According to a KMC source, the civic brass decided to draw the demarcation lines following complaints from several traders and residents from the city’s major hawking hubs. “We have been receiving scores of complaints from hawking hubs like New Market, Hatibagan, Rashbehari Avenue, Chandni Chowk, Burrabazar, Sealdah from traders who want to get rid of the rampant encroachment, residents from College Street, BB Ganguli Street, Bhowanipore, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Road, Jadavpur and some other places have been accusing hawkers of swallowing the space near their residential houses. We have decided to carry on with the demarcation exercise in the hawkers’ centres across the city to streamline rampant hawking,” said a KMC official who is also a member of the town vending committee. Some residents from Rashbehari Avenue (close to Gariahat market) have also sought help in removing hawkers from the entrances to their houses, conceded a KMC market department official.
Reacting to the civic body’s demarcation plan, the secretary of Shyambazar-Hatibagan Hawkers’ Association, Prasenjit Dey said, “The Town Vending Committee members informed us that the civic body will draw yellow line at Hatibagan market to demarcate one-third pavement space for hawking zone. We don’t know till now when the yellow line will be drawn. We have already told the hawkers to fall in the yellow line when it is drawn. We request the TVC members to ensure that no hawker is evicted from this space.”
Bablu Das, a hawker who sells footwear near a mall at Hatibagan, said, “Before Puja last year, the civic body had drawn a yellow line that faded out in the past few months. If the civic body makes it mandatory to do business within the yellow line this time, many of us will have to cut short the size of our stalls.”
Shyamal Jana, a hawker at College Street near Calcutta University said, “Whatever is done, we will have to obey the order of the civic administration.”