Ranchi, April 16: A majority of 2,000-odd hawkers voluntarily moved out of the capital's Main Road this morning without creating any ruckus, but threatened to launch a massive movement against the administration that, acting on a high court order, prohibited vending on the thoroughfare.
Hearing a PIL, Jharkhand High Court on April 6 had set a three-week deadline for the authorities to remove hawkers from the important artery.
In the wake of the court diktat, the Ranchi district administration then asked all hawkers to remove their stalls, kiosks and makeshift shops from Main Road by April 15 or face crackdown.
However, today, most of the vendors disappeared from the 3km stretch between Shaheed Chowk and over bridge on their own without police intervention.
The move yielded instant result as the drive through this perennially chaotic stretch was comparatively smoother.
Traffic SP Manoj Ratan Chothe, however, maintained that dedicated teams would launch crackdown from tomorrow to remove those who were yet to move out.
"It's good if vendors have moved out on their own without use of force. The HC has strictly banned vending on this stretch at the moment, and our job is to adhere to it. We will start a drive from tomorrow to identify other problem areas and encroachments, if any, to ensure smooth traffic flow," he added.
Chothe said the police had served notices to hawkers individually through respective police stations, apart from publishing a public order in local dailies.
Officials of Ranchi Footpath Dukandar Sangh said the union was actually buying time to plan a massive movement to protect their rights.
"We filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court last week, seeking stay on the high court order. The apex court had in the past said that no hawker could be removed from anywhere unless they were properly rehabilitated. But the HC is hell bent to remove us. Why can't HC crack the whip on the government and concerned departments which did nothing to create vending zones to rehabilitate us properly? Everywhere, it is only lower rung people like us who become easy targets. We will put up our fight soon against this," said an official.
