014 — which was introduced to protect the rights of urban street vendors and regulate street vending activities — the BMC is supposed to give hawkers 40 per cent representation in the TVC, as a first step to regulate hawkers in the city.

On Monday, the civic body also conducted a lottery to determine the eight women representatives on the committee. The draw was concluded in the presence of the returning officer appointed by the state Labour Commissioner.

While the nomination process for the elections is scheduled from August 5, the municipal body will conduct scrutiny and acceptance/objection until August 17. The BMC will release the final list on August 20. Following the procedure, the direct polling will be conducted on August 29.

The city has 32,415 registered street vendors, who will be participating in the polls. The civic body will be conducting the elections across 42 polling stations, for which 350 civic personnel have been roped in while 175 people have been appointed to overlook the security aspect in the election process.

The announcement comes along the heels of the protest staged by the hawkers earlier this month wherein the hawker unions called for the effective implementation of the Street Vendors Act, 2014. They also demanded the establishment of a Town Vending Committee in all municipal divisions of the state.

According to the senior officials, the election process had been delayed owing to the Lok Sabha polls amongst other reasons.