Hawkers in many parts of Kolkata are building tin sheds, emulating what the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has allowed in Gariahat, but the sheds are stretching over more than two-thirds of pavements and also blocking the names of stores along the kerbs, many shopkeepers have alleged.
A group of traders who run stores along pavements met mayoral council member Debashis Kumar on Monday to air their grievances.
Rabindranath Kolay, one of the traders in the group, said the hawkers had erected overhead tin sheds in Hatibagan and near No. 14 bus terminus in Behala.
“But they are not following rules while installing the tin sheds. In some places, the sheds are extending over the road and often blocking the names of the stores behind the stalls,” Koley, a member of the Forum of Traders’ Organisations of Pashchim Banga, said.
The forum represents lakhs of small and medium retailers as well as wholesalers.
The KMC had allowed the tin sheds to be erected as the rules framed by the state government ban the use of plastic sheets by hawkers because they are flammable.
Hawkers put up plastic sheets over their stalls to protect the wares from sun, rain and dust. But if a stall catches fire, plastic sheets will help ensure the flames spread to adjacent stalls and shops in no time.
In 2019, a building at the Gariahat crossing that houses two popular saree shops had been devastated by a fire that was suspected to have spread to the building from adjacent stalls through plastic sheets.
A hawker leader, who is also a member of Kolkata’s town vending committee, said the sheds were installed in Gariahat under the supervision of the KMC. In other places, he said, they are being erected without any knowledge of the civic body.
The tin sheds cannot hang above more than a third of the width of a pavement, which is precisely the space a stall can occupy. Two-thirds of the pavement must be kept open for pedestrians, according to hawking rules prepared by the state government.
The traders who called on mayoral council member Kumar said some of the stalls in Hatibagan have tin sheds that cover the entire width of the footpath.
Some stalls have tin sheds that extend over the road.
Kumar told The Telegraph on Tuesday the tin shed over a stall cannot extend over the road.
“I have asked the traders to give us instances where hawkers have built sheds violating rules. We will demolish the structures if our probe reveals rules have been broken,” he said.
Traders from New Market had earlier this year written to the KMC complaining that hawkers outside the market complex were not following any rules. They had said the hawkers were still using plastic sheets.
Hawkers on Bertram Street and Humayun’s Place sit on the road, in violation of rules.
Some of the other rules mention that hawkers’ stalls cannot occupy any portion of a road and the stalls cannot be built facing a road. But all the rules are routinely violated across the city and hardly any action is taken against errant hawkers.