Calcutta: The eviction drive against hawkers in Salt Lake may be a one-off because Bengal appears in no hurry to implement the central street vendors act that recommends hawking and non-hawking zones in every city and town.

The state government was supposed to notify a set of rules based on the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, within a year of it coming into force. More than three years later, the draft of the rules is still lying with the government's legal cell.

In August, Calcutta High Court had given the government 12 weeks to form a town vending committee to regulate roadside hawking in the city. ""This is our ultimate order. If the committee is not constituted in 12 weeks, the court will have to take coercive steps," the court said in response to a petition filed by advocate Debasish Banerjee.

The continued delay in regulation has allowed hawkers to snatch the last remaining pavements from pedestrians.

Metro had reported on Tuesday how a piece of a pavement can be bought in Gariahat for a price higher than that of commercial real estate. The stakes are similar in the other illegal hawking zones like New Market, Chowringhee, Burrabazar and Hatibagan. Hawkers pay their union a fee both for space and immunity from police action.

The 2014 central act states: "The appropriate government shall, within one year from the date of commencement of this act, by notification, make rules for carrying out the provisions of this Act."

The act makes the town vending committee the key authority in determining the rights of a hawker. The committee is supposed to survey and identify street vendors and issue certificates or licences. Nobody is to be allowed to do business on a pavement without this certificate.

The act states that pedestrians will have the right to move freely and use the roads without any impediments. The provision of space or area for street vending takes into account the civic facilities for appropriate use of identified spaces or areas as vending zones.

The plan for street vending, the law says, includes earmarking space for vending zones categorised into three segments - restriction-free-vending zones, restricted vending zones and no-vending zones.

In Calcutta, it is a free-for-all on the pavements. "There is nothing like a restricted vending zone here," said an officer at New Market police station. "Wherever space is available, a hawker can grab it."

Lindsay Street, Free School Street, SN Banerjee Road and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road have had their hawker sprawl grow manifold over the years.

In April, representatives of Sreeram Arcade, Firpo's and Treasure Island, among others, had complained to the mayor of Calcutta about the indiscriminate growth of hawking affecting their businesses.