Kolkata: After five hawkers were detained and their merchandise worth thousands of rupees confiscated, New Market Police lodged an FIR against these vendors for illegally occupying Lindsay Street and Bertram Street. The detention comes as a part of a pre-Durga Puja clean-up drive. The hawkers were detained during the anti-encroachment drive conducted between Thursday and Saturday. Md Jamshed Alam (31) and Md Yasaien (63), both residents of Giridih, Jharkhand, were detained on Lindsay Street along with Md Mustak Alam (47) of Ekbalpore, Kolkata. In a related operation on Bertram Street around 1.15 pm on Thursday, police detained Krishna Yadav (55) and Shiv Shankar Yadav (33). The vendors were charged for causing obstruction in public ways. This may lead to heavy fines up to Rs 5,000, said legal experts. A senior police officer from Lalbazar, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that while no special drives against established vendors have been planned for next week, the pushback will continue even as the department remains open to dialogue with traders. “We are addressing specific complaints of new encroachments that are disrupting pedestrian and vehicular movement,” the official stated.Sources within the central division suggested that political tensions between rival hawker groups triggered the police action. “Competing factions are encouraging new vendors to establish stalls to bolster their support base, creating additional congestion in an already crowded marketplace,” said a police source familiar with the matter.Cops, though, acknowledged limitations of their intervention, noting that most offenders secure immediate bail as the violation is considered a minor offence. “The current fine of Rs 5,000 has proven ineffective, given the substantial daily earnings of the vendors,” said an officer. He emphasized that a lasting solution would require political consensus.
