Hawker Rehabilitation

New Hawker Zone near DC of Police Office

Yesterday, at Sector V (Nabadiganta) I had a detailed meeting with hawkers of Sector 5. We discussed all issues that they had to flag. At the end of a two-hour session, I asked them to nominate three local representatives with whom we could take actions together. Incidentally, one of the three was a lady with a post graduate degree. And one of the others asked my email address for keeping in touch.
I told that we were not adversaries: the govt principle, I said, is to first rehabilitate them with due consultation (I talked of the successful ones in New Town - see Telegraph story below) and prevent, with all our might, new encroachments. They agreed. And vowed to inform us if any new ones tried to set up new stalls.
I told that till this happened, let's do some improvements. We'd set up few Pay-n-Use Toilets if they showed us where they wanted these and if there were no technical problems (water out drainage and sewerage lines and water inlets, and space) . They said they are exploited by generator operators, water suppliers by getting charged too much. I said we'd try to make water available (l'll talk to JUSCO the water providers, to set up a sale counter; on Monday, I'll meet them in a function). I said LPGs were dangerous and they said the'd use induction heaters if these could be provided by corporates and they got a power connection meter. I said, I'd already approached few NGOs and Corporates (let's see). I requested them to keep the areas clean, use bins and we'd provide covered bins as many as they wish. They talked about some customers not paying attention to their request to use bins: I said, they could report to us and our men would interfere. They said they were even prepared to keep sweeping teams but I said I'll sit with our sweeping agency (Monday 2pm). Most of all, they themselves pointed out that there are certain vacant spaces where all of them of one area could be accommodated. But, they said, in IT sector shops had to be close to gates of buildings as staff didn't have much time to spare for lunch.
I think it is a long journey, but it is important to travel together.
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Clippings:

Millennium Post dt 16 June 2017

Khabar 365 dt 16 June 2017

Khabar 365 dt 16 June 2017

Ei Samay dt 16 June 2017

The Statesman dt 16 June 2017