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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, Aug 2: Hawking zones, though with changes, have been finalised in the city, submitted the BMC counsel to the Bombay High Court today. Accordingly, cooking of eatables in the city will be completely banned. Among the joints that will be most hit are the cutfruit salad sellers, pav bhaji vendors, Chinese food joints, biryani, sheekh kabab, frankies and tandoori chicken stalls, etc. What will be allowed are bhel, sandwich, vada pav, bhajia, mutton/beef sandwiches and idli food packets.
A division bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice S H Kapadia were hearing a clutch of around 40 public interest petitions on hawking zones. While the BMC filed an affidavit saying its general body had passed the final scheme on July 29, though with a few changes, petitioners, which include a large number of hawker associations, demanded they be given copies of the affidavit as well as the final hawking zones of their areas. The HC then gave them two weeks for amending their petitions, in case they wanted toobject to the final zones.
According to the affidavit filed by the superintendent of licenses of BMC, the resolution passed by the BMC general body changed certain sections of the scheme, whereby it has been proposed to ban cooking of eatables on the roads. Among those banned food stalls will now be those that offer full meals, jadi booti, barbers, those selling drinking water, bus ticket sellers, matka and bookies, palmists, money changers, blacksmiths and umbrella repairers.
