Grand arcade: Exit Election Commission, enter hawkers
Saikat Ray | TNN | Feb 3, 2019, 06:26 IST
KOLKATA: The same old scene played out at The Oberoi Grand arcade on Saturday with hawkers taking up every inch of the portico they had vacated on Thursday ahead of the visit by a high-level Election Commission delegation.
On Saturday morning, the owner of a book store in the arcade was seen making a desperate attempt to convince a hawker to steer clear of his store. “The last two days came as a huge relief. I sold five times more books than I sell on other days. A section of hawkers blocks the entrance to my shop, thus preventing customers from entering it. It has been a daily routine for them,” he said.
The tale of an owner of a curio and antique shop was more poignant. “Even a decade ago, groups of foreigners would frequent my shop every day. The same picture had returned on Thursday and Friday when I got quite a large number of foreign buyers. However, my hopes were again dashed on Saturday as the chaos returned to haunt shop owners like me. I don’t know when we will get permanent relief from such anarchy,” he said.
Shoppers also expressed their frustration over the return of the hawkers. Lawyer Chandana Mitra, who read about the ban on hawking at the Grand arcade in TOI and decided to go shopping on Friday, was elated to see the arcade in its old glory. “I bought a pair of shoes from a renowned
store on Friday. Walking down the arcade was quite a pleasure. However, what I saw today while passing by the area in the afternoon was just the opposite. There is no respite from the hawker menace,” Mitra complained.
However, the hawkers had little time to address pedestrians’ woes. “We lost two days of business, which is not a matter of joke. Now we must put in extra work to compensate for the loss. We are never bothered about what others think of us,” said Sheikh Imtiyaz, a hawker of readymade garments. However, a hawkers’ union leader of New Market area conceded that they were under pressure from the civic and police administration to abide by basic hawking rules.
“We don’t support harassment of any shopper. If a hawker is found guilty, we will take disciplinary action,” another hawkers’ union leader said.
On Saturday morning, the owner of a book store in the arcade was seen making a desperate attempt to convince a hawker to steer clear of his store. “The last two days came as a huge relief. I sold five times more books than I sell on other days. A section of hawkers blocks the entrance to my shop, thus preventing customers from entering it. It has been a daily routine for them,” he said.
The tale of an owner of a curio and antique shop was more poignant. “Even a decade ago, groups of foreigners would frequent my shop every day. The same picture had returned on Thursday and Friday when I got quite a large number of foreign buyers. However, my hopes were again dashed on Saturday as the chaos returned to haunt shop owners like me. I don’t know when we will get permanent relief from such anarchy,” he said.
Shoppers also expressed their frustration over the return of the hawkers. Lawyer Chandana Mitra, who read about the ban on hawking at the Grand arcade in TOI and decided to go shopping on Friday, was elated to see the arcade in its old glory. “I bought a pair of shoes from a renowned
store on Friday. Walking down the arcade was quite a pleasure. However, what I saw today while passing by the area in the afternoon was just the opposite. There is no respite from the hawker menace,” Mitra complained.
However, the hawkers had little time to address pedestrians’ woes. “We lost two days of business, which is not a matter of joke. Now we must put in extra work to compensate for the loss. We are never bothered about what others think of us,” said Sheikh Imtiyaz, a hawker of readymade garments. However, a hawkers’ union leader of New Market area conceded that they were under pressure from the civic and police administration to abide by basic hawking rules.
“We don’t support harassment of any shopper. If a hawker is found guilty, we will take disciplinary action,” another hawkers’ union leader said.
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