The Maharashtra government will formulate a hawkers' policy on the lines of the national hawkers' policy, by the year-end.

The government announced in the monsoon session of Legislature that it is working on a draft of the policy, as per Supreme Court directives. This has also been the demand by hawkers' unions.

"We are chalking out the draft which would have rules and regulations for mobile hawking, squatting and fixed stalls," a senior official from Urban Development Department said.

The policy would deal with problems like space constraints, institutional framework, registration of hawkers, maintaining hawking zones, regulatory system and social security for hawkers, the official said.

Space crunch is a major issue in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The national policy stipulates that only up to two per cent population can be allowed to hawk.

"But two per cent is a huge number if we consider the population of Mumbai and there is no sufficient land to allot for hawking," he said.

Speaking about implementing suggestions for registration of hawkers, the official said it is difficult to keep track of the growing number of hawkers.

"The BMC says there are 15 lakh license holders in Mumbai but in reality, there are over 20 lakh hawkers. The remaining five lakh do not have any permit", he said.

The Government has invited suggestions from NGOs and hawkers' unions on the draft policy and they would be discussed at a meeting this week.

The government did not act till 1998, when an NGO filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court demanding implementation of the Supreme Court order. The hawkers union also filed a special petition in the Supreme Court, seeking implementation of the apex court ruling.