Kolkata: Traders in New Market took to the streets on Friday and protested against encroachment of roads and pavements around the heritage market. The traders were apparently particularly upset with hawkers taking over the demarcated parking space on Bertram Street and Humayun Place and the ‘no entry’ for four-wheelers on the road leading up to the market.“Only three weeks are left to Durga Puja and we are yet to see the expected number of buyers. We requested police to withdraw the restriction on vehicles on the streets surrounding the market as allowing cars up to the market gates would bring our buyers back. But they have not yet lifted the ‘no entry’ in the area. At the same time, the parking space around New Market has also been taken over by hawkers,” said Ashok Gupta, president of S S Hogg Market Traders Association.An officer at New Market PS claimed it was difficult to keep Bertram Street and Humayun Place open to vehicular traffic after 4 pm. “There has been a rise in the number of shoppers in and around New Market. In such a situation, we can’t allow vehicles to enter the area as it causes chaos,” said the officer.Gupta and association secretary Uday Sahoo had an altercation with police on Friday while they were staging a protest near the Bertram Street-Humayun Place intersection. “We are awaiting a solution to these problems created deliberately by some hawkers in the absence of police action. We will wait for some time and if we see no change, we will be compelled to launch an agitation,” said Sahoo.Barely two weeks ago, police conducted a drive to remove hawkers from pavements in the New Market area after traders submitted a memorandum to the New Market PS. Businessmen, representing SS Hogg Market Traders Association, expressed their discontent at the growing encroachment in and around the grade-I heritage market. Later, a police team reached Bertram Street and Lindsay Street and pushed back hawkers.
