Reza Mahmud :
Eviction against illegal street vendors from Gulistan pavements in the capital has become uncertain. The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) has stopped the drive following a violence that erupted between vendors and officials on October 27 during the eviction.
“The eviction is temporarily closed now. We have directed the vendors to keep sufficient spaces for the pedestrians. Temporary shops on the pavements are a common scenario in our neighbouring countries,” Khan Mohammad Billal, the Chief Executive Officer of DSCC told The New Nation yesterday.
The corporation conducted eviction drives against the illegal street vendors of Gulistan pavements in several times. During the last one on October 27, the eviction drive triggered violence between law enforcers, City Corporation workers, ruling party supporters and the vendors. Some people, including few members of vendors, were injured in the incident.
After the incident, DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon told a press briefing the same day, “The eviction drive will be continued. No one would be allowed to grab an inch space on the footpaths at Gulistan. We will conduct the eviction drive regularly till the pavements are freed from vendors.” Two days after the violence, the street vendors again came back to Gulistan pavements. They opened their makeshift shops as usual. The same scenario in the Gulistan area is still remaining. The people use the busy intersection regularly become disappointed. Sources said, many influential groups regularly take extortions from the street vendors. The street vendors frequently arranged protest processions demanding arrests of those extortionists. But those influential groups remain untouched.
“The extortionist groups are behind the unstable situation in the Gulistan footpaths. They played as the real players against the eviction drives,” said a business of the nearby Gulistan Hawkers Market preferring anonymity.
“We became hopeful when the DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon declared that the footpath would be totally freed. But now we have seen the street vendors in full swing dominations. It is really painful. The total Gulistan area becomes a state of hawkers. Pedestrians hardly could walk by the temporary shops, hawkers and the buyers,” Hasibul Islam, a pedestrian said to this reporter. In the same time, a bus driver of Gulistan bus stop said, “The hawkers grabbing most area of footpaths and even a noted portion of roads. As a result, the vehicles including public buses disrupted to run easy in the shrunken streets. It caused serious gridlock regularly in the area. We are not hopeful to get respite from this situation.”
But the City Corporation officials said, they think the street vendors are keeping noted spaces of the pavements free for pedestrians. They are not creating disturbs to run vehicles smoothly. Khan Mohammad Billal said, “We have already directed the hawkers if they fail to keep sufficient spaces for the public, they must be evicted under the directions of courts.” This reporter while visitng the area found that the pavements of two sides of the road from the Bangabandhu Square Monument at Gulistan intersection to the Zero Point are full of various products, including cloths, shoes, cosmetics and temporary shops of the street vendors.
Besides, the total link road between the monument area to Golapshah Mazar are full of hawkers with fruits, shoes and other shops. Cars and rickshaws are hardly passes the area very slowly causing huge traffic congestions. The situations of other adjacent areas were also the same.
