Hawkers’ call: no hearing, no vote

Said the general secretary of the Brihanmumbai Hawkers’ Sena, V N Ramchandran, candidates contesting elections should take up the problems of hawkers, who form a vital part of society. All efforts by the civic administration to resolve matters have proved futile. “The population of hawkers in the city is more than two lakh, and hence their problems should be suitably addressed by candidates,” he stated.

As no candidate had raised issues related to hawkers till date, they had decided not to vote for any candidate. “Why should we vote when we do have nobody representing us,” argued Ramchandran.

The hawkersarrived at this decision following the BMC’s decision to arbitrarily announce a three-fold increase in licence fee without taking hawkers into confidence. Ramachandran alleged that this amounted to contempt of a Bombay High Court order that clearly stated that the licence fee cannot be increased by more than 50 per cent at a time.

The union will persuade hawkers in all wards to stay away from the polls, with the argument that this is a rare opportunity to force the civic administration into taking some action in their favour. “We will spread the message through word of mouth and also through the fortnightly magazine dedicated to hawkers,” said Ramchandran.

However, the hawkers have not yet spoken to any of the candidates so far. They will approach Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, chief minister Manohar Joshi and other senior BMC officials to put across to them the seriousness of the issue. They have already met group leaders in the corporation and requested them to persuade their respective politicalparties to take up the issue.

Hawkers say they will support the Sena as it meant pressuring political parties to publicly declare their support to hawkers in their fight for justice.