Hawkers' demand

 

COOCH BEHAR, July 25: Cooch Behar district unit of Sangrami Hawkers' Union demanded hawkers' representation during all meetings over the footpath hawkers' problem in Cooch Behar. SHU leader Md Mintu Ahmed said the administration started a drive to evict hawkers from the footpaths from June in the name of beautification of the town. That drive turned into a conspiracy to snatch the livelihood of poor hawkers, he alleged.

 

The SHU leader opined that without representation of hawkers no meeting would be fruitful to solve the ongoing problem. He suggested the authorities concerned to follow the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's steps in this regard.

 

Today, the SHU submitted a memorandum to the district magistrate in Cooch Behar. In that memorandum they mentioned some demands aiming to solve the hawker-problem permanently.

 

Mr Ahmed said the civic body and the district administration were considering a plan to allow hawkers to continue their business through mobile vans. But certain businesses like hair-cutting saloons, repairing of rickshaws and bicycles, signboard making and painting, small eateries and tailoring shops cannot be run on such vans regularly. These type of hawkers is about sixty-percent. "It is not possible to consider anything leaving these helpless people beyond the purview of the proposal", he said.

 

In the SHU memorandum they demanded demarcation of one-third of the footpath to allow them to run their businesses and formation of a supervising committee with hawkers' representatives in it. They also demanded allowing the affected hawkers to continue their businesses from the places from where they were evicted. []