Six years after hawkers submitted their forms for a valid licence, the BMC has finally started scrutinising them again. But in the absence of a hawkers’ policy, sources said, the exercise will be a futile one. 

The civic body had first started the procedure to issue licences to hawkers in the city in 2016. At the time, authorities had identified and distributed forms to 1.28 lakh hawkers, out of which 99,435 submitted applications with relevant documents. As the state government had made domicile certificates mandatory (15 years stay in Mumbai), only 15,361 hawkers were selected for eligibility certificates in 2019. Since there was no hawkers’ policy then, the shortlisted hawkers weren’t given licences.