Hawkers must vacate pavements within 45 metres of municipal markets such as New Market, Gariahat and Hatibagan, and more roads should be declared “no-vending zones”, senior Kolkata Municipal Corporation officials told hawker representatives at a meeting of the city’s town vending committee on Saturday.
The issues were raised at the first meeting of Calcutta’s town vending committee at the KMC headquarters since the BJP government assumed office in the state, amid concerns that the new regime could crack down on hawkers.
The town vending committee is empowered under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 to regulate street vending while safeguarding hawkers’ livelihoods.
Municipal commissioner Smita Pandey chaired Saturday’s meeting.
The municipal commissioner heads the town vending committee, which includes representatives of the police, traders and hawkers.
“KMC officials told us about a law that prohibits hawkers from setting up stalls within 45 metres of any municipal market. If implemented, it would bar hawkers from operating within 45 metres of New Market, Gariahat Market and several other markets across the city,” said Debashis Das, a hawker representative on the committee.
Hawker representatives opposed the proposal, arguing that the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 would override any conflicting law.
“We told KMC officials that the 2014 Act supersedes any other law. They then proposed rehabilitating hawkers operating within 45 metres of municipal markets, but we insisted any alternative site must not affect their earnings,” said Shaktiman Ghosh, a leader of the Hawker Sangram Committee and a member of the Town Vending Committee.
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari has asserted that pavements belong to pedestrians and should be kept free of encroachments. He urged hawkers to shift to vacant markets and other designated spaces.
“People have a right to walk on pavements. No one has the right to encroach on a pavement. The people have elected me; I am accountable to the people,” Suvendu said on June 12.
Since the BJP came to power, hawkers have been evicted from several railway platforms and other railway land in drives carried out jointly by the Railway Protection Force, state police and central forces.
Sources present in the meeting said the KMC officials also spoke about the need to review the existing list of “no-vending zones”, roads where hawkers will not be allowed to set up stalls.
“The review will see the names of roads in the list and also examine other roads that can be included on this list,” said an official.
The present list names 1,892 roads.
Hawkers did not oppose the proposal but said any survey to identify additional no-vending zones should be conducted in the presence of their representatives.
A KMC official said borough-level teams would carry out the survey.
The committee is scheduled to meet again in a fortnight, sources said.