Hawkers overrun a footpath on Brabourne Road. (Bishwarup Dutta)

Administrative inaction that has allowed transporters to spew poison into the air we breathe is at work again to let hawkers rule the pavements we are meant to walk on.

Even a high court deadline on hawkers has failed to rouse the authorities, with the civic body and police blaming their lack of action on political compulsions.

The division bench of Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice B. Somadder had on October 23 set a fortnight’s deadline to the government to file a report on the steps it had taken to remove hawkers from the pavements of eight arteries in the central business district.

With just three days to go for the deadline, mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya couldn’t care less. “A hawker eviction drive cannot be launched without an all-party consensus,” he said on Wednesday. How and when that will happen is anybody’s guess.

And what role could the police play to restore the citizen’s right to pavements? Nothing much, judging by deputy commissioner (traffic) Dilip Bandopadhyay’s comment that the force had “not received any intimation from any quarter on this issue yet”.

Several senior officers who did not wish to be named said the force had been saddled with the impossible task of keeping both the court and the hawkers happy. “The hawkers are backed by a strong political lobby. Any hasty action or use of force will spell trouble. At the same time we can’t be seen violating the court order,” said an officer in a fix.

Mayor Bhattacharyya, the custodian of the city’s footpaths, refused to specify the civic body’s plan of action.

“We have conveyed our stand to the government, which will table a report in the high court when the case will be heard again,” he said.

Subhash Dutta, who had filed a petition in the high court in 2003 seeking an order for the removal of hawkers from pavements and thoroughfares, said political patronage had made the hawkers immune to even judicial intervention. “Does anyone expect anything new in the status report? The government has been saying the same things in the court for the past three years,” he added.

The number of hawkers on the city’s pavements and roads total more than 2,50,000. The eight thoroughfares under the court scanner are Brabourne Road, KK Tagore Street, Kalakar Street, NS Road, Strand Road, Rabindra Sarani, Mahatma Gandhi Road and AJC Bose Road.