Owners and employees of food stalls on pavements of Kolkata will not be allowed to cook using gas or coal because such ovens cause flames, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has told hawkers.
The restriction, which is part of the hawking rules prepared by the state government, may not come into effect immediately.
"The hawkers cannot use coal. For now, they can use gas to cook. We are trying to make an arrangement so they get electricity. Eventually, they have to shift to cooking using electric appliances," said Debasish Kumar, mayoral council member in the KMC who handles the hawker issue.
"The use of electric ovens will remove the threat of fires from flames," said Kumar, who is in charge of the KMC’s parks and squares department.
KMC officials said the rule barring the use of coal and gas in pavement stalls was highlighted at a recent meeting of the town vending committee, whose members include hawkers.
A fire broke out at a food stall on a pavement along SN Banerjee Road on Saturday. One fire tender doused the flames. No one was injured, said an official in the fire brigade's control room. But the risks of a fire spreading fast looms large.
“Most of the stalls have cylinders. So there is a real threat of a fire spreading fast. We are waiting for the KMC to tell us how to go about getting electricity. We will have to work out a plan so that the food stalls can use electricity and cook in an induction cooker or a similar equipment,” said Debraj Ghosh, a hawker leader in Gariahat.
But given the number of hawkers, it’s going to be a mammoth task to provide electricity to all of them. Shaktiman Ghosh, a leader of the Hawker Sangram Committee, said there were 1.43 lakh food hawkers on the city's pavements.
The hawking rules framed by the state government prevent hawkers from using plastic sheets to cover their stalls. Also, stalls cannot encroach on the adjoining road, no stall can face the road and stalls cannot occupy more than a third of the pavement.
As for food stalls on pavements, mayoral council member Kumar said they cannot be more than 4ftX6ft.
But most rules are flouted across Kolkata. A large number of hawkers in New Market keep their wares on roads. Stalls across the city have encroached on roads.
The KMC has allowed the hawkers to build a tin shade over their stalls as a replacement of plastic sheets. The KMC has also approved a proposal to build frames at the back of the stalls to display advertisements or graffiti.
