Mumbai: Shopkeepers & hawkers clash in Chembur, cops called in

MUMBAI: Shopkeepers in the Chembur station area got into a fracas with hawkers on Sunday. According to the shopkeepers association, hawkers put up bamboo structures for display and sell wares which blocks the entrance to their shops.
On Sunday, at around 2.50pm, an argument ensued between Kishore Kulkarni, chairman of the Chembur Merchants Association, and two hawkers, which resulted in him being pushed and shoved around. Other shopkeepers and hawkers, too, gathered at the spot forcing police to intervene.
Kulkarni later filed a non-cognisable offence against a hawker with the Chembur police. "When we questioned the hawkers about the structures, they got together and started pushing and shoving me. Later, a large number of hawkers started creating a ruckus. According to court orders, hawkers cannot hawk within 150 metres of the railway station premises, but hawkers have occupied the whole of the footpaths and are now even occupying the roads near the station and on the NG Acharya marg, SN Acharya marg, and Natraj Cinema area, among others. Some of the hawkers put up tables to sell wares even on motorcycles."
"The problem is so acute that commuters cannot get in and out of the station, and residents do not have a place to even walk on the roads. Members of our association will organise a 'morcha' to the BMC ward office on Tuesday," added Kulkarni.
"We have been carrying out action regularly, but now we will carry out joint action with the police. We will intensify the action against the hawkers," said a M-West ward official.