Stations remain hawker-free, but commuters fear they'll return soon

MUMBAI: A day after MNS workers evicted vendors from outside Santacruz station, the area remained hawker-free on Monday . The scene was the same at Thane, Kalyan and Dombivli stations, where the party had started its drive on Saturday .

On Monday afternoon, a police van and a BMC truck were parked outside Santacruz station, where the BMC demolished some two dozen illegal stalls. The fear of MNS violence and police presence may have kept the hawkers away , but activists and commuters seemed resigned to the fact that they would soon be back unless the authorities come up with a long-term solution to counter the menace.

"It was a convenient walk down the station and platforms to the auto stand as there were no hawkers blocking the way .There have been several drives but nothing has kept these hawkers from returning wit hin a week," said Amruta Joshi, a Dombivli commuter.

"Hawkers are a major problem. A few years ago, we forced the authorities to take action against them, but the hawkers returned shortly. They occupy the footpaths, forcing pedestrians to walk on the road and add to the traffic chaos," said Robin Viegas, a member of the Vidyanagari Parisar ALM.

Activists blamed the lack of coordinated drives by civic and railway agencies and even an unholy hawker-neta-babu nexus to some extent for the chaos.At Thane for instance, the spa ce outside the platforms has always been a cause of territorial dispute, giving enough time to hawkers to make a quick exit during any raid. Activists claim that most of these raids are planned and the hawkers are tipped off. The areas should be clearly demarcated so that commuters can also alert the authorities, they suggested.

The only people with long faces at the stations were evicted hawkers, who had come to check out the situation. Manoj Singh, lounging on the Santacruz skywalk, said when the MNS started creating a ruckus, they ran away with their goods."We have stored our goods in a safe place. I have been selling slippers on the premises for around three decades now and feel like I am being unnecessarily targeted," he said.

"Genuine hawkers operating for years are suffering for no reason. We have been asking for proper identification of hawkers and allocation of area for them to operate," said Shaukat Mulani, president of a hawkers union in Thane.