Navi Mumbai paan shop ban measures near schools and colleges will be enforced more strictly after Municipal Commissioner Kailas Shinde directed civic officials to ensure that no paan stall operates within 50 metres of an educational institution. The directions were issued during a review meeting on Friday, with police support sought for the enforcement drive.
The commissioner asked municipal department officers to coordinate with school principals and college authorities while conducting regular action against paan stalls in the specified areas. The civic administration cited concerns over the reported increase in substance use among students as the reason for giving the issue special attention.
Shinde also ordered a wider drive to clear footpaths before the Ganesh festival. Officials were instructed to prepare action plans for each ward, appoint enforcement teams and identify priority locations. The focus areas include footpaths near schools, hospitals, railway stations and markets, where obstructions can affect pedestrian movement.
The directions distinguish between authorised and unauthorised street vendors. Municipal officials were told to shift authorised vendors to alternative locations and remove unauthorised vendors from footpaths. The commissioner also instructed ward offices to conduct action continuously rather than as a one-time campaign.
The civic body has separately ordered action against food carts operating at night. According to complaints cited at the meeting, several food carts remain on roads from the evening until midnight. The municipal administration has been asked to form separate night teams and begin enforcement. Officials were also told to take steps toward prohibiting the sale of food on roads after 11 p.m.
Police were asked to take the lead, with municipal support, in preventing the sale and use of narcotic substances at and around railway stations. The meeting also reviewed the rising number of homeless people and its reported effects on sanitation and city planning, with a separate campaign proposed on the issue.
The commissioner directed officials to remove abandoned vehicles from roads and railway-station parking areas in coordination with the police. Such vehicles, the meeting noted, were contributing to poor cleanliness in public spaces.
Preparations for the Ganesh festival were also reviewed. These included repairing potholes, pruning trees along arrival and immersion routes, arranging artificial ponds, improving street lighting and taking action against unauthorised banners. The civic administration directed the relevant departments to act on these matters immediately.
The meeting was attended by senior municipal officials, ward officers, executive engineers, police representatives and officials from the City and Industrial Development Corporation’s encroachment-control department. The next steps involve ward-level enforcement planning and the deployment of teams for action during the day and at night.
