Mumbai: Mayor Ritu Tawde’s continuous efforts at various levels to solve the problems of street vendors and hawkers in Mumbai are proving successful. An important part of this is that the process of issuing QR code-based identity cards to hawkers will soon begin.

Giving information in this regard, Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde said that facing the general elections, the Burhan Mumbai Municipal Corporation had promised the citizens that a planned hawking zone would be created in Mumbai for the rehabilitation of eligible hawkers. For this, a hawker committee will be formed, after which all eligible hawkers will be shifted to the hawking zone decided by the Urban Hawker Committee and resettled, and all these actions will be taken.

In this context, as Mayor, I have determined a priority plan for 100 days after assuming office, and I have also included the issue of eligible hawkers in it. Towards this end, I reviewed all the information and current situation of the hawkers policy in the Municipal Corporation and made continuous efforts to resolve the issues in this regard. Although the election of the Municipal Street Vendor i.e. Hawker Committee was held in August 2024, the counting process could not be completed due to legal reasons. In this regard, a joint meeting was held between the Licensing and Legal Departments of the Municipal Corporation. The court allowed the counting process under the election of the Municipal Street Vendor Committee and the Legal Department was directed to make efforts in this regard. The matters presented in the esteemed court were examined and verified. It was successful and the court gave the green signal for the counting process. Accordingly, the counting process was completed on March 28, 2026 and the issue of the City Street Vendor Committees was resolved.

In addition to the elected members, advertisements were published in newspapers by following up with the concerned department for the appointment of non-official members in the City Street Vendor Committee. On this basis, the Municipal Corporation has also received applications. The process of scrutiny and verification of these applications received is underway.

Not only this, as per the directions given by the court and on the basis of the City Street Vendor Act, the concerned department was also directed to expedite the process of distributing QR code-based identity cards to a total of 99,345 hawkers. For this, the subject was approved in the Standing Committee. Mayor Ritu Tawde said that the process of issuing identity cards to hawkers is now in the final stage and soon QR code-based identity cards will be distributed to these hawkers.

We will continue to make continuous efforts to resolve various issues related to hawkers. The Mayor has made it clear that we will continue to make comprehensive efforts to ensure that no one is abused and no deserving person is deprived of benefits.

Mumbai: Farooq Hashmi, the father of Huzaifa Hashmi, who was arrested for his involvement in the Mumbai-Delhi bomb blasts conspiracy, said that his son is innocent. He had only participated in the chat and had no connection with the conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks. While the Delhi Special Cell has claimed to have arrested Huzaifa for her involvement in the conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks, Rs 25,000 was also transferred to the account of Huzaifa, who was arrested from Bhayander. Father Farooq Hashmi said that his son used to chat on his mobile and he felt that his friend was joking with him. His friend had also sent him a barcode number and he also received Rs 25,000 in it, after which Hashmi instructed him to return the money and blocked the number. After this incident, he was not in touch with this number, but despite this, the police have arrested him. He said that my son has been framed. He is only guilty of the chat and he does not know anything else. Farooq also denied contact with Arbaaz of Mumbai and Tauqir of Mumbra and said that his son had no connection with them. Also, when he was asked if he was involved in the conspiracy to carry out attacks in Mumbai after the demolition operation in Bandra, the father also denied this and said that my son is innocent and he has only chatted on Instagram and WhatsApp but he is not guilty.

Mumbai Investigation Agencies and Delhi Special Cell have foiled a plot to carry out terror attacks in Delhi and Mumbai by exposing the network of terrorists. Security agencies have achieved another major success against terrorism and the underworld. In a joint operation, the Special Cell of Delhi Police and Maharashtra ATS have arrested another suspected terrorist who is linked to Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, and the Mumbai underworld module. The arrested person has been identified as 26-year-old Huzaifa Farooq Ahmed Hashmi, who was arrested from Bhayander area adjoining Mumbai. Huzaifa was absconding since the arrest of 9 suspects in this case.

Huzaifa was in touch with Yawar Khan, who is based in Pakistan.

According to sources in the investigation agencies, Huzaifa Hashmi was in constant touch with his handler Yawar Khan, who is based in Pakistan, for the past one month. This module was planning to carry out a big conspiracy in India. Sources revealed that Huzaifa was sent about Rs 100,000 by the gang for this purpose. Huzaifa adopted a new method to dupe local youth. He would tell them that some Pakistani gangsters were active on Instagram and offered huge amounts of money to work for them. Investigation also revealed that Huzaifa targeted youth who were already addicted to drugs. This was the easiest way for these youth to earn money. Falling into this temptation, many youths chose Huzaifa’s path and received money from Pakistan. It has been learnt that two accused in this case, Tauqir and Sajid Sheikh, have already been arrested from Kurla and Mumbra, who were caught in this trap and involved in anti-national activities. Security agencies are currently interrogating Huzaifa rigorously to uncover other links of this network.