HC raps state govt for failing to act against illegal hawkers

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday rapped the Maharashtra government for failing to fully implement the enactment that regulates street vending and hawkers and instead getting into a blame game with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The division bench M S Sonak and Kamal Khata said the state authorities had failed to implement provisions of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, introduced 10 years ago, even as citizens continued to suffer the menace of unauthorised hawkers and vendors on public roads in the metropolis.
The judges said it is unfortunate and sad that the government has not implemented a parliamentary enactment since 2014 but was instead getting into a blame game with BMC over non-cooperation. “It is very unfortunate and sad that not only is the law not implemented, but even our orders passed from time to time are not followed,” the court noted.
The court was hearing a suo-motu proceeding regarding the menace of unauthorised hawkers and vendors operating on public roads across Mumbai.
During the hearing on Thursday, the bench noted that the Street Vendors Act mandates the government to formulate a scheme with consultation with the civic bodies to deal with the issue, but no such scheme had been formulated by the state government.
“There are only judgments and laws but there is no implementation. Are you expecting people to suffer daily till then? Pedestrians are suffering, shop owners are suffering, and eligible hawkers are suffering. Why should people suffer because of inaction by the authorities,” the HC sought to know.
The judges noticed that the state government said the BMC was not helping, and the civic body blamed someone else. They said everyone is suffering and therefore the state authorities must answer as to how they are going to resolve the problem till the time the scheme contemplated under the 2014 enactment was in place.
The bench said the state government and the BMC were making an attempt to cite bureaucratic issues which could have been easily overcome had there been a will to implement the Act.
The court has now asked the state government to formulate a scheme before September 30. “We direct the state government to formulate the scheme in consultation with BMC and town vending committee as expeditiously as possible and in any event not later than September 30,” the bench said.
The court said that the principal secretary of the urban development department will be held responsible for complying with the mandate of the law. Observing that under no circumstances should the scheme’s formulation be delayed, the bench posted the matter for further hearing on September 2.