Hawkers back in Sakchi market 12 hours after eviction drive

Jamshedpur: Barely 12 hours of a special eviction drive, hawkers on Thursday morning occupied the Sakchi market here completely. Late on Wednesday, officials of the Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee along with city police had carried out the raid for two hours and drove out more than 50 hawkers from the marketplace. In the past, several such drives were carried out but have not yielded any results.
To resolve the perennial problem, the district authorities had agreed to construct at least 12 vending stalls for the hawkers in the district, but the work has remained stuck because of the lockdown. The hawkers, who have been demanding the stalls, have currently no place to sell their wares than occupying market places. In the absence of organised trade and formal checking, the hawkers have also been using plastic, a banned item in Jharkhand, while selling and procuring their wares.
Sumit Agarwal, who owns an electrical equipment showroom at the market, said illegal hawkers and street food vendors had completely captured the path leading to his shop. “My customers find it extremely difficult to negotiate the way to my shop,” he lamented.
A cloth shop owner also said, “The number of illegal hawkers in the market has shot up manifold during Unlock 1.0.” He added that during the period when relaxations for cloth and footwear shops were not given, the roadside vendors hawking the same items were doing brisk business “right under the nose of the police”.
The shopkeepers of the market also rued that customers are now shying away from visiting big shops and showrooms as they have no space to walk.
Meanwhile, tension is rising between the shopkeepers and the illegal hawkers over the issue. While the shopkeepers charged the latter with illegally occupying pathways and shop fronts, the hawkers alleged that they were being victimised by the former with help from district administration officials.
Police personnel of a PCR van at the market said they could not do anything about the return of the hawkers unless an order comes from higher authorities.