Hawkers take over pedestrian channel in Grand Hotel zone

Kolkata: After gobbling up Bertram Street and Humayun Place, new hawkers have shifted focus to a portion of Jawaharlal Nehru Road (in front of Oberoi Grand) that has been barricaded by cops for pedestrian movement. The number of hawkers outside the heritage hotel is growing at a faster pace as new food hawkers take over the pedestrian channel every day.According to a traffic cop on duty near Humayun Place, the exercise to grab this barricaded road began slowly a month ago. "Only a dozen food vendors were seen vying for space. After an initial hide-and-seek game with the cops, the number of hawkers has multiplied. Thanks to an absence of vigil on the part of the cops from New Market police station, pedestrians have been left in the lurch," said the on-duty cop.During visits to the central Kolkata shopping hub in recent weeks, a TOI team found that most unauthorised hawkers had taken over half the roads. On both Bertram Street and Humayun Place, police ensured that the car parking space, which the unscrupulous hawkers have usurped, again cried to get freed for motorists and bikers.Taking advantage of a lapse in a joint drive by the KMC and the cops, some hawkers who were ousted started to reclaim portions of Bertram Street, Humayun Place and Hogg Street. Even the parking space that became clearly visible after the joint operation has been occupied by hawkers in the evening.Even hawker sangram committee chief Saktiman Ghosh expressed shock over the recent hawker aggression near Oberoi Grand. "It was a pedestrian channel that was created to ease pedestrian movement in a congested traffic zone. I have repeatedly said that though I stand for hawkers' rights, at the same time I have expressed my dissatisfaction with a section of hawkers gobbling up carriageways. I was really surprised to find that the hawkers are showing desperation to return to space from where they were evicted. We are not taking this lightly and may need to take timely and appropriate action," said Ghosh.A KMC official said efforts were being made to maintain a continuous vigil on the New Market hawking hub. "We will need to adhere to the Town Vending Committee order, and monitor the roads in and around New Market," said the official. However, the civic official made it clear that the KMC brass was not in favour of conducting raids on the hawkers till the polls are over. "Now is not the time to conduct a raid to clear the carriageways. But we are keeping a watch over the growing hawker encroachment in the New Market area and in front of Oberoi Grand. We are waiting for polls to be over to clear the carriageways," the official added.However, the traders of SS Hogg Market are not ready to take the cops and the KMC seriously. "Even after assurance from the top brass of the civic administration, the encroachment in and around has grown in recent months. If encroachment of this sort continues, we will be compelled to go for a bigger movement," said Ashok Gupta, president of the traders' body.
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