Mumbai, Aug. 15 -- As the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC's) Pedestrian First campaign gathers pace, with hundreds of encroachments cleared and hawkers evicted from footpaths, corporators across party lines on Friday questioned the civic administration's action, particularly against hawkers who are eligible to vend. The issue came up during a BMC Standing Committee discussion on a proposal to issue QR code-enabled identity cards to 99,435 eligible hawkers. Several corporators questioned the rationale behind spending nearly Rs.1.67 crore on the ID cards when the civic administration was simultaneously carrying out eviction drives against these very hawkers. MNS group leader Yashwant Killedar questioned the administration's approach, saying that hawkers should not be removed until permanent vending zones are allotted to them. Mahim corporator Sheetal Gambhir asked the committee chairperson to direct the civic administration to stop taking action against eligible hawkers. "Several hawkers in my ward have been vending for nearly three decades. Despite that, they are not being spared," she said. Corporators questioned whether hawkers who have been identified but whose status is yet to be finally determined by the Town Vending Committee (TVC) should continue to be evicted. Kandivali corporator Ajanta Yadav, from the Congress, questioned why the proposal had been brought before the committee when the card distribution process was already underway. "The distribution started on June 1, and approximately 47,000 of the nearly one lakh identity cards have already been distributed. Half the work is done. It does not even matter whether we give approval or not," said a dejected Yadav. Leader of the House Ganesh Khankar raised concerns over duplication, claiming that some individuals may have been enrolled more than once. Yadav pushed back, saying, "These 99,000 people have been accounted for by the BMC, and the high court has also seconded it. It is not right to say there is duplication after so much verification was done," she said. Following the discussion, Standing Committee chairperson Prabhakar Shinde directed the administration to instruct the police and civic officials to stop evicting eligible hawkers. The administration, however, defended the campaign. Prajakta Lavangare-Verma, additional municipal commissioner (city), said, "The enforcement has not been selective. We have evicted wherever necessary."...