Date:20/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/20/stories/2008072058560300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Hawkers continue to occupy pavements on N.S.C Bose Road

Vidya Venkat

Alternative site identified, notice issued for vacating place: Lakhoni

— Photo: R.RAGU

Hindrance: Hawkers seen near a bus stand on N.S.C. Bose Road in Parry’s Corner on Saturday .

CHENNAI: Despite a Madras High Court order in 2006 directing removal of encroachments along N.S.C. Bose Road in Parry’s Corner, several hawkers continue to occupy pavements and roadsides along this stretch.

Judicial activist K.R. Ramasamy, known as ‘Traffic’ Ramasamy, has said that he would soon file a contempt notice against the Chennai Corporation and the Commissioner of Police if the encroachments are not removed by next week.

It was based on a public interest litigation petition filed by him that the Madras High Court ordered the setting up of a Hawking Committee under Justice A. Ramamurthy in 2006 to identify hawking zones in the city and relocate the hawkers by January 31, 2008. “I sent six letters to the authorities concerned reminding them to remove encroachments and implement the court order. But they have ignored them all,” Mr. Ramasamy said.

Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni told The Hindu that the committee had identified an alternative site for the hawkers on Esplanade Road. “We have given ID cards to legitimate hawkers and issued notices to all others to vacate the place by Monday. If they do not oblige, we will evict them,” he said.

The presence of hawkers on this stretch has always been a challenge to road-users. “Pedestrians and road-users are put to great risk as the road space is narrowed by the presence of hawkers,” Mr. Ramasamy said. However, Sudha Ramalingam, an advocate whose office is near N.S.C. Bose Road, said that though encroachers created problems to the road-users, the issue also had a socio-economic context to it, which should not be ignored.

“For the hawkers, this is a question of livelihood and one must not just look at them as an obstruction on the road. Sufficient measures should be taken to make sure that their livelihood is not affected,” she said.

Mr. Ramasamy, however, said that the hawkers were mere pawns in the hands of goons who illegally occupy a stretch on the road or a pavement and rent it out to poor vendors. “We cannot sympathise with those who wish to ignore court orders. As for the poor hawkers whose livelihood is at stake, they can shift to the alternative space allotted to them,” he said.