On Thursday, Mamata Banerjee convened a meeting on hawker and illegal encroachment evictions with administrations and all officers of Kolkata Police, where she heard hawkers’ concerns.
“We have to first identify where we can make hawker zones,” the CM said adding that Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim along with MLAs Atin Ghosh, Debabrata Majumdar and Debashish Kumar would “identify areas for hawker zones” within the next month, to be “divided among the hawkers.”
“If necessary, take three months time (to make the zones) and then make it systematic,” she said.
Banerjee also said that no hawker would sit with more than one establishment and no one can stack materials on footpaths.
She, however, remained stern on illegal parking on footpaths, saying, “The police and councillors who allow illegal parking and hawkers will be arrested irrespective of their party colour.”
Police and the administration started a mass hawker eviction drive across the state on Tuesday after the CM at a review meeting on Monday criticised party colleagues, MLAs, councillors, bureaucrats and police officers over several issues, including encroachments of footpaths and pathways.
Accusing them of allowing illegal construction, she said that her government “will not take the bad name for the actions of some individuals and municipalities.”
In a bid to stop illegal constructions, Banerjee had advised harsh punishment. “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 had also formed a committee to review the situation of illegal construction and land grabbing.
Since Monday, thousands of hawkers have been evicted.
Almost 400 of Kolkata’s congested footpaths have been cleared of encroachments in the past three days. A citywide eviction drive by police saw the removal of “illegal” sheds, stalls, and merchandise that had dominated the walkways.
On Wednesday, bulldozers were used in areas like Gariahat, shopping hub Hati Bagan, IT hub Salt Lake , Pragati Maidan, Anandapur, Central Avenue and others — hawkers were evicted in at least eight places under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s jurisdiction. As per sources, around 200 temporary stalls were removed in Hati Bagan and Bagbazar alone.
While many residents welcomed the return of “usable” pavements, there were also concerns about the livelihood of the displaced hawkers.
Raja Gopal, a hawker near Rathtala in Dunlop who has been selling goods on a footpath for a decade, expressed his feeling of uncertainty about the future. “Police told us to leave this morning…We don’t know what will happen. I think..things will get back to normal after some time,” he said.
Gopal feels that a designated vending zone and a proper hawker identification system should be installed by the government so that hawkers “don’t have to encroach” footpaths.
Vishal Kaushik, a young IT sales professional, said, “Only time will tell if this eviction drive is a temporary fix or a permanent step. For now, I am enjoying the newfound ease in the New Market area.”
Earlier, Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal had said the drive would continue to make footpaths “encroachment free” across the city.
Kolkata alone has 2 lakhs 75 thousand hawkers, as per the Hawkers’ Association.
Many hawkers, however, complained that they have been sitting on the roads for more than 20to 30 years, and asked what they would eat if they were evicted. It was after this that the Chief Minister decided to meet with the administration again on Thursday.