KMC sends month’s notice to errant New Market hawkers: Move or else...

Kolkata: In the first major step to curb hawking around the heritage New Market area, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has issued eviction notices to hawkers in and around the Oberoi Grand Hotel, giving them one month to remove all unauthorised stalls and dalas from the area.The move has been welcomed by traders in the belt who have complained of rampant encroachment of pavements and even roads by hawkers. With hawkers taking over parking lots at Humayun Place and Bertram Street, affluent shoppers have long stopped visiting the market.In the notice, KMC has warned that all unauthorised dalas, temporary stalls and hawker structures and encroachments near Metro Esplanade station gate 6 (in front of Peerless Inn) and the Grand Hotel area will be removed within a month from the date of the notice. The notice is dated May 23."All persons concerned are directed to vacate and remove their materials, goods and structures voluntarily within the given period. After completion of the notice period, the authority will conduct a demolition/removal drive against all unauthorised occupations without any further notice. Any expenses incurred during the removal process may be recovered from the person/occupier concerned," the notice read.According to a civic official, at the last hawker vending committee meeting, it was decided that all unauthorised structures and dalas will be removed from the KMC headquarters area and the adjacent New Market zone. "Action against hawkers encroaching on the carriageways is long pending as the model code of conduct clamped before the assembly elections compelled us to postpone any anti-eviction drives. Now, we are free to conduct drives to free the New Market area of hawker encroachment," said the civic official. Sources at the KMC headquarters said the drive would begin from Grand Arcade and then move forward to Humayun Place, Bertram Street, Lindsay Street and Mirza Ghalib Street. "We don't want to evict hawkers who are conforming to the hawking rules. For those illegally doing business, notices will be given prior to their eviction," a KMC official said.The three rows of hawkers near Metro gate 6, as well as hawkers at the Grand Arcade, Bertram Street, Humayun Place and Chowringhee Place around the Grand Hotel, said they had no knowledge of the notice and were confident they would not be evicted given that many of them had switched allegiance to union leader Kali Khatik, who had migrated to BJP a few years ago.SS Hogg Market Traders Association president Ashok Gupta said the hawker situation had worsened since the elections, with multiple rows of hawkers occupying Humayun Place and Bertram Street. "We have already reached out to minister Dilip Ghosh and MLA Sajal Ghosh. We also intend to meet chief minister Suvendu Adhikari and minister Agnimitra Paul to draw their attention to the rampant illegal encroachment," he said.