A high-power committee has decided to constitute three zones in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation area to restrict the business of hawkers.
In a meeting convened on Friday, June 28, the committee decided to conduct a survey and earmark a hawking zone in the city where vendors can do their business as per the rules of the Municipal Corporation. The committee will set apart a partial hawking zone where the hawkers will be allowed to erect their stall for a stipulated time and there would be a ‘no-hawking’ zone where the vendors will be strictly prohibited to carry out their business,
Corporation sources said, the survey will be conducted within one month and a report will be submitted, based on which the zone classification will be done.
The civic body’s step comes after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s tough talk against encroachments on footpaths and roads in the towns and cities in the state, early this week. She had held a review meeting to deal with the issue of hawkers’ encroachment where Banerjee had alleged that civic amenities across the state have gone for a toss. She criticised party colleagues, MLAs, councillors, bureaucrats and police officers over several issues, including encroachments of footpaths and pathways.
After the review meet, Mamata Banerjee had set up the high power committee to find a solution towards getting rid of encroachments across West Bengal while also allowing hawkers to do business through restrictions.
Friday’s high-power committee meeting was attended by Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, West Bengal Power Minister Aroop Biswas, Law Minister Malay Ghatak, Principal Secretary of Urban Development Department Vinod Kumar, Commissioner of Kolkata Police Vineet Goyal, Additional Commissioner of Police Santosh Pandey, Mayor in Council and MLA Debashis Kumar, and Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh.
Quoting a proverb, CM Mamata had stated that the government will not take the bad name “for the actions of some individuals and municipalities.” In a bid to stop the illegal constructions, Banerjee advised exemplary punishment for offenders. “Ekta kak ke mere rastai jhuliye dao. Aar kono kak aar asbe na. (Kill a crow and hang on the street, no crow will come again),” she said. The CM also formed a committee comprising officials from the CID and vigilance department and other government officials to review the situation of illegal construction and land grabbing.
After Mamata Banerjee’s meeting, the police and the civic administration started an eviction drive across the state. As thousands of hawkers were evicted, many of them said they have been “sitting on the roads for more than 20 or 30 years and if we are evicted what will we eat?”
The chief minister held a meeting with the administration again on Thursday and announced to stall hawker eviction operations for one month. She said hawkers will be replaced accordingly after one month and no hawkers will be allowed in ‘no hawking zone’ and outside the rule of hawking of the state government.
The writer is an intern with The Indian Express.