Plastic sheets are back in hawkers’ stalls across the city despite a ban on their use.

In popular shopping hubs across the city such as Gariahat, Hatibagan and Esplanade, hawkers have put on plastic and tarpaulin sheets over and also at the back of their stalls.

The police had pulled down the plastic sheets across the city on Tuesday after chief minister Mamata Banerjee vented her anger at cops, politicians and officials for allowing indiscriminate encroachments of pavements and roads.

On Sunday, The Telegraph found plastic sheets in stalls at Gariahat, Esplanade and Hatibagan. Their numbers were fewer than before, though.

A hawker at Gariahat said their wares would be damaged in the rain if they did not put up plastic or tarpaulin sheets around the stalls.

In Gariahat, many of the stalls still had torn and stained pieces of cloth hanging at the back on Sunday. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had spoken about sheets hanging at the back of hawkers’ stalls in Gariahat, eyesores that have made the once beautiful Rashbehari Avenue look ugly.

“You have to create a system so that it looks well,” Mamata had said on Monday last week.

Debashis Kumar, a mayoral council member of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), said on Sunday that the civic body would start installing “back covers” in the stalls in Gariahat in about a fortnight.

“We have started the preparations. We hope to be able to start installing the back covers within a fortnight. This will start in Gariahat, where the hawkers have been allowed to build tin sheds over their stalls,” Kumar said.

A hawker in Garihat admitted that torn and stained sheets at the back of the stalls looked ugly but said their hands were tied in the absence of any direction from the KMC.

“We could have made designer back covers for our stalls but none of us knows whether the authorities would allow that to remain. They may demolish the covers made by us,” said the hawker, who did not want to be named

The street vending rules framed by the state government ban the use of plastic sheets and other flammable materials in stalls.

“Any structure with tarpaulin or any other inflammable article shall not be allowed,” says the West Bengal Urban Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Rules, 2018.

An officer at Gariahat police station said that since a survey to identify and count the number of hawkers has started, the police will refrain from taking any action until further orders. “We have asked the hawkers to follow rules, but we will not take any action immediately,” he said.