West Bengal: Business hours during festive season curtailed for hawking hot spots

KOLKATA: From Sunday, hawkers in Gariahat and Hatibagan will have to stop selling their wares by 2 in the afternoon and wind up an hour later to reduce over-crowding at the two shopping hubs that also house several big-draw Durga Pujas.

A circular issued by Nabanna has asked KMC and police to enforce the restriction from Sunday. The move, sources said, follows repeated concerns expressed by doctors over the kind of crowding that the shopping hubs have been witnessing over the past couple of weeks with both retailers and customers ignoring SOPs for the pandemic to shop ahead of the festival.
A KMC market department official said they were in touch with police to keep a vigil on the crowd in the major hawker markets.
Sources said the internal circular had called for the hawkers to wrap up businesses completely by Sunday as pandal-hopping is to officially commence from Tritiya, Monday. But following pleas by hawker unions, it has now been decided that they will vacate the pavements by 3pm so that pandal-hoppers don’t jostle with the shopping crowd.
Usually, shopping continues till Panchami evening and even Shasthi morning. But this year, the absence of the floating crowd that commutes by train and come to shop from suburbs has led to crowds thinning out by 7.30 in the evening since Thursday. However, Hatibagan continues to be chock-a-block with shoppers rubbing shoulders and craning their neck to bag a deal.
“Masks are the first casualty when one shops. Despite the campaigns by the government and appeals by us, there is no awareness,” said Gariahat Indira Hawkers’ Union secretary Debraj Ghosh, adding that the restricted timings could help prevent the situation from turning hazardous. Several hawkers at Gariahat have got infected and at least one of the them who had a stall near Basanti Devi College has died of Covid.
In Gariahat, the hawkers will first clear the pavements adjoining the access road to Ekdalia Evergreen and Singhi Park. From Shasthi, even the stall structures will be dismantled to allow pedestrians more space.
At Hatigaban, hawkers aren’t too pleased with the restricted timings being ushered in so early. “Usually, we are asked to clear the pavements by Saptami and it doesn’t hurt because most of the shopping is over by then. But to restrict timings from Dwitiya, which is a Sunday, is not good news for us,” said a hawker.
Organizers of Durga Pujas located in this area are, however, relieved that the crowd will thin around evening. While Hatibagan Sarbojanin and Sikdarbagan Sadharan Durgotsav are smack in the middle of the shopping zone, Nabin Pally and Nalin Sarkar Street aren’t too far off.
“We usually don’t have a problem functioning with the shopping crowd in other years. But it feels different this year due to the pandemic,” admitted Hatibagan Sarbojanin Durgotsav secretary Saswat Bose.