Find solution to hawkers menace, HC tells BMC

The court was referring to the repeated eviction of hawkers from the roadside by civic officials. The judges said the hawkers always return to the same spot shortly after municipal officials leave.

The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Naosherwan Mohammed Yousuf, complaining about a large number of hawkers in DN Nagar.

“There is hardly any space for people to walk,” said the bench, looking at photographs submitted by the petitioner, which show the roads completely encroached upon by hawkers.

They added that the problem of hawkers encroaching upon the city’s streets cannot be effectively tackled unless the ward officer and local police are made responsible for keeping the roads free of hawkers.

The BMC’S lawyer, Shobha Ajitkumar, said hawkers are regularly evicted by civic officials with the help of officers from the DN Nagar police station, but they always return.

“If the municipal corporation cannot come up with a way to end the problem, then nobody else can,” said the judges.

They posted the PIL for further hearing on March 29.

They ordered the civic body to come up with an effective solution by then.

The Bazarpeth police found a gun, hockey sticks and cricket stumps in a vehicle parked outside the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) on Saturday.

The incident has raised concerns over the safety of civic officials.

On Saturday, the aides of independent corporator Kunal Patil and Shiv Sena corporator Mahesh Gaikwad fought during the civic body’s general body meeting. After the spat, police officials inspected the vehicles of politicians parked on the premises. It was then that they found the weapon.

The police are investigating and are likely to register a case.

“We are trying to ascertain whom the gun belongs to. If we come across anything suspicious, we will register a case. We are in the process of interrogating the politicians who attended the meeting,” said Dilip Suryavanshi, senior police inspector, Bazarpeth police station.

Patil and Gaikwad have denied that their aides were involved.