Mumbai News: BMC Announces Town Vending Committee Elections, Reserves One-Third Seats For Women

The schedule for the Town Vending Committee (TVC) elections has been announced, with the election process taking place from August 5 to 29. A lottery to determine the reservation of one-third women among the eight representative members on each TVC was conducted at the BMC headquarters on Monday. Each committee will consist of eight members, leading to a total of 64 members across all committees, including 24 women representatives.

According to provisions of Maharashtra Street Vendors Act, 2016, it has been decided to reserve one-third of total eight representative members for women in the composition of the Street Vendor Committee by drawing a lottery. TVC decides to guide the line about the implementation of the hawkers’ policy.

The committee is led by the BMC chief and zonal committees that also have representatives from various departments of the BMC, the traffic police, the police and members of the hawkers’ association. However, the hawkers' policy has been inactive for a decade, but the election process was officially announced on Monday after a long wait.

In these committees, 24 seats have been reserved for women as follows: 8 in the open category, 2 for disabled persons, 5 for minorities, 4 for other backward classes, 3 for scheduled castes, and 2 for scheduled tribes. Voting for electing representatives to these committees is scheduled for August 29.

At each ward level, there will be a total of 42 polling stations, supported by 350 staff members and 175 security personnel. Additionally, election officers have been appointed by the labor commissioners at each zone. Around 32,415 hawkers are eligible to cast their vote.