Hawkers:
Now, choose your own friendly neighbourhood paanwallah
New BMC proposal aims to give residents a say in selecting vendors
for localities
Mumbaikars may now get a chance to hand-pick their "favourite"
neighbourhood vendors-be it the indispensable newspaper-seller or
the paanwallah in their galli.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to conduct a survey,
asking residents to choose the most preferred vendor in their locality,
who will be treated as "essential service", and allowed
to stay in the area, irrespective of whether it's a hawking or non-hawking
zone. The survey, which will be carried on the webpage of the BMC,
will have a questionnaire and a list of vendors.
"We want to sieve through the list of vendors, and keep the ones
indispensable to the public in every hawking and non-hawking zone,"
said Subrat Ratho, Additional Municipal Commissioner, BMC.
The proposal will then be moved to the BMC house for clearance in
the hawking zones, and also come up for the Supreme Court hearing
in March on the hawking issue.
The Supreme Court, through a committee set up in July 2004, had identified
92 hawking zones in the city, and 97 in the Eastern suburbs, including
small pitches (1x1 metre), and stalls (2x1 metre).
However, sounding a discordant note, Sharad Rao, leader of the Mumbai
Hawker's Union, told DNA, "Even if they bring hawkers under the
'essential service', what are they going to do about the other two
lakh non-licensee hawkers?"
Publication: DNA; Date:Feb 8 2006; Section:Mumbai; Page
Number:7
http://digital.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?edorsup=Main&queryed=9&querypage=7&boxid=30886274
&parentid=9438&eddate=02/08/2006
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