‘Turf war’ pushes hawkers to middle of JL Nehru Rd

Kolkata: Food vendors with carts selling roasted corns or bhutta, jhalmuri, dal pakoda, green coconut, masala chana and ice-creams lined up in the middle of JL Nehru Road in front of the Oberoi Grand on Tuesday evening. This left the extreme left lane on the south-bound flank free while occupying a portion of the second lane.Why the vendors acted in the manner they did seemed mystifying until they disclosed that they were driven away by hawkers selling apparel at the Grand Arcade walkway when they tried to set up the carts along the edge of the road next to the pavement.
"The hawkers use the extreme left lane for goods vehicles that come to replenish stocks of hawkers that operate in the Grand Arcade. They will not let us do business there. In the past two days, the police drove us away. But we still return as business is brisk given the high footfall," said an ice-cream vendor.With the Grand Hotel shut for two years as it undergoes a major upgrade, even the section of Chowringhee before the hotel entry and exit was occupied by the vendors. "When vehicles arrive with construction material, the vendors make way and return thereafter," said a security guard posted at the hotel entrance.A hawker union leader and a member of the Town-Vending Committee, Saktiman Ghosh, conceded that though they were fighting to establish the rights of hawkers, he was in favour of lawful hawking, as that would go a long way to protect the hawkers from eviction. "If need be, we may identify hawkers who are flouting rules and thereafter streamline hawking in the greater interests of those who are abiding by rules," said Mondal.While the focus is currently on the Arcade, the Grand Hotel was hemmed in by hawkers on all four sides. There were hawkers on the pavement along Chowringhee Place abutting the northern wall of the hotel, on Bertram Street abutting its eastern wall, and on Humayun Place abutting its southern boundary, conceded a civic official.The civic brass alerted cops about a spurt in the number of hawkers around the KMC headquarters and asked them to keep a constant vigil on the new hawkers and take timely action for their eviction. "We alerted New Market police station cops and asked them to conduct rounds every evening as fresh hawkers are taking over the pedestrian lane," the civic official, who is a Town Vending Committee member, said.