After eviction drive, Sec V hawkers change addresses
Times of India | 4 July 2024
Kolkata: Hawkers evicted from multiple illegal hawking zones in Salt Lake Sector V following the chief minister’s prod have settled on empty walkways and footpaths outside other offices in the tech township where there were no hawkers even a week ago.
According to a complaint intimated by officials at World Trade Center at BP Block in Sector V, there were no hawkers outside the office premises and the footpaths were free for pedestrians before June 26.However, two days after CM Mamata Banerjee asked authorities to remove encroachments from Sector V and rest of the city, the pavements became the new address for a set of hawkers.
“On June 26, suddenly several hawkers have illegally and wrongfully encroached the footpath in front of our proposed project and have also encroached the entrance and exit gates of the said project. As per our information, the said hawkers were vacated from some nearby place and now they are trying to illegally encroach in front of our project… Considering the prestigious value of the project, kindly take necessary actions at earliest,” one of the project officials wrote to Electronic Complex police station demanding their intervention.
The letter was written last week but when TOI visited the area two days ago, there were 42 make-shift hawking stalls – mostly selling food, snacks, cut fruits, tea and cigarettes – outside the under-construction site.
“Before June 24 we had our business on street number 9 but after the CM’s instruction, the local vending committee asked us to vacate the place and suggested we sit here. We are just following instructions of our leaders,” said Biswajit Mondal, who was selling dosa and idli.
Bimal Sardar, a hawker union leader said the hawkers have been shifted as part of a temporary arrangement.
Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority officials said as per instructions, they are not evicting any hawker force at this moment and are trying to find out places where small food courts can be set up for rehabilitating such hawkers. “A fresh survey is also underway to come up with the exact number of hawkers doing business in Sector V,” said a senior NDITA official.