KMC ties up with KP to streamline hawkers at Grand Arcade

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will join hands with Kolkata Police and the hawker union to undertake a drive on Thursday to streamline the hawkers in front of Grand Arcade in Esplanade.

The administration is apparently leaving no stone unturned to ensure that hawkers at Grand Arcade sit with their wares only on one side of the footpath with effect from Friday so that pedestrians have adequate walking space. The decision was taken at a meeting of the town vending committee at KMC headquarters on Wednesday in presence of Member Mayor in Council (Parks and Gardens) Debasish Kumar who is also the chairman of the committee.

A survey by the committee has recently found 116 hawkers who need to be adjusted on one side of the footpath, leaving two third space for the pedestrians. Currently, vendors hawk on both sides of the arcade. As per the order of the judiciary, hawkers can sit occupying one third space in the footpath and should not encroach the main carriageway but the rules are being flouted at will in a number of places in Esplanade-New Market and its adjacent areas.

“The push back operation of the hawkers will be based on the survey conducted in the year 2015 and if more hawkers are found to be occupying the place, the town vending committee will hold talks with them so that they can be relocated to some other place. We are fighting to establish the rights of hawkers but we are in favour of lawful hawking as that would protect the hawkers from eviction,” Saktiman Ghosh, general secretary

of National Hawker Federation said.

The Grand Hotel has been hemmed in by hawkers on all four sides. There are hawkers on the pavement along Chowringhee Place; on Bertram Street and on Humayun Place, conceded a civic official.