3/4th of New Market carriageway taken up by hawkers, finds Kolkata Municipal Corporation

KOLKATA: The very individual, who is nominated to look after the livelihood of Kolkata's hawkers as co-chairman of the town vending committee, expressed shock over the rampant encroachment of roads and pavements by hawkers in and around New Market.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation member, mayor-in-council Debasish Kumar was leading a team of civic officials, cops and representatives of hawkers and traders to conduct a survey of hawkers in and around New Market on Saturday when he expressed his displeasure after finding that nearly three-fourth of some roads around the heritage market had been encroached by hawkers.

In fact, the entire parking lot on Bertram Street has been occupied by hawkers who now do business in four-five rows along this stretch. Kumar is also in charge of the car parking department. Expressing his anguish at how the lot has been usurped by hawkers, he called the parking attendant and took note of his grievance at being unable to accommodate cars.

The survey was carried out at Bertram Street, Humayun Place, Lindsay Street and JL Nehru Road located around the grade-I heritage market.

Perturbed by what he saw, the MMiC spoke to a hawkers representative accompanying him and asked him to take up the issue with hawkers and remind them of rules that prohibit encroachment of carriageways.

Conceding that the civic administration needed to streamline hawking in the New Market area, he said: "It is unacceptable that the carriageways and pavements are being gobbled by a section of hawkers. I also noticed how the space for car parking is shrinking. We will mention these obstacles in our report to the town vending committee and discuss them at the next meeting of the committee," said Kumar.

Kumar's words were echoed by Rajesh Pandey, who represented the traders and accompanied Hakim as a member of the town vending committee. According to Pandey, the hawking scenario in areas close to New Market was alarming. "What I have seen today is rampant encroachment. Hawkers in large parts of Bertram Street and surrounding areas care little for hawking rules," said Pandey.

Even Saktipada Mondal, who is a hawkers' representative and a member of the vending committee, agreed that excess was being done by a section of the hawkers in the name of maintaining livelihood. "We are not against the hawkers' interests. But the manner in which a section of hawkers has grabbed the carriageways and pavements need a special mention in our report of the survey based on which a hawker rehabilitation and action plan will be thought of," said Mondal.