Bimal Gurung, the president of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, has decided to back the hawkers who were recently removed from Mall Road in Darjeeling.
“What is the present chairman trying to do by making the public go hungry? How will they earn their bread? They have been hawking on the footpath for long,” said Gurung.
This is the first time that any hill leader has spoken in favor of the evicted hawkers. “We will stand with the hawkers and speak for them. If needed, we will even take legal recourse,” said Gurung.
These hawkers were removed from Nehru Road in Chowrasta and settled along Mall Road when Gurung was in power in 2012. Multi-storey commercial buildings came up on Nehru Road after the 2012 eviction.
The present Darjeeling municipality board led by Anit Thapa’s Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) on April 3 decided not to allow hawkers to return to Mall Road after they were removed before the G20 meeting in Darjeeling from April 1 to 3.
Thapa said that the decision was based on public feedback.
“This general support for eviction is probably why other political parties have kept mum,” said an observer.
Mukund Raj Baraily, a Darjeeling municipality councillor, said the hawkers had in principle agreed to put up stalls within the premises of Gorkha Rangamanch Bhavan in the town’s Chowrasta.
Instead of “poor hawkers”, the civic body should target “illegal high-rises”, Gurung said.
On Saturday, Hamro Party, which the Morcha is now close to, brought out a rally in Darjeeling demanding action against illegal high-rises. Hamro Party, which last year won the Darjeeling civic polls, has maintained that its fight against illegal high-rises led to its board being toppled by the BGPM recently.
Rule 162 of West Bengal Municipality Building Rule 2007 allows hill municipalities to sanction building plans up to a height of 11.5 metres or a four-storey building. Civic bodies need prior approval from the state government for construction up to 13.5 metres.
In 2015, the civic body identified 337 illegal high-rises in eight of 32 wards in Darjeeling and sent notices to 61 buildings, but no concrete action was taken.
