Re-survey of Mumbai street vendors to be conducted

Mumbai : The total official and unofficial number of street vendors in Mumbai will be surveyed once again. A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday.

The survey will provide ward wise statistics of peddlers and their occupations. A plan will be drawn up on how to help them through the central government’s scheme. A survey of street vendors in Mumbai was conducted in 2014. However, there were many complaints about it. It was also alleged that the local councilors did not trust the office bearers of the Municipal Corporation and conducted the survey.

Committees will now be set up to conduct the survey, which will include corporators and office bearers. The number of unauthorized peddlers in Mumbai is many times more than the official ones. The Municipal Corporation had conducted a survey in 2014 to issue licenses to peddlers as per the court order.

In a fresh survey, Industry Minister Subhash Desai, Transport Minister Anil Parab, Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar, Principal Adviser to the Chief Minister Ajoy Mehta, Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat Ashish Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Vikas were present at today’s meeting at Sahyadri Guest House. Kharge, Additional Municipal Commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal were present. Earlier in 2014, NMC had surveyed 99435 peddlers, out of which 17500 were eligible.

The new survey will look at whether there is a certificate of residency in Maharashtra. A guarantee will be taken that the concerned applicant will do the hawker business by himself or his family members. A guarantee that the applicant has no other means of subsistence and a certificate / license to the peddler will not be rented or transferred to anyone, a guarantee will also be taken.