Several hawkers are back near the animal resources department (ARD) building in Salt Lake that was cleared of hawkers on June 27.

At least 30 pavement-grabbing stalls had been razed by eviction teams of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and police.

On Sunday, The Telegraph saw that at least a dozen stalls — selling vegetables, grocery items and used furniture and pice hotels — were back.

The stalls have not put up plastic sheets to serve as roofs but have replaced them with large garden umbrellas.

This newspaper reported last Sunday that hawkers were making a comeback and were setting stalls on pavements again rendering them useless for pedestrians. This area, however, was free of hawkers then.

Minu Das Chakraborty, the councillor of Ward 37, said she was aware that the hawkers were back and had repeatedly asked them not to block the pavements.

“I have visited the spot and had personally asked the hawkers not to set their stalls here. They did not listen. They told me that they have no other way to earn their livelihood,” said Chakraborty.

Asked why no eviction drives are being carried out, Chakraborty, who is also the chairman of Borough No. VI, said chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said on June 27 that eviction drives would be put on hold for a month.

“We cannot defy her directive,” said Chakraborty.

On Sunday, Protima Biswas who runs a pice hotel on the pavement adjacent to KB Block, a stone’s throw away from the animal resources department (ARD) building in LB Block, said she was the sole earning member of her family.

Biswas said she returned to her old spot on Friday as she had no other option.

“My son is in school. We are a family of five. I don’t know what else to do,” said Biswas, who stays in Sukantanagar.

Around 50m away from Biswas’s hotel Suman Jana has reopened his stall that sells tea, biscuits and snacks.

Jana, also a Sukantanagar resident, said his stall was there for the past 18 years.

Another hawker Kamal Adhikary, who is also the secretary of the Salt Lake No.16 Tank Bazaar Kalyan Samity, said all the hawkers along the stretch were planning to come back.

On June 27, eviction teams had used bulldozers to raze several pavement-grabbing stalls in a few places of the township.

Bidhannnagar MLA Sujit Bose said the BMC should ensure that the hawkers did not reclaim the pavements.

“We are trying to find a space where these hawkers can be rehabilitated. They must ensure that the hawkers don’t occupy the entire pavement and space is left for pedestrians to walk. A survey is already on to estimate the number of hawkers in Salt Lake,” said Bose.