Torn and stained bed sheets were still hanging to cover the back of the stalls. Portions of stalls were still encroaching on roads and some stalls completely blocked pavements.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had complained about all of them on Monday.

Gariahat’s hawkers were not bothered. Tuesday was not much different for them.

A police team from Gariahat police station went around the pavements.

The cops restricted themselves to pulling down plastic sheets and the sticks that jutted out from the stalls’ roofs.

Street vending rules say hawkers must leave at least two-thirds of the width of a pavement free for pedestrians. In most of Gariahat that is still a rule on paper.

Mamata said on Monday: “Hawkers have put up red and black tarpaulin sheets at the back of the stalls. You have to create a system so it looks good.”

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation had allowed hawkers to build tin sheds above their stalls. The sides and the backs remained open. The hawkers put up cloth pieces to protect their wares from dust and rain.

The dirty cloth curtains first sprang up in January 2023.

“We want to cover the back of the stalls with a decorated canvas. We floated tenders but did not get any bidders. We will do it ourselves now,” Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim told Metro on Tuesday evening.

The police on Tuesday picked up some hawkers who violated the one-third rule. They obtained bail from the police station later in the day.