Mumbai (Maharashtra):Maharashtra government has scrapped the condition for hawkers to have a Maharashtra domicile certificate. This move of the state government is expected to have an impact on the BMC elections going to be held next year. This decision means that hawkers applying for a license will no longer have to submit a certificate to prove residence in the state for more than 15 years.
As Mumbai is the financial capital, several hawkers have set up their businesses here. Most hawkers are migrants and were unable to produce domicile certificates. Mumbai Municipal Corporation conducted a survey of hawkers in 2014 in which it was found that 99435 hawkers were registered but only 17000 of them were found eligible for a license due to lack of domicile certificate. Political observers say that this decision will help the Shinde-Fadnavis government to attract North Indian voters as a large chunk of hawkers are from North India.