To free footpaths, KMC plans two 2 night shelters

Kolkata: Following the eviction of hawkers from several roads in the city, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), in a bid to free the footpaths of pavement dwellers, have decided to set up more night shelters where they can be shifted.

It was reportedly learnt that the civic body has decided to shift the pavement dwellers to its night shelters. Several persons are found sleeping on the pavements and under bridges in the city. Some of the areas identified are Park Circus, Sealdaha, Ballygunge, Behala, Gariahat etc. Some of them have even set up temporary settlements on the pavement. This, according to the civic body, also amounts to encroachment of footpaths. Presently, the civic body has around 12 night shelters where it plans to shift them before the Durga Puja festival in the city.

Further, plans are afoot to set up two more such shelters in North and South Kolkata. It was reportedly learnt that one will be set up in Tollygunge Gandhi colony and another at North Kolkata’s Muraripukur area. Both the shelters are expected to come up by September-end.

According to the civic body sources, earlier the footpaths were mostly occupied by rag pickers in the city but now several scrap dealers, during the night, are learnt to have been using the pavements for business in the garb of pavement dwellers. It has now become difficult for the civic body to draw a distinction. Last year, Mayor Firhad Hakim wrote to the Commissioner of Kolkata Police to carry out identity verification of ragpickers on city pavements and shift them to the urban shelters in the city.

Hakim had said that it is vital to check the identity of the ragpickers who have “hijacked” city pavements. “I will write to the police to check the identities of these people. Unidentified people with ill intention can cause a law and order problem. The police need to check their identity documents such as Aadhaar, voter ID, etc to also ensure whether outsiders are staying here illegally.” he said.

“We have already built several urban shelters to accommodate such pavement dwellers. In these shelters, all sorts of arrangements have been made including food and sanitary.

We earlier gave a list of these urban shelters in the city to the police. We will send them again,” he said.