Temporary hawkers’ stalls removed in Darjeeling

EOI, DARJEELING, JULY 29, 2024 :  As part of their drive to remove hawkers from different parts of the hill town, the Darjeeling Municipality authorities on Monday dismantled the temporary stalls put up by the hawkers of Mahakal Market below Chowrasta (Sunflower Hotel route). Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Chief Executive Anit Thapa on Sunday announced that hawkers with temporary stalls and vendors selling edibles would not be allowed at Chowrasta, which would be declared a vendor-free area from August 15.

“From years ago this had become an issue with them, setting up shops there by encroaching on that route. We have received complaints also from people that they cannot walk along that route due to the congestion. The time had come to remove them from there. We will resettle them. For this, we have a project made. There were about 182 hawkers here and we are removing all of them,” Darjeeling Municipality Chairman Dipen Thakuri said.

The project will have the hawkers rehabilitated inside a hall constructed near the same place. The hawkers will be kept on the lower floor of a platform the civic body will be constructing at the level of Chowrasta, with the platform holding things like a children’s park, a place where senior citizens can sit or exercise, along with a basking center for youths. The funding of this project is being done by the GTA, with Thakuri maintaining that within six months they will give rehabilitation to one group of hawkers, then in the second phase the rest of them. He said the completion of the entire project would take some more time. Until the space for their permanent rehabilitation is made, it has been decided that the 182 hawkers will sell from the 51 permanent stalls that are already present on the route on a rotation basis.

These hawkers had their stalls at Nehru Road but were removed from there in 2012 by the previous civic board. Following this, in 2013, they set up their shops in front of the permanent structure, with the rest setting up temporary stalls and selling their goods from there. This resulted in making the space narrow, with the people finding it difficult to move freely from that route.

As part of the rehabilitation, 51 permanent structures have been made so that the hawkers could sell from there. However, the hawkers were not happy with the size of the stalls, pointing out it was small and not enough for the entire 182 hawkers.

One of the hawkers there, Sheela Gurung, said: “We are happy as we are getting justice after a very long time and all our 182 members are happy. It was very difficult for us to sell from these small stalls. The permanent solution will prove to be a help to us.”

Similarly, there are plans of removing hawkers who have occupied walking space below the Mahakal temple at the Mall road near Chowrasta in the coming days. The Darjeeling Municipality has already started eviction drives from other places at Chowrasta, along Nehru Road, and all other places where people are finding it difficult to walk freely. Thakuri said the civic body had plans to introduce a tourist tax in the municipality area at the rate of Rs. 10. For this, a tender has been done. 

Courtesy & source- Echo of India