West Bengal: Permanent settlements replace plastic cover

KOLKATA: Some 225 years after Lord Cornwallis ushered in the landed class system by introducing the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, an agreement between the East India Company and Bengali landlords to fix revenues to be raised from land, a section of hawkers in Kolkata are scripting a new permanent settlement on the pavements of footpath as they go about turning their temporary stalls strung together by bamboo poles and plastic sheets into permanent shops with pre-fabricated iron structures with corrugated tin roof.

Hawkers at Hatibagan have already begun replacing the ramshackle structures with sturdy pre-fabricated steel bars and corrugated tin sheets after Kolkata Municipal Corporation and police asked hawker unions across the city to remove the ugly plastic sheets that are both an eyesore and a safety threat. Hawker stalls with plastic sheets contributed in fanning fires in at least two recent incidents, the first at Bagri Market in Canning Street and the second at Gariahat’s Gurudas Mansion.

Following the second fire, mayor Firhad Hakim had asked unions to ensure that all plastic sheets were taken off from hawking hubs like Gariahat, New Market, Canning Steet, Burrabazar and Hatibagan. Teh mayor also met city police commissioner Anuj Sharma to seek support for drives to remove inflammable plastic sheets from stalls. Last week, KMC market department officials and police seized tonnes of plastic sheets from Gariahat, Hatibagan and New Market. But they were back when unseasonal rains lashed the city earlier this week, leading to Hakim issuing a warning.

Responding to it, hawkers situated near Darpana Cinema in Hatibagan invested in pre-fabricated steel frames. Corrugated tin sheets are being fixed on the steel frame of the stall. Abhishek Saha, who sells bedsheets, said the new stalls would be sturdy and weather resistant while addressing the mayor’s concern as they were non-flammable. He though admitted it was a more permanent structure but pointed out hawker stalls were anyway a permanent feature on Kolkata’s pavements.

“We have set up this structure to protect our wares from rain. If plastic has been banned, we have to use alternative material to protect our goods from bad weather,” Saha said.

Raju Shaw, another hawker in the belt, said the new stalls would be aesthetically better and also less of a hazard. While only a section of hawkers have moved to the prefab steel structure, more are expected to follow suit even if it means heavy capital investment.

At the other major hawking zones, the steel structure hasn’t gained ground yet. Though the hawker’s union at Gariahat was the first to moot the idea. It had received support from a section of architects who felt the city’s pavements needed to be tidied up.

In Gariahat, some have removed plastic sheets and set up garden umbrellas instead. But a majority of the 2,500 hawkers still continue to do business under the cover of plastic sheets. Debraj Ghosh, the hawker union leader at Gariahat, said the plastic sheets would be removed in phases. In the New Market belt, hawkers are yet to act upon the mayor’s plea though a few have begun using umbrellas.