Tin shades like the ones built over hawkers’ stalls on footpaths in Gariahat cannot be built around New Market because there are no footpaths there, mayor Firhad Hakim said on Friday.
Hakim admitted that hawkers sit on the “blacktop” (road) in the New Market area and it is a problem.
Traders from New Market met officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Friday last week and complained that hawkers around the 149-year-old market were not following any hawking rules framed by the state government.
The hawkers sit on roads with their wares in violation of rules, a trader said.
“There is no footpath around New Market. Hawkers sit on the blacktop. We are not being able to build the tin shades,” Hakim said. “Police must look into this.”
Hawking rules framed by the state government have set some basic conditions for those who sell their wares on pavements: hawkers must leave two-thirds of the width of pavements free for pedestrians, they should not use plastic sheets because those are flammable and they cannot occupy any portion of a road.
Around New Market, hawkers can be found sitting on roads, including Humayun’s Place, Bertram Street and Lindsay Street.
On Humayun’s Place, hawkers have occupied the footpath and also encroached on a portion of the road. The portion demarcated for parking cars has been taken over by hawkers and cars are parked near the middle of the road.
On Bertram Street, too, hawkers sit in two or more rows, taking up nearly the half the width of the road.
Traders from New Market have also alleged that hawkers on Bertram Street cover their wares with large plastic sheets and tie these sheets to the walls of the market before leaving at night.
They fear that the market will be up in flames if any of the stalls catches fire.
A fire at a hawker’s stall in Gariahat in 2019 had spread to a building and gutted large portions of it. The residents had alleged that the fire spread to the building through plastic sheets.
Hakim said many of the hawkers in the New Market area are “floating” traders who set up stalls only during festivals.
Frequent visitors to the shopping hubs, however, said there was hardly any space on pavements and a large portion of some of the roads around New Market remain occupied by hawkers around the year.
