The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation undertook yet another eviction drive on Tuesday afternoon. Two corporation trucks and a backhoe loader cleared pavements from near the Karunamoyee international bus terminus to beneath the elevated Metro corridor near City Centre.
The newly formed Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation has taken a tough stand against these hawkers who have taken over the pavements, forcing pedestrians to risk life and limb by walking on the carriageway alongside speeding cars and buses.
The Telegraph Salt Lake had reported on January 15 how the hawkers were back within days of the first round of eviction. The civic bosses, alerted by the article, sent a team to evict the hawkers again on Tuesday. About 30-odd hawkers were evicted in course of the drive.
“The civic workers took away my entire shop,” said P.N. Naik, a resident of Ultadanga who had set up a stall selling paan and cigarettes adjacent to the upcoming car shed of East West Metro opposite The Sonnet.
Sabyasachi Dutta, the mayor of the corporation, told The Telegraph Salt Lake that the drives would continue. “Salt Lake is in the race to be awarded Smart City status. We will be conducting regular anti-encroachment drives to keep the city clean and hawker-free,” said Dutta.
Dutta also promised that hawkers near City Centre, Karunamoyee and other parts of the township would be evicted in phases.
“We cannot give them a free run. The drives will not only keep a check on existing hawkers but also dissuade new ones from setting up stalls. However, the hawker problem cannot be solved overnight and we need some time to completely rein them in,” added Dutta.
The eviction drive was the third one conducted within a span of 16 days.
A section of the hawker union that is affiliated to the Trinamul Congress is unhappy about the state of affairs.
An assistant secretary of the union affiliated to INTTUC, who did not wish to be named, alleged that the hawkers were targeted because they owed allegiance to Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose. “The mayor is selectively targeting hawkers who belong to our camp. This is an outrage,” he said.
However, a temporary structure bearing the logo of Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC) under the under-construction Metro station on the flank of the road that leads from Mayukh Bhavan to Karunamoyee was left untouched.
Residents are a happy lot. Several passersby on Tuesday stopped and looked in awe as the backhoe loader and the workers cleared the area near Karunamoyee.
“Of late we had forgotten that the administration is capable of undertaking such drives. The hawkers not only encroach pavements and litter the area, of late they were also setting up stalls on the road,” said Satyabrata Choudhury, an engineer who stays in ED Block.
