Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation is getting ready to not just evict encroachers from under the city’s flyovers and bridges but also from pavements alongside them.KMC executive engineers in the respective boroughs are preparing to launch drives to free the pavements of encroachment. “We have decided to clear the space under the city’s flyovers. At the same time, we need to make the pavements encroachment-free. We have asked the borough executive engineers to give prior notice to the hawkers who have encroached on the pavements so that they can shift their belongings in advance,” said a civic official.According to the KMC official, the civic body is empowered to free carriageways and pavements of encroachment . “It is within our jurisdiction to ensure that the pavements are made encroachment-free. The recent Supreme Court verdict has also categorically stated that the pedestrians should be given fair scope of walking on the encroachment-free pavements,” said the official.KMC has also decided to remove encroachment from all pavements in front of major municipal markets. The exercise will begin from New Market, and the drive will be conducted in all major markets. The KMC market department officials last week raised the issue of heavy encroachment in front of the city markets and said the civic body’s market department had a standing order of evicting all encroachers from 45 metres of a marketplace.“We will start the drive from pavements and carriageways across the city. We will keep special focus on the pavements along flyovers, road bridges and the major city markets. After taking note of the present encroachment near these pavements, we will decide where to send our team based on the priority,” said a KMC official.However, hawker unions have objected to such a civic move. Hawker Sangram Committee chief Saktiman Ghosh on Tuesday submitted a memorandum to the KMC authority requesting it to reconsider the move. “Whatever the KMC authorities have decided to do will go against the basic framework of the Supreme Court verdict and town vending committee rules. We will oppose any eviction drives without a proper rehabilitation package. We will of course tell the hawkers who have been occupying carriageways illegally to move out, but the hawkers who have been doing business, adhering to basic hawking rules, will need to be protected,” said Ghosh.
