PMC corporators intend to reduce hawkers’ charges by nearly 50%

Pune: City corporators have proposed to reduce the hawkers’ fee by nearly 50%. The move is set to cause a loss of income to the civic body.
“The decision to reduce the hawkers’ charges was taken after a meeting with the vendors. They claimed that the charges are heavy and will affect their finances. Vendors, who sell small goods, will benefit from this move,” said Mayor Mukta Tilak.

According to officials of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), 190 hawkers’ zones have been finalized in the city to rehabilitate as many as 10,000 vendors in a phased manner. The civic body has set norms as well as issued vending licences to the hawkers, who will be shifted to the designated places.

The civic body has created four categories for the vendors, based on location and business. The range of daily rent starts from Rs25 and goes up to Rs500, per day.

“It was expected that PMC would get around Rs25 crore from the hawkers annually. But after a reduction in charges, the amount is expected to reduce by around half. Almost all categories have been given a relief,” said a senior PMC official.

The civic body needs to establish 288 hawkers’ zones to accommodate all vendors. The remaining 98 zones will be finalized soon. PMC will introduce a colour code and logo to identify authorized hawkers.

“Although we have reduced the charges, there has been no reduction in the amount collected as fine. This amount has recently been increased from Rs500 to Rs5,000. The heavy fine is expected to help reduce unauthorized roadside business,” said Madhav Jagtap, head of PMC’s anti-encroachment department.

As per the Supreme Court order, dated September 13, 2013, and directives of the state government’s urban development department, issued on October 21, 2013, the civic administration must allow all vendors to conduct business.

Accordingly, the civic body has planned to build hawkers’ zones across the city so that the public places and streets are not encroached. PMC will have to issue daily and monthly passes to hawkers, propose a fine on illegal hawkers, ensure a biometric census of all vendors and maintain detailed records with their unique identification (UID) numbers.