State Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Friday assured the assembly that a discussion will be held on the issue of hawkers in Mumbai on Tuesday. Narwekar noted that the government is distributing Rs10,000 loans to hawkers and on the other hand prohibiting them from doing their business. The issue was raised in the assembly by state Congress president Nana Patole.
Patole said that the hawkers across the state have been deprived of their rights in the absence of a strong hawkers' policy. In 2014, Parliament passed a law and directed the state governments to draft a hawkers policy. But ten years have passed and the state government has not made any progress in this regard. Patole demanded to stop action against them till the end of the monsoon and urged the government to make a policy.
Highlighting the seriousness of the issue, Patole said, “Taking action against them during monsoon season is an injustice to them. They have the right to live lawfully. It is the issue of poor people who have no other means for livelihood and stop action against them at least in the monsoon season.”
While reacting to the issue, Narwekar opined, “Ten years ago, the Supreme Court gave directions to make the policy for hawkers but there is no policy for them in the state till today. Town vending committee has also not been constituted. It is a serious issue.”
He further added, “Though I have rejected the adjournment motion put by Patole, we will conduct a discussion on this issue on Tuesday. The government cannot prohibit hawkers to do their businesses who were termed eligible in 2014 as per the Supreme Court order. If the government is taking action against such hawkers, then we will issue directions accordingly.”
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