Briefly…

In a contempt petition filed in the Bombay High Court, Justice R M Lodha on Friday issued a show cause notice to the deputy commissioner of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), asking why action should not be taken against him for not shifting hawkers according to an earlier order in the case and directing that he be present in court on all the dates of subsequent hearings.

These developments come in a petition filed by Navi Mumbai Hawkers & Workers Union who are demanding that they be shifted to the hawking zones demarcated for them and they be issued licences to carry out their business. In an order issued on February 1 by the division bench of the Acting Chief Justice A G Agarwal andJustice A P Shah, the NMMC was directed to accommodate the hawkers under the union in the hawking zones within six weeks of the order.The civic body were directed to accommodate the hawkers in the newly set up hawking zones by giving them an area of 4X6 sq ft for hawking of the goods. A licence fee of Rs 66 per month were to be taken from the hawkers. None of the directions could however grant the hawkers a permanency right at any particular place nor would it authorise the hawkers to set up shop premises.Arguing on the contempt proceedings, counsel for the petitioners, Suresh Pakale said that there was still no sign of the petitioners being accommodated at the site. In a submission before the court, the counsel argued that the petitioners approached the NMMC deputy commissioner with a copy of the order on February 6 seeking implementation of the order. He alleged that the respondent claimed that the order was not binding upon him and he would not give effect to it.

BEST union warnsadministration

Though the agitation by worker’s union of Brihunmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking failed to disrupt services in Mulund on Saturday, the episode is being seen as the start of yet another management-union battle. The entire controversy started off when the management decided, early this month, to open the new Mulund bus depot on March 18. The BEST Workers Union, led by Sharad Rao, took objection to the date on a technical point of the agreement signed between them three years ago which said that the schedules of the drivers and conductors would be changed once in four months.

According to the workers, the commencement of operations from Mulund would disturb the present schedule, and some of the workers would have to change their schedule within two-and-a-half months. The union claimed that the management was violating the agreement and went to the Industrial Court where they obtained a stay order on the issue on March 17.

The management immediately approached theHigh Court which vacated the stay order and posted the case for hearing for Monday. Thus the BEST administration went ahead with the inauguration the next day.

CRY event on children’s rights

Child Relief and You (CRY) held a two-day meet A Partnership for Children’ at the Wilson College Hall last week. It was an attempt to showcase the activities, projects and resource centres — from Maharashtra and Gujarat — related to development initiatives in the states funded by CRY. A book titled, The Indian Child, produced by CRY was also released on the occasion by adman Alyque Padamsee.

The book documents the status of the Indian child with respect to the three basic rights viz, right to survival, right to protection and right to development.