Shop owners in the Grand arcade were happy on Sunday that hawkers had been removed from outside their gates, but wanted hawkers on the other side of the pavement to leave more gaps between their stalls so that customers found it easier to reach the stores.
Pedestrians said they did not bump into hawkers or shoppers — in contrast to the times, before Saturday, when hawkers sat on both sides of the pavement at the arcade.
The hawkers who sat along the inner flank of the pavement (just outside the stores) started winding up their stalls on Saturday. They have also taken away the desks and tables on which they displayed their wares. A few cartons have been left behind.
The Telegraph had reported on Sunday that 23 hawkers had begun shutting down their stalls on Saturday evening. The rest had pared the lengths of their stalls and retreated behind a yellow line drawn by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) along the outer third of the width of the pavement.
In a November 28 order, Justice Amrita Sinha of Calcutta High Court had asked the town vending committee to ensure that two-thirds of the pavement in front of the hotel was left free for pedestrians.
The rules for street vending, prepared by the state government, too say that hawkers’ stalls should be confined within one-third of the width of a pavement. “It’s good to see that the hawkers who sat immediately outside the stores have removed their stalls. The place looks cleaner. The stretch outside our gates is not as congested as it was,” said Sajid Akhter, an employee of Mochi, a footwear store in the arcade.
“It would be nice if the hawkers on the other side of the pavement left more gaps between the stalls. This will benefit our customers.”
KMC officials said the pavement is 21 feet wide in the arcade. Hawkers occupying only a third of the width of the pavement leaves 14 feet of space free for pedestrians.
When the hawkers occupied both flanks of the pavement, pedestrians had barely 3 feet of space left for them. Shoppers standing in front of the hawkers’ stalls further shrunk the width. Some of the hawkers whose stalls had to be shut down were protesting against their removal on Sunday.
“We will comply with the court’s order but we should be given space where we can set up stalls. If we cannot earn, how shall we run our families?” one of the protesters said.
On Thursday, KMC and police officials and members of Kolkata's town vending committee had visited the Grand arcade and told the hawkers they must restrict their stalls within one-third of the width of the pavement, and to the outer side. The team set a 48-hour deadline for the hawkers to comply.
When the deadline ended on Saturday afternoon, hawkers started winding up the stalls that were on the inner side of the pavement. A large police contingent visited the arcade but did not have to use force as the hawkers acted on their own.
The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, a central act, has given the town vending committee the power to penalise hawkers as well as to take measures to protect their livelihood.
Every town or city in the country must have its town vending committee.
Justice Sinha of Calcutta High Court had in the November 28 order said: “The Corporation shall file a further report mentioning whether two-thirds of the pavement, as was supposed to be kept free, is actually kept free for pedestrian movement. The position of the hawkers in the one-third of the pavement shall be disclosed in the report.”
