New Mkt hawker-vs-hawker fight boils over, cops forced to step in
Times of India | 16 February 2025
123 Kolkata: Fresh trouble erupted in the New Market area on Saturday morning as groups of hawkers clashed on Bertram Street over the right to occupy the carriageway. The volatile situation left shoppers scared and traders incensed.
Though cops from New Market PS stepped in to restrain the warring factions and stop the situation from escalating further, the sixth such clash in the past two months in the heritage shopping zone left shopkeepers worried and shoppers on tenterhooks.
Around 11 am on Saturday, arguments broke out between hawkers doing business along the western wall of Karco Gate of the new complex of the heritage market and another set of hawkers who were attempting to grab the carriageway before them to sell their goods. The resistance and parrying degenerated into fisticuffs and continued for half an hour before the cops arrived. Though cops drove out the hawkers who were trying to grab the carriageway, a section returned to the spot in the late afternoon.
According to Sandhya Pal, a lawyer and a resident of Bhowanipore, she was about to enter New Market through Humayun Place when she noticed two groups of hawkers engaged in a brawl. "The clash was getting nasty, and I could not muster the courage to do shopping. I decided to return home," said Pal.
Another shopper, Anuradha Ghosh, who went to a cosmetics store, was advised to stay back at the market till the cops came and controlled the warring hawkers. "It was really frightening," said Ghosh.
This section of Bertram Street is reserved for parking cars but was usurped by hawkers for years till it was cleared last Aug after CM Mamata Banerjee asked the KMC bosses and Kolkata Police to clear encroachment of roads. During the drive that followed, one line of hawkers was allowed to stay along the market wall on the eastern flank of the road. Another set was rehabilitated on the pavement along the western flank. The stall sizes were also reduced to accommodate more numbers. But with up to five rows of hawkers, including floating ones, doing business prior to the drive, floating hawkers trickled back in the run-up to the festive season. Now a fresh wave of hawkers is attempting to grab the carriageway.
SS Hogg Market Traders' Association joint secretary Ashraf Ali criticised cops for "failing to control the situation".
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