A month since chief minister Mamata Banerjee vented her anger at how open spaces were being grabbed in the city, hawkers continue to block many pavements and run stalls encroaching on roads.

Tarpaulin sheets are still being used and dirty covers hang to protect the stalls from sun and soot.

Now the good part: stalls smashed by bulldozers in Alipore, along EM Bypass and in some other places have not sprung back.

In a meeting at Nabanna on June 24, Mamata had spoken about the condition of Hatibagan and Gariahat, two shopping hubs in Calcutta where visitors are at the mercy of pavement-grabbing hawkers.

The police swung into action and started pushing back hawkers from roads into pavements after Mamata’s outburst. Several stalls were demolished. Three days later, on June 27, Mamata stalled the drive against hawkers and gave the vendors a month to self-regulate.

On Wednesday, a visit to three shopping hubs in the city — Gariahat, Hatibagan and the New Market area — threw up glaring violations. It was clear that self-regulation did not work in most places.

More than a third of the pavements remained occupied, portions of stalls encroached on roads and, in a corner of Gariahat, a concrete structure had been built
blocking the pavement completely.

The street vending rules, notified by the state government in 2018, define a street vendor as someone engaged in vending “from a temporary built-up structure or by moving from place to place”.

Shaktiman Ghosh, a hawker leader, admitted that hawkers’ stalls could not be made of bricks.

Several stretches of pavements in Gariahat had hawkers sitting along both sides, leaving only a narrow slice of the sidewalk for pedestrians. It was much less than two-thirds of the width of the pavement.

According to the street vending rules, hawkers can occupy only one-third of the width of a pavement and leave the rest free for pedestrians.

Shops selling crockery at the Gariahat Road-Hindustan Road intersection encroached on the roads.

Parts of Bidhan Sarani, in Hatibagan, were encroached by stalls. The stalls on pavements occupied more than two-thirds of the width.

“Has anyone ever looked at Hatibagan and seen its condition?” the chief minister had said on June 24.

In both Gariahat and Hatibagan, stained and torn sheets were still hanging at the back of many stalls. The KMC has started installing metal panels to guard the back of the stalls in Gariahat.

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

The only shopping hub where a noticeable change has happened in the past month is the New Market area. The hawkers have moved into the pavements along Humayun Place and Bertram Street. Earlier, they used to sit on the roads.

However, hawkers’ stalls can still be spotted on Lindsay Street.

On June 27, Mamata had set up a five-member committee that would give her a report on hawkers. Calcutta’s mayor Firhad Hakim, deputy mayor Atin Ghosh, mayoral council member Debashis Kumar and state ministers Aroop Biswas and Moloy Ghatak are its members.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) began a survey to count the number of hawkers in Gariahat, Hatibagan, the New Market area, Behala and in the Oberoi Grand Arcade. The survey has ended. A senior KMC official said a report has been submitted to Hakim.

“We have considered several parameters. The report pointed out stretches of pavements where hawkers are sitting on both sides. In the report we have also mentioned how many hawkers are there within 50ft of major intersections,” said the official.

The authorities have earlier considered the possibility of banning hawkers within 50ft of major intersections.