Durga Puja breather for New Market hawkers
Times of India | 17 September 2025At a Town Vending Committee meeting held at the KMC headquarters on Tuesday, it was informally decided that the committee would soften its stance on a fresh drive to remove hawkers from the carriageways ahead of Durga Puja. However, the committee members unanimously decided to conduct a fresh drive in the first week of October after Vijay Dashami, which marks the end of the five-day festival. At the same time, the TVC meeting conducted hearings for two hawkers who were forcibly occupying a lion's share of a College Street pavement in front of Calcutta Medical College Hospital.
At the outset of the meeting, the Hawker Sangram Committee chief and a TVC member, Saktiman Ghosh, alleged that hawkers were being allowed to grab carriageways for want of a vigil by the cops. Ghosh reportedly showed photographs that proved his point. "The effects of a joint drive, way back in June, were systematically made futile by the cops who, even a month ago, were seen keeping a watch on the encroachment scenario," said Ghosh.
Though some TVC members conceded that the cops needed to be more vigilant, they proposed in the presence of the committee chairman and the municipal commissioner, Dhaval Jain, that some amount of leniency should be shown to the hawkers ahead of puja days.
During a visit to the central Kolkata shopping hub on Tuesday, a TOI team found that most unauthorised hawkers had taken over half the carriageways to set up their stalls. Be it Bertram Street or Humayun Place, vendors were displaying their fares in the middle of the road. On both locations police had ensured that the car parking space usurped by hawkerswas again freed up for motorists and bikers. The scene was completely different on Tuesday as hawkers had gobbled up the parking space too.
A KMC official said that along with police, efforts were being made to maintain a continuous vigil on the New Market hawking hub.
