NAGPUR, Dec. 12 -- The state government on Thursday announced in the legislative assembly that barring the 32,415 licenced and surveyed hawkers in Mumbai, all others would face action. In a Calling Attention Motion, Congress MLA Amin Patel said that hawkers were facing arbitrary action from the police and BMC, which had not conducted proper surveys. Patel, who was later joined by BJP MLA Manisha Chaudhary and others, demanded information about the surveys and the civic body's plans to relocate hawkers in hawkers plazas. They also demanded that punitive action against them be stopped. Replying to this, industries minister Uday Samant, who holds charge of the urban development department in the legislative assembly, informed the house that surveys had been conducted. "Following the national hawkers policy announced by the central government in 2009, the state government brought out its street vending policy in 2016," he said. "Before this, the state conducted surveys of the hawkers in Mumbai by distributing forms among them. We received 99,435 applications of which 32,415 were eligible." The minister said that the hawkers had challenged the entire process in the Bombay high court. Intervening in the debate, assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar directed the state government to remove the illegal hawkers. "Barring the licenced and surveyed hawkers, no other hawkers should be tolerated," he said. "Follow the HC order, earmark space for the hawkers from the 20 places pointed out by the court. The remaining hawkers should not be tolerated and removed immediately. These are my directives."...