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Hawkers menace is no new. In 1993, Sanjog Housing Society in Sector-9, Vashi was the first to file a petition in Mumbai High Court against vendors who had encroached the entire pavement in front of the society situated in a prime location. The court had ruled in the favour of the society that the hawkers should be removed and the pavement should be freed. Two years later, in response to a petition by the hawkers unions, the court had ordered that they should be given temporary space to hawk. It was agreed that CIDCO will hand over the necessary Hawking Zone plots to NMMC for the purpose. On taking possession of the plots, NMMC issued an advertisement on December 10, 1996 inviting applications for hawking licences and allotment of spaces in the designated zones.
Till September 1998, it received 15,000 applications out of which 1200 were allotted licence in two phases. These licences were issued on the condition that the hawkers will not be allowed to hawk in the same location for two consecutive days. They were assigned mobile status.
This was not accepted by the hawkers' union who approached the court in January 1999. A month later the court ruled that the Corporation should accommodate every single eligible hawker in the hawking zones. This decision allowed NMMC to device its own hawking policy for the effective implementation of the system. By that time the Corporation had allotted 2,100 hawking permits all over Navi Mumbai.
Unfortunately the issue remained dormant till the municipal general body adopted a resolution endorsing the National Hawkers Policy and vowed to implement the same to end the menace of hawkers in the midst of this year.
On the present scenario, Vashi ward officer Anil Naik informs, "There are approximately 700 legal and almost the same number of illegal hawkers hawking in the city. Most of them sit in Sector-9 market while the rest near the water tank. A tentative survey was conducted in the year 2004 to solve the rising number of hawkers in the city, which was rising day by day in accordance to the rising population. But as there was no specific policy followed by Corporation things were left as it is. It is just this midst of the year NMMC has decided to implement National Hawkers' Policy. Unfortunately in the meantime elections came up and no concrete steps were taken. The anti-encroachment department of NMMC is going to initiate a study at the earliest to identify areas where there is the utmost need for hawking zones and accordingly new zones will be developed".
However, observers say that the figures given by Naik are of '90s and the same have grown up by at least five times, but even today if one enquires the total number of hawkers in Navi Mumbai, NMMC gives the figures of 15,000, which is the same number who had applied in 1998!
Proper implementation of the policy is a long process as just few months later there will be corporation level elections. Hawkers menace is the least bothersome issue for any corporator or NMMC official.
One of the shop owners who did not want to be identified says, "We had registered several complaints with the Corporation, about the shed built by these hawkers which makes our shops turn invisible, affecting our business. NMMC never fails to collect various taxes on time but when it comes on providing services, this is what we get: just once or twice action against these illegal hawkers".
Naik responds to this saying, "Our anti-encroachment drives are carried out on regular basis. It is only due to the festive season and demands from public no action was taken against illegal hawkers during festive season. Our drive will restart once the festive season is over".
—Jaspal Singh Naol
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