The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has identified 181 hawkers who own more than one stall encroaching on a pavement in a survey that is not even half complete.

More such hawkers could be identified once the survey is completed across Calcutta.

These 181 hawkers were identified in a survey covering Gariahat, the New Market area, Hatibagan, the Oberoi Grand Arcade and a small stretch of Behala.

A report of the survey was placed at the meeting of Calcutta’s town vending committee on Tuesday.

“We have found 181 hawkers with more than one stall on the pavement. This count is only for the shopping hubs of Hatibagan, New Market, Oberoi Grand Arcade, Gariahat and a small stretch of Behala,” said Debashis Kumar, the mayoral council member of KMC who is also the co-chairperson of the city’s town vending committee.

The vending committee is empowered by the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, to regulate hawkers and ensure their livelihood is not affected.

The first phase of the survey started after chief minister Mamata Banerjee voiced her anger at how public spaces were being encroached on in a meeting at Nabanna in June.

The second phase of the survey, which started a few days ago, is being done on pavements along SP Mookerjee Road, Asutosh Mookerjee Road, Chandni Chowk, Behala, Sealdah and College Street.

Kumar said they had trained nearly 700 KMC employees to conduct the survey. “We have created 112 teams of six members who will survey the 16 boroughs. They will visit all roads in all the wards where hawkers have stalls,” he said.

The survey across Calcutta is expected to be completed in a fortnight.

At the June meeting, the chief minister sought a count of the number of hawkers in the state.

Kumar said once the survey across Calcutta ends, the findings will be sent to mayor Firhad Hakim.

Hakim is part of a five-member committee that Mamata announced to regulate hawkers. Hakim, Kumar, deputy mayor Atin Ghosh and state ministers Aroop Biswas and Moloy Ghatak are the others on the committee.

A KMC official said a report of the first phase had been submitted to the
mayor.

The survey collected basic information like names of hawkers, the location of the stall and also linked it with their Aadhaar numbers.

What the government is going to do with the findings is not known yet.