Over 200 hawkers encroaching the footpaths of the congested Sakchi Market area were evicted during an hour-long crackdown on Tuesday morning.

Acting on the directives of Dhalbhum sub-divisional officer (SDO) Nitish Kumar Singh, a team of Quick Response Team (QRT) and Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) officials launched a crackdown on the hawkers who had resumed business in the area by defying the administrative order of making Sakchi market encroachment free.

The crackdown began around 11 am and continued till noon.

“We were informed that the hawkers were putting up shops on the footpaths. Today, being Tuesday, they turned up in large numbers to do business. Hence, we launched a fresh drive and evicted them. QRT will be deployed at the market to prevent the return of the vendors,” said Ravi Bharti, a JNAC official.

Significantly, the district administration has earmarked Aambagan ground in Sakchi for the footpath hawkers to operate but they are refusing to shift to the new venue.

The move to relocate the hawkers came as a move by the district administration to clear traffic bottlenecks at Sakchi.

With the shopkeepers regularly complaining against the encroaching vendors, and also to implement Covid-19 safety protocol, the police had recently evicted over 100 makeshift kiosks from Sakchi market.

After the eviction, the aggrieved footpath hawkers came to Sakchi police station and demanded an alternative place to run their business.

At the same time, they also complained against the permanent shopkeepers, who have been allotted shops by Tata Steel for having encroached upon a considerable area by illegally extending their shops beyond the permissible limit. They alleged that this had made the passage narrow.

“We are aware of the problems being faced by the hawkers, who eke out a living by selling their wares. But, we cannot compromise on safety. Moreover, people also find it inconvenient to move around freely in the market area with the passages getting choked by them setting up their shops on the footpath,” pointed out a cop who took part in today’s crackdown.