Hawkers did not return on Thursday to the stretches from where they had been evicted over the previous two days.

Humayun Place in the New Market area, a stretch outside the Alipore zoo, a stretch of Diamond Harbour Road in Behala were still free of hawkers.

A leader of the Hawker Sangram Committee said it was not yet clear whether the evicted hawkers could come back immediately.

During the meeting at Nabanna on Thursday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked the police to find out the details of those who were evicted. “If they are needy people, we will allow them to set up stalls. The police can find this out,” she said.

Humayun Place in the New Market area which was cleared of hawkers sitting on the road within an hour on Wednesday evening remained free of hawkers even on Thursday.

It was a struggle to walk down the street earlier, but on Thursday the street was calm and wide without hawkers shouting down the neck.

The canal bank beside PC Chandra Garden off EM Bypass was lined with the remnants of shacks and stalls razed on Wednesday.

Several men and women were seen loading bamboo shafts and portions of plastic sheets and pedalling them away. Not a single plastic roofed shop had sprung up in the cleared space.

“The stall owners have been asked not to return here. They pose a risk to their customers as vehicles drive past them on Basanti Highway,” an officer of Anandapur police station, who was in the area, said. Several policemen had been pointed to ensure that no shops reopened on Thursday.

The gate of the Apollo Multispecialty Hospital was visible from the Bypass.

Earlier, a cluster of dingy stalls made out of black plastic sheets and bamboo poles would block the view.

On Wednesday, bulldozers had razed 20-odd stalls that occupied a part of the service road along the boundary wall of the Apollo Multispecialty Hospital.

Vehicles could move freely along the service lane in front that leads to the Subhas Sarovar on one end and the Bengal Chemicals traffic intersection on the Bypass. A group of people were seen sitting on a couple of benches under a couple of umbrellas.

“We used to run food stalls here. We are sitting here as we have nothing else to do,” said Dipankar Jana who lives in Duttabad across the Bypass.

A new iron fencing had been already set up on a part of the pavement behind Coal Bhavan in New Town’s AF Block on Thursday.

A large eviction team from the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) and police had deployed bulldozers to raze

Eleven stalls that had taken over the entire pavement, rendering it useless for the past several years.

The bicycle lane in front that used to be lined with chairs and benches of tea and food stalls was also free from encroachments.

On Thursday not a single shack was spotted in the area.

Office goers and residents were seen walking and standing on the pavement.

Nilayan Chakraborty who stays in nearby AE Block stopped his car to take a look.

“It is hard to believe that this area looks like this now,” said Chakraborty.

The pavement infrastructure of the Technopolis building also sported a clean look as the shabby plastic roofed stalls were cleared.

None of the hawkers returned on Thursday in the place that had around 40 odd shacks, comprising mostly food stalls.

A stretch of the road outside Alipore Zoo also remained empty of hawkers.

Some 50 stalls that stood on either side of the gates of the zoo, opposite Taj Bengal, were removed on Wednesday
afternoon.

Mayor Firhad Hakim said on Thursday evening that they were not evicting hawkers but only demolished the stalls that had been set up illegally.

“Those who have stalls on pavements and are adhering to rules have not been touched. The stalls that were demolished were set up in public spaces illegally,” Hakim said.