Oberoi Grand hotel has appealed to the city’s town vending committee to declare the Grand Arcade as a “no-vending zone” and said the presence of hawkers on the pavement blocked the “ingress and egress” of shops there.
An official of Oberoi Grand and lawyers for the hotel raised the demand at a meeting of the committee on Tuesday. The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014, a central act, has empowered the vending committee to take all decisions regarding hawkers.
The 2014 Act says: “Where any area or space, as the case may be, has been earmarked as no-vending zone, no street vendor shall carry out any vending activities in that zone.”
The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) had in January published the names of 1,892 roads that it declared as no-vending zones in Calcutta.
Emon Bhattacharya, an advocate who represented Oberoi Grand at Tuesday’s meeting, told Metro the list did not have the name of the Grand Arcade.
“We placed three key demands in the meeting. We want the Grand Arcade to be declared as a no-vending zone. At least 22ft on both sides of the main gate of the hotel should be free of hawkers. The way hawkers have set up stalls in the arcade violates Street Vending Rules,” said Bhattacharya.
The Street Vending Rules, framed by the state government in 2018, mention that the “entrance and exit of any shop or house must not be blocked” by street vendors.
There are about 18 shops in the arcade, said a man who runs a shop in the arcade
Lawyer Bhattacharya said the hotel would soon submit a letter to the vending committee, which is made up of government officials, members of hawkers’ associations and NGO representatives, among others. Tuesday’s demands were made verbally.
Debashis Kumar, a mayoral council member of the CMC and co-chairperson of the vending committee, said the committee would discuss the demands made by Oberoi Grand at its next meeting.
“They have demanded that the Grand Arcade be declared as a no-vending zone. We will discuss,” he said.
In November, 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.
Before the high court’s order, the Grand Arcade pavement had barely 3ft of space for pedestrians on some stretches. Following the high court’s order, the CMC and the police swung into action and drew a yellow line on the pavement marking the one-third space for hawkers.
Since then, the hawkers have remained within the limit.