DOT Desk: The city footpaths have as usual yielded to the whims of hawkers after a lull in some days when the street vendors cleared off due to the eviction drive by Dhaka South City Corporation, reports The Daily Sun.
The city people that prefer walking on the footpaths to riding on a bus through dashing and pushing breathed a sigh of relief, but their respite did not last long.
After a brief pause, the street hawkers have once again returned to the fold which is the perennial picture that the capital city has been witnessing.
Most busy footpaths including Gulistan, Paltan and Motijheel in the capital have already gone under the occupation of the temporary businessmen, flouting laws and eviction attempt of the city corporation.
The unauthorised makeshift shops on the busy pavements and its adjoining roads hinder free movement of vehicles and passersby, thereby contributing to traffic congestion as well. The mushrooming shops installed out there have turned out to be the curse of pedestrians, but blessing for many unscrupulous law enforcers and musclemen linked to the ruling-party men as they realise toll money from the vendors on regular basis, many alleged.
Toll collection in the name of law enforcers and ruling party-backed hawkers league is going on unabated in most footpaths including the commercial hub of Motijheel, Gulistan, Purana Paltan and around Baitul Mukarram Mosque, Mouchak, Farmgate, Mohakhali, Jatrabari, Saidabad, Mirpur-1, Mirpur-10 and greater old part of Dhaka.
Thousands of makeshift shops have sprung up across the city particularly in the areas of Gulistan, Jatrabari, Sayedabad, Mouchak, Shantinagar, Motijheel, New Market, Nilkhet, Nawabpur, Karwanbazar, Gulshan, Badda, Natun Bazar, Baridhara, Uttara, Mirpur and Farmgate.
Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon in a meeting last year announced that the hawkers in the city corporation area would be prohibited to sit on the city roads and footpaths for business purposes during office hours.
He said they can sit at their respective places after 6:30pm while the holyday markets in different areas would operate simultaneously.
Sources said Dhaka city corporations and law enforcers cannot do much when it comes to evicting hawkers as some influential persons and the ruling party-backed Hawkers League are providing the temporary shopkeepers with support.
When the city corporation authorities with magistrates and law enforcers conduct eviction drive, hawkers in cooperation with their patrons swoop on them and got locked in sporadic clashes.
Shortly after the eviction drives, they again encroach on busy footpaths to continue their business.
Visiting the busy Gulistan, Paltan and Motijheel and its nearby areas on Monday noon, it was found that many makeshift shops came into being on footpaths.
Hawkers were found to be doing their business occupying footpaths. A footpath cloth trader Akkas Ali alleged that they are forced to pay toll to the extortionists and the law enforcers on a regular basis.
If a hawker fails to pay the amount fixed by the toll collector nominated by the hawkers’ league leaders and law enforcers, he is dislodged from his position and a new one is installed there, he alleged.
According to the hawkers, the toll collector realises toll ranging from Tk50 to Tk500 from makeshift shop owners every day.
Police also realise the toll from the hawkers with the help of their own men, sources said.
According to local hawkers’ league, there are about 3,500 makeshift shops put up on both sides of the footpaths stretching from Purana Paltan to Gulistan.
A fruiter Baker Hossain from Bhoirab in Kishoganj said: “We are held hostage to some dishonest police and extortionists.”
“If we do not pay the toll, local musclemen and law enforcers dislodge us from footpaths and instate others in exchange of money,” he said.
Asked about the encroachment on footpaths by the hawkers, DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said police are ready to go for action against the footpath hawkers.
“We are not the authority to conduct the eviction drive against the sidewalk vendors.”
Police can only help the city authority in carrying out the anti-hawkers drive if it seeks help, added the commissioner.