To deal with ghost hawkers, KMC gives 3 days for Aadhaar-phone link
Times of India | 3 July 2024
Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) team assigned to conduct a hawker survey in and around New Market has given a three-day deadline to hawkers to furnishing Aadhaar cards linked to c ellphones so that they can be registered as ‘genuine’ hawkers. The move is necessary to enable KMC do a GPS tagging of hawkers and weed out ghost hawkers.
KMC began the hawker survey in the New Market area from Bertram Street on Monday afternoon. On the first day, several hawkers didn’t have Aadhaar cards. It prevented the surveyors from registering their names in the bonafide hawkers’ list. On the second day, too, a section of hawkers in Chowringhee, Lindsay Street and Humayun Place was unable to produce their Aadhaar cards.
Faced with this situation, the surveyors were asked to provide a three-day deadline within which all hawkers will have to produce Aadhaar cards linked to cellphones to make them eligible for enlisting as genuine hawkers.
According to Debasish Das, a hawker union leader and a Town-Vending Committee (TVC) member, though some members of high-powered committee had recommended that hawkers be asked to produce ration cards, state municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim, who is also the head of the high-powered committee, has insisted on Aadhaar cards.
According to a KMC official who was part of the surveyor’s team, unlike the last survey in 2022 based on documents submitted by the hawkers in 2015, the civic officials are registering the names of only those who have a valid Aadhaar card linked to a mobile phone number and a residential proof.
“The objective of the ongoing hawker survey is to identify genuine hawkers and remove ghost ones. Under no circumstances will we allow fresh invasion of hawkers. We are preparing a list of real beneficiaries. It will be sent to the high-powered committee for taking necessary action,” said MMiC Debasis Kumar.
According to a KMC official who is part of the hawker team, the civic body has formed a strong 100-member team for conducting surveys in the prime hawking hubs like Gariahat, New Market, Hatibagan and the CBD areas. “We have been given a three-week time to wrap up the survey and submit the list to the high-powered committee. The committee will send the list to the CM’s office after necessary scrutiny,” said the civic official.