Camp: PCB Launches Major Crackdown on Illegal Hawkers in Pune Cantonment

Camp, 23rd June 2024: The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) launched its most significant crackdown in a decade on illegal hawkers, seizing around seventy handcarts, ten gas cylinders, forty iron stands with wheels, and a tempo load of readymade garments and hawking articles on Friday evening.

According to the PCB administration, approximately 100 policemen from the city police department were deployed at five locations—MG Road, East Street, Moledina Road, Tabut Street, and Sachapir Street—to remove hawkers who have been operating with impunity for the past ten years.

PCB Chief Executive Officer Subrat Pal stated, “We will continue expanding the anti-encroachment and hawker removal drive for the next month. The action has been planned in association with the city police, and advance public notices have been issued, asking unauthorized hawkers to vacate the roads, bylanes, and public spots.”

The Pune Camp Merchants Association (PCMA) had written to the PCB in 2022, seeking an immediate end to the hawker menace, citing existential threats to their businesses. The association claimed that they were paying GST, property tax, rent, and electricity to the government, yet the board was unable to protect them from illegal encroachments by hawkers.

The crackdown follows a December 2023 incident where PCB employees Balayya Nagrikanti and Arbaz Shaikh were manhandled by a group of hawkers illegally selling bags outside Mona Foods restaurant on MG Road. An FIR was lodged against four hawkers under IPC sections 353, 323, 504, 506, and 34 for obstructing Nagrikanti and Shaikh from discharging their official duties.

Social activist Raj Singh commented, “A major tragedy or crime will take place in the cantonment if hawkers are allowed to occupy public spaces, roads, and bylanes, which has been happening for the past several years. A strict no-hawking policy must be implemented to evict hawkers from all areas of the cantonment, making the roads free for residents to walk and commute. Additionally, criminal proceedings should be initiated against cantonment officials found indulging in corrupt dealings with hawkers by informing them about the raids in advance.”