The Mumbai Police will take action against street hawkers found operating within 100 meters of schools and 150 meters of railway stations. This has come into effect from today, May 30.
Sanjay Pandey, Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey, made this announcement during his weekly Facebook Live session on Sunday afternoon, May 29.
The top cop said that these restrictions for hawkers were already in place, and that the police force was only going to enforce them more strictly from now on.
He also stated that hawkers also have a right to livelihood and that the objective was not to take it away from them. However, there are some clear rules which cannot be flouted, and these need to be taken seriously.
Clarifying further, during his address, Pandey shared: “There are several rules and court judgements in place, which forbid hawkers from selling their wares within 100 meters of schools and temples, as well as 150 meters of railway stations. We will be taking action against any hawkers found near schools and stations. As far as temples are concerned, the trusts will have to complain to us about hawkers near their premises, as a lot of land around temples is owned by the trusts themselves, and products related to religious rituals are also sold here.”
“Several times, hawkers come to meet me to discuss their problems and they, too, are struggling. They have to pay fine every day because there is no proper system in place through which he could register himself as an authorised hawker. Besides, in the absence of a proper authority to regulate and register hawkers, the entire system is run by goons who extort them. This is a very entrenched problem, he added.
In addition, Pandey also mentioned that he will be writing to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), asking them to put a Town Vending Committee in place so that this problem is sorted out once and for all.
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