A few months ago, hawkers in the New Market area were forced to vacate roads and shift to pavements, and stay within a third of the width of the sidewalks.

They are now back to flouting rules, a two-day walk through the central Calcutta shopping hub revealed.

In the Oberoi Grand arcade, portions of the hawkers’ stalls have crossed the one-third line on the pavement.

Street vending rules say hawkers can set up stalls within one-third width of a footpath and the rest should be free for pedestrians.

The sticks fitted to the stalls to display garments were hanging outside the one-third line, shrinking the space for pedestrians.

On Humayun Place, hawkers are almost in the middle of the thoroughfare. The pavements along the road were also filled with vendors.

The display racks on pavements along Bertram Street were encroaching on the road, and on Lindsay Street, hawkers have set up stalls on the carriageway. On the pavements along both roads, the one-third rule is rampantly violated.

Portions of the pavement in the Grand arcade, where hawkers used to occupy nearly half the width, were recovered for pedestrians in December 2023 following a Calcutta High Court order.

Before the court order, pedestrians had barely 3ft of the 21ft-wide pavement for themselves. Police and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) swung into action and restricted the hawkers within a third of the pavement. Following the drive, Justice Amrita Sinha of Calcutta High Court asked the authorities to keep a “vigil” on the arcade.

“The KMC and New Market police station are directed to maintain strict vigil to ensure that the demarcation that has been made is strictly followed and the vendors do not encroach on the two-thirds portion of the pavement meant for pedestrians,” Justice Sinha had said.

This newspaper encountered a different state of affairs in the arcade on Monday and Tuesday.

The tables on which the traders display their items were still within one-third width of the pavement but the display racks, made of sticks and installed on the tables, occupied more space.

“This is a violation of the order of Calcutta High Court,” said Debashis Das, a hawker leader and a member of the town vending committee of Calcutta.

The vending committee has the power to penalise hawkers who do not follow rules. “Members of the vending committee have informed New Market police station and urged them to act against the errant hawkers,” he said.

An officer at New Market police station said the situation in the arcade had deteriorated during the festive season but the police have conducted a drive to enforce the street vending rules.

The rules, notified by the state government in 2018, state that hawkers should restrict their stalls to one-third width of a pavement and leave the rest for pedestrians. No stall can encroach on a road and tarpaulin sheets or flammable materials cannot be used to set up a stall.

These rules are routinely violated across Calcutta.

In June this year, Kolkata Police cleared Humayun Place of hawkers. All hawkers who used to sit on the road were asked to shift to the adjoining pavement.

On Tuesday, this newspaper saw that hawkers were back in the middle of Humayun Place, the road between the southern boundary of Oberoi Grand and New Empire and Lighthouse, once iconic theatres.

Multiple hawkers’ stalls had encroached on Lindsay Street, too. During the police action, all hawkers occupying Lindsay Street were removed.

On Bertram Street, where the police conducted a drive last week, tarpaulin sheets were found hanging on Monday.

Debashis Kumar, the mayoral council member of the KMC who is in charge of
hawker’s rehabilitation, said he would raise the matter before the town vending
committee.

“I will raise the issue at the next meeting of the town vending committee. The committee has to decide. I cannot decide on my own,” he said.

“We will conduct drives again. Everything will be streamlined in seven to 10 days,” the officer at New Market police station said.