The twin-city is all set to witness a multi-fold rise in the number of eligible hawkers following directions from the state government to relax the condition of mandatory domicile certificate for issuance of a hawker’s licence.
A total of 7,645 people had initially submitted their registration forms for enrolment as authorised hawkers in the twin-city. The Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) also received a total of 420 objections to the survey which was conducted by a private agency.
After weeding out invalid entries, the number was reduced to 7,221, of which 3,462 turned out to be outsiders. Out of the remaining only 600 applicants who had submitted domicile certificates cleared the final round of scrutiny.
However, in response to judicial orders, conditions requiring a domicile certificate were relaxed, maintaining instead that proof of residence would be made a mandatory condition. Thousands of outsiders who were disqualified due to the criteria of submitting domicile certificates to prove their stay in the city have bounced back as eligible contenders to be officially registered as licensed hawkers.
“After the relaxation, the MBMC has received 1876 more applications taking the count of eligible hawkers to more than 9,000,” said an official who handles the hawker’s licenses department.
Enacted by the central government the Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending Act, provides protection of livelihoods rights, social security of street vendors and for regulation of urban street vending in the country.
Envisaging licenses and identity cards to existing street vendors identified in civic surveys, the act is in force from 2014. All surveyed street vendors, who clear the scrutiny process, have to be accommodated in the designated vending zones subject to a norm conforming to 2.5 per cent of the population of the ward.
