Hawkers in New Market have refused to adhere to the “one-third rule” on pavements or vacate the roads they now occupy and gheraoed on Tuesday a police team that was announcing the rules and the deadline to move.
The police and two vehicles — an autorickshaw and a police van — were allowed to leave after nearly 20 minutes. About 100 hawkers then organised an impromptu rally along Bertram Street, Chowringhee Place, JL Nehru Road and Lindsay Street before returning to Bertram Street.
They shouted slogans against the town vending committee and in favour of the Trinamul Congress.
The town vending committee is the sole authority to decide how to regulate street vendors in a town or city.
The committee recently decided that yellow lines would be drawn on the pavements in the New Market area to demarcate the one-third width of the footpaths within which hawkers have to restrict themselves. The remaining two-thirds should be kept free for pedestrians.
Accordingly, the KMC drew the lines on the pavements along Bertram Street, Lindsay Street, Chowringhee Place and Humayun Place on the night of January 6.
But the hawkers did not restrict themselves within the allocated space, except along Chowringhee Place.
The hawkers are also continuing with their stalls on the roads, which is banned under the street vending rules.
The vending committee — formed under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014 and made up of street vendors, civic officials, NGOs and cops, among others — has also decided to free the roads around New Market of hawkers.
After the committee’s approval, the police and the KMC started announcing the rules in the New Market area on Monday. There was no trouble on Monday, but on Tuesday, the hawkers gheraoed the team making the announcement.
The hawkers were angry at the decision to restrict them within one-third of the pavements and that they would not be allowed to sit on the roads with their ware.
“There are about 900 hawkers here. How will so many of them sit on the pavements? Is there enough space to accommodate them?” asked Saif Ali, a hawker leader.
“They cannot tell us to go away without offering us an alternative site. The authorities are saying they will give us a place to do business after we vacate the roads. But we will only move out after we are given an alternative place,” said another.
Several hawkers said they want space around New Market, not elsewhere.
Despite the resistance, the police team, along with a member of the town vending committee, went on announcing the rules and telling the hawkers that they have till Wednesday to comply with the rules.
“You are requested to stay within one-third width of a pavement. There is a yellow line drawn on the pavement. Stay within the yellow line,” the police announced.
Debashis Kumar, co-chairperson of Kolkata’s town vending committee and a mayoral council member of the KMC, said “there was a problem but it has been resolved”.
What unfolds over the next few days will be of significance: whether the KMC and the police press ahead with the rules or succumb to the resistance from hawkers.
A shop-owner in the area said: “This is what happens when you let hawkers proliferate over the years. The number of hawkers in New Market has risen manifold in the past 7-8 years. In 2015, we kept all stores in the area shut for three days to protest the mushrooming of hawkers and how pavements and roads are being taken over by them. Neither the police nor the KMC acted then.”
The shop owners have again planned a series of protests from Wednesday. Many stores are likely to remain closed between 11.30am and 3pm on Wednesday demanding that the authorities rein in the hawkers.