Kolkata: Guard rails have been installed in front of gate 15 and 18 of New Market, to pacify the traders who on March 6 threatened to call a token strike, to express their anger over the assault on three stall workers by a section of hawkers.According to a New Market trader, unlike other gates, the entry and exits of gate 15 and 18 remained heavily encroached by hawkers, which compelled shoppers to avoid these gates. It was in front of gate 18 that, on March 5, trouble broke out, and the traders immediately protested by forming a human chain and blocking Bertram Street.Uday Sahoo, general secretary of SS Hogg Market Traders Association, said, “The traders at New Market will launch a stir after Eid to press for the demands for removal of hawker encroachment from carriageways around the Grade I heritage structure. The traders plan to give a call for a token strike and gherao New Market PS, if needed.” Irked by the inaction of the KMC market department despite memorandums, meetings and pleas, shopkeepers on Friday assembled at the Gol Ghar, marched to the office of the market superintendent, and then escorted him to the spot where trouble erupted. On Monday, the traders’ association sent a letter to the municipal commissioner and DC (central) Indira Mukherjee, requesting them to take steps to make carriageways like Bertram Street, Humayun Place, Linday Street and Corporation Street encroachment-free. “We want our voice to reach the Mayor. We urge him to step outside and look at Bertram Street. All the market entrances are encroached. Hemmed in by hawkers, business has taken a hit. And now they are assaulting shopkeepers who have been doing business for generations,” fumed Ashraf Ali, joint secretary of the traders’ association.Federation of Traders Organisation general secretary and a member of TVC, Taraknath Trivedi, said, “We have kept a watchful eye on the hawker-trader conflict. I will request the Town Vending Committee to take up the issue and do the needful.” According to Sushil Poddar, president of Confederation of West Bengal Traders Organisation, the trader-hawker conflict in and around New Market would be taken up to the highest level of the state administration to resolve the crisis.
