The H-West ward of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday decided against temporarily shifting the stalls of hawkers from Linking Road in Bandra to a nearby locality after the residents put up a feisty resistance.
The BMC had planned to move the stalls on the junction of 32nd and 26th roads for a few days till a road repair work was completed. However, after Wednesday’s agitation, the stalls are now likely to be moved in the area near National College close to the Linking Road.
Caught unawares
The locals said they were caught unawares as the civic body had not notified them about the move. “When I returned home in the evening, I found markings with black paint on the footpath adjoining my building. The security guard of our building and the guards from the neighbourhood informed us that this was done by the BMC. I immediately alerted others,” said Vimal Chhabria, a resident of Meenakshi building, which overlooks one of the demarcated footpaths. “Moving the hawkers here would have led to a menace and clogged the road,” Aarti Tejuja, another local, said.
The residents were joined by the parishioners of St. Theresa’s Church and the principal of St. Theresa’s High School, located in the vicinity. “Moving in hawkers would have been tremendously inconvenient not just for us locals but also for the movement of school students. The peace in the locality would have been disturbed,” Daisy Lazrado, a parishioner, said.
Residents meet officials
A delegation of locals met Sharad Ughade, assistant municipal commissioner of H-West ward, and he assured them that the stalls would not be moved to their locality. “Although the ward officer has said that he will not move stalls here, he hasn’t given anything in writing,” said another resident.
Mr. Ughade refused to comment when contacted by The Hindu. Another civic official from the ward, who did not wish to be named, said, “The stalls came in the way of a road improvement work along Linking Road. This was a temporary arrangement as the deadline for the work to finish is December 31. We will now shift these stalls somewhere else and later move them back.”
BJP corporator Swapna Mhatre said, “We spoke to the ward officer about the locals not agreeing with the plan. He then called it off.” On the demand for a written order, she said, “Since it was a temporary plan, there was no formal documentation in the first place.”
Plan scrapped
BJP MLA Ashish Shelar also met the civic officials on Wednesday. He said, “Hawkers were supposed to be temporarily shifted as road work is going on at Linking Road. The place where it was supposed to be moved was close to a religious structure and school. It would have been of inconvenience and we asked that the stalls should not be shifted there and Mr. Ughade agreed to it.”