A committee comprising hawkers, police and officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation will be formed to implement the one-third rule on pavements in the New Market area, the civic body has decided.
The committee is likely to have hawker leaders from the area who know the place and will be able to influence other hawkers.
The KMC had on Saturday night drawn a yellow line on pavements at LindsayStreet, Humayun Place, Chowringhee Place and Bertram Street demarcating two-thirds width that must be reserved for pedestrians. But in the three days since then, the hawkers have moved into the space reserved for pedestrians, except at Chowringhee Place.
The street vending rules framed by the state government say all pavements in the city should have two-thirds width reserved for pedestrians. The hawkers stalls should be within the remaining one-third width.
The rules — prepared based on the central Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 — also mention that no hawker can set up a stall on a road and no portion of a stall should encroach on the road.
There were three layers of hawkers in Humayun Place — the first on the pavement and the other two on the road. On Bertram Street, hawkers sit on the entire stretch of the road. Lindsay Street, too, has hawkers on the road.
“We are trying to convene a meeting of the town vending committee soon. Another committee will be formed to implement the one-thirdrule on pavements at New Market. The decision has to be ratified in the meeting of the town vending committee,” said a senior official of the KMC.
The town vending committee and the committee that will be formed will be separate though there could be some common members.
The town vending committee was formed as per the 2014 act.
The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending)Act, 2014 has given the committee the power to penalise hawkers and take measures to protect their livelihood. Every town or city in the country must have its town vending committee.
“We are all Trinamul supporters. We will follow what the KMC and the police decide. They have never said that hawkers will be evicted.They have only said thathawkers should adhere to rules,” said Sunny Shaw, who has a stall on Lindsay Street and is a hawker leader in New Market.
Shaw said some of the stalls were large. “They have to cut down the size of the stalls and the rest have to be accommodated in that space,” he said.