MUMBAI, August 10: A rich source of income has slipped out of the cash-strapped Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's fingers. The Bombay High Court last week directed the BMC not to collect refuse charge from unauthorised hawkers resulting in a loss of nearly Rs 5 lakh per day for the civic corporation.The BMC levies this charge on unlicensed hawkers to collect the garbage they generate. Council member in charge of licence and gardens, Rajesh Sharma, informed that immediately after the high court passed the order following two public interest litigations filed by two residents' associations, the BMC stopped levying the fee. Last year, the BMC had collected over Rs 6 crore as refuse charge from unlicensed hawkers. While hawkers selling perishable goods are charged Rs 7, those hawking non-perishables are charged Rs 5 per day. In January this year, the BMC had posted inspectors from the licence department for collecting the fee on a daily basis.But the PILs, which were filed 10 years ago by Dr P NavinKumar of the Colaba Cuffe Parade Residents Group and Shirin Bharucha of the Oval Co-op Residents Association and came up for hearing recently, said the BMC cannot charge this fee from unlicensed hawkers. However, the BMC argued that the court should allow it to collect the fee till the hawking zones scheme was implemented. The division bench of Justice Ashok Desai and Justice R M Lodha directed the BMC to stop levying the charge and to set up hawking zones and rehabilitate the hawkers first.In another order passed by the labour court, the BMC has been directed not to use the services of license inspectors for recovery of this fee. The BMC has asked its license department staff not to recover the fee until further notice.
