39 applications from hawkers received for apex committee

MUMBAI The application window for hawkers who wished to contest for positions of hawker representatives in the city’s town vending committees (TVC) closed at 5pm on Tuesday. While the total number of applicants is awaited from authorities, 39 applications were received for the eight seats available in the central TVC; the election will be held on August 29.
Forms for the 64 seats – eight in the apex TVC and seven zonal TVCs each – were available between August 5 to 6, with a deadline for submission between August 12 and 13. Applicants had to pay a deposit fee of ₹2,000 each.
“The applications will now be scrutinised and published for the public to voice objections if any, following which a final list of valid candidates will be appointed on August 19,” said a returning officer conducting the elections. “Fifty three application forms were issued for the apex TVC, but we have received only 39 submissions.”
Once the eight TVCs are formed, the bodies will collectively implement the Street Vendors Act, 2014, and regularise the 32,415 hawkers found eligible in the 2014 hawkers survey. These hawkers will vote for their representatives in the apex and zonal TVCs.
While hawker unions have been unhappy with the number of hawkers deemed eligible for voting, many set aside their apprehensions and have backed chosen candidate. Mumbai’s union heavyweight, Shashank Rao’s Mumbai Hawkers Union, however, has chosen to sit it out, risking exclusion from the TVC. “In a city with over three lakh hawkers, how can you go ahead with a mere 32,000 ‘eligible’ ones? It doesn’t make sense, so we will not participate,” said Rao.
Rao is currently a part of the provisional apex TVC. With around 60,000 hawkers in his union, some might vote in their individual capacity, he said, but would not participate as a union.
The Janwadi Hawkers Sabha, however, which had earlier threatened not to partake in the elections if the number of eligible hawkers were not revised to include all the 99,435 surveyed in 2014 and the 1,98,241 who had received loans under the PM Svanidhi scheme, changed their tune. After the Bombay high court refused to stay the TVC elections on August 8 following their writ petition, they have pushed three candidates. “One will contest for a seat in the apex TVC, and the other two in the zonal TVCs,” said Ravindra Madane, general secretary.
Another well-known hawker union leader, Dayashankar Singh from the Azad Hawkers Union, has submitted his papers to contest for the apex TVC. “I used to sell vada pav from 1974 to 2016 in Andheri East, but now I am too old,” said Singh. “Another member from our union is also contesting along with me. We have been told to begin campaigning only after August 20.”
While Haider Imam, from the AITUC Hawkers Union, is currently part of the apex TVC and Zone 5’s TVC, he has chosen not to contest because of fragile health and a recent knee surgery. “We have contested the eligible hawkers’ list in high court and are awaiting a response on the criteria through which they were chosen, expected by September 5, so it didn’t feel right to stand either,” he said.
“There are four people contesting from the union for different zonal TVCs. They will form teams and go for campaigning,” he added.
The TVC elections will be held on August 29, conducted by the Labour Commission. Results will also be published on the same day. The agenda for the elected TVCs will be to conduct another hawkers survey and demarcate hawking zones, giving each a hawking licence and pitch, in the case of stationary hawkers.