Hawkers eligible for KDMC licences drop 75% after verification process

IN KALYAN-DOMBIVLI Officials say many hawkers failed to submit sufficient proof, but say fresh survey will be conducted

KALYAN: The number of hawkers who are eligible for licensing by the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has reducedbyawhopping75%after verificationinitiatedbythecivic body earlier this year.

Asperthecivicbody,thenumberofhawkerseligibleforlicensing has dropped from 9,548 to 2,318 — a fall of 75.73%.

“Earlierwhenweconducteda surveythroughaprivateentityin 2014, they had listed 9,548 hawkers for licensing. We initiated a rechecking and verification of these hawkers this year and found only 2,318 hawkers eligible,” said an official of KDMC, who did not wish to be named.

Accordingtocivicofficials,the reduction is due to hawkers failingtosubmitsufficientdocumentary proof during verification.

“The hawkers must be able to provide all the proofs. Many of themdidnoteventurnupforthe verification and many didn’t evenbothertosubmittheirvalid documents. In most cases, they don’t have Aadhaar card, which is a must. Such hawkers were excludedfromthelist,”addedthe official. Five years after the civic bodyorganisedasurveyofhawkersinKalyan-Dombivli,itisyetto give out licenses to hawkers or provide a legal space for them to operate.

InFebruarylastyear,thethen KDMC chief P Velarasu had announcedspaceswouldbeallotted to the hawkers in a month, under a lottery system. A dead

line of April 2018 had been set.

Following this, the civic body had started demarcating spaces for a hawkers’ zone across Kalyan-Dombivli.However,theApril deadline was missed. Later that year,thecivicbodyinitiatedverificationofthesurveyedhawkers inordertoensuretheystill operate in the city and are eligible for licensing in September 2018.

With the Model Code of ConductfortheupcomingAssembly polls coming into force fromSaturday,thelicensingofthehawkerswillonlybeinitiatedafterthe elections, said officials.

“Wehavenowinitiateddemarcatingspacesintwoofthewards. Since it is election time now we will have to wait for it to get over sothatlicensingandspaceallocation is done,” the KDMC official said.

SurajGupta,38,ahawkerwho hadparticipatedinthesurvey in 2014, said the KDMC is “just delaying” the exercise of giving licenses to hawkers. “We have heard the civic body is doing some demarcation in some places. Earlier also they did the demarcations but nothing happened. They are just passing on theworkanddelayingit.Theverification was a waste of time. They could have called the surveyed hawkers and given the license to whoever turned up. Duringthesurvey,wehadgiven all our documents.”

Althoughthenumberofhawkers eligible for licensing has reduced after the verification, morewillbeaddedtothelistafter afreshsurveyisconductedbythe civic body. “As per the hawkers’ policy, every five years a fresh survey has to be done. So we will initiateanothersurveyinthecity this year,” said the official.

Arvind More, president of Mahanagar Hawkers’ Union, said, “There was a meeting held three days back in the civic body headquarters regarding licensingthroughlotterysystemintwo wardsoftheKDMC.Theofficials concerned have been asked to takeupthework.However,with election around the corner, the work will get delayed.”

He added, “Since the beginning there have been several flawsfromtheKDMC’sside,right from forming a town vending committee, tosurveying, finalising and allocating spaces for hawkers.Thecivicbodyhassimply delayed the work over all theseyears.Thenumberofhawkers has now increased tremendously.Eveniftheverifiedhawkersarelicensedwhataboutother hawkers operating in the city?” NAVI MUMBAI: If everything goes accordingtotheplansoftheNavi MumbaiMunicipalCorporation (NMMC),thesatellitecitywillget itsfirstconstructionanddemolition waste treatment plant by October-end.

This plant will process the waste generated at construction sites and debris collected after demolishing illegal buildings. The processed materials will be used for constructing footpaths, makings paver blocks and tiles, among others.

AnilNerpagar,executiveengineer of NMMC, said, “We had ordered the machines [for the plant] in April and recently received those. A site near the landfill area at Turbhe has been selected for this plant and the premises will be ready within a few days. The machines will be installed in the premises after that. Thus, we can say that the plant will be operational by the end of October.”

The NMMC had allocated ₹7 crore for this project. Sources said that over ₹6 crore was spent to purchase the machines alone.

“Thisplantwillprocess20metric tonness of construction and demolitionwasteperhour.Itwill beoperatedforeighthoursaday. Thus, over 150 metric tonnes of waste will be processed there every day,” added Nerpagar.

AnotherseniorNMMCofficial said that once the plant is ready, thecivicbodywillhireworkersto collect waste from construction sites.

“Likewise,wheneverourteam goes to demolish an illegal construction, the labourers will accompany them to collect the debris. We will also coordinate with real estate developers from the city so that they can also informusaboutthedebrisgenerated at their sites,” he said.

Apart from ensuring proper utilisation of construction and demolition waste, this plant will also help NMMC curtail its expenditure. “We spend a lot of money every year to purchase paver blocks and tiles for differentprojects.Now,wewillbeable tomakethesematerialsthrough this plant,” he said.

NMMC is also looking at scoringwellintheupcomingSwachh SurvekshanSurveywiththehelp of the plant. “According to the guidelinesoftheCentralgovernment, every municipal corporationshouldhaveoncesuchplant intheirareaThus,wewillbeable to improve our rank on cleanliness at the national level,” said TusharPawar,deputymunicipal commissioner of NMMC.

The city of Navi Mumbai was declared as the seventh cleanest city ofIndiaand the cleanest city of Maharashtra in the 2019 Swachh Survekshan Survey.

Activists and residents have welcomed the move. “Often, builderssecretlydumpthedebris generated at their construction sites in open spaces. Few even dump such debris inside mangroves in places such as Vashi, Kalamboli, Nerul, Turbhe and alongthePalmBeachroad,”said SudhirMane,40,anactivistfrom Nerul.

“Once this plant is ready, no one will have to dump debris secretly as it will be taken to the plant for processing. Apart from keeping the city clean, the plant will indirectly protect the mangroves too,” added Mane.