The hawkers who have stalls and shacks around the Jyotinagar market area in New Town have refused to dismantle the structures until all of them are allocated stalls in a temporary market that is being set up by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA).
According to a senior NKDA official, they had conducted a survey and prepared a list of 80 hawkers who had been operating out of shacks and stalls in Jyotinagar for the past few years.
The hawkers whose names featured on the NKDA list have already been allocated stalls in the temporary market.
“However now the hawkers’ representatives have submitted a fresh list of 130 names,” said the official.
The number of hawkers has nearly doubled, the NKDA official said.
According to him it would be an uphill task for the NKDA to accommodate so many hawkers in a short time.
A large part of Jyotinagar market on the fringes of New Town comprises shacks set up on stilts sunk in the bed of the Bagjola canal.
These hampers the flow of the canal.
Most stalls are made out of flammable materials like wood, plywood and bamboo poles and all the stalls encroach not only on the canal bank and pavements but also the canal itself impeding the natural gradient and in effect the water flow.
To find a solution to this problem, NKDA officials met representatives of the hawkers earlier this week.
They were accompanied by at least two councillors of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, a senior NKDA official said.
“The hawkers’ representatives told us that all of them want stalls and rehabilitation at a temporary market. They have clearly stated that they will continue to agitate and not budge an inch till their demands are met,” said the official.
Tapas Chatterjee, the MLA of Rajarhat-New Town, said that he was aware of the meeting, his representatives attended it.
“We will provide NKDA with a fresh list of hawkers and will also help them in scouting for places where they can be rehabilitated. I have made a request that nobody should get evicted and no drive should take place until the time the hawkers are rehabilitated,” Chatterjee told The Telegraph.
Last month, two days before Christmas, the hawkers had first fought it out among themselves over the allocation of stalls and later attacked an NKDA team that went to clear the encroachments to make way for the laying of water pipelines that will
cater to a sewerage treatment plant being set up in the locality.
The group had also allegedly attacked a couple of police teams who had responded to calls for help made by the NKDA team.
Several NKDA officials and at least one civic police volunteer were injured. The police have failed to make any arrests after the incident.
c“We are trying to track down those who were involved,” a senior officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate said.
