MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) today uploaded the draft list of 85,000 hawking pitches across the city.
The move has come in for severe criticism from BMC corporators who said that the list was uploaded without taking them into confidence.
According to the list of hawking zones, roads near the houses of leaders like Narayan Rane and MNS chief Raj Thackeray, actor Aamir Khan among others have been proposed as hawking zones.
Earlier, following directives from the court as well as the Centre, the BMC had set up a Town Vending Committee (TVC) to survey street vendors and to recommend areas to be declared as non-hawking or hawking zones.
The BMC's list has met with opposition. The BJP's group leader in the BMC, Manoj Kotak, demanded the scrapping of the pitches alleging that the list was prepared without logic.
"The entire list of 85,000 hawking pitches which has been unscrupulously uploaded on to the portal is illogical. I fail to understand why elected representatives were not taken into confidence," he said.
"The mayor heard my submission carefully and ordered BMC officials to initiate action to scrap the draft list," Kotak told PTI.
The Congress's Ravi Raja, leader of opposition in the BMC House, called the list shocking.
"This is extremely shocking and ridiculous that the BMC did not think it necessary to take us into confidence before taking such a giant step. Therefore, I have demanded that the list be scrapped," he said.
A senior BMC official, however, told PTI that it was just a draft list.
"It is merely a draft list prepared in 2015. If anyone wants to appeal against the final list, they can do so in the Appeal Committee which is chaired by the mayor. There is also a Grievances Redressal Committee above the Town Vending Committee," the official said.