Footpath free for walk, finally
Pedestrians used to face difficulty while walking on the footpaths of Jubilee Road and Station Road in Chittagong city's New Market area, as the walkways were always crammed with street vendors.
As a result, people were forced to use the roads as they could not move smoothly on the footpaths.
But this scenario has been a thing of the past now, as Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) along with Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) has freed the footpaths in consultation with the hawkers, paving the way for the pedestrians to walk on the footpaths without any interruption.
As per the deal between CCC and the hawker leaders, the structures -- stretching around two kilometres from Amtol on Jubilee Road to Reazuddin Bazar on Station Road -- were removed on September 7.
Shahedul Azam, who visited Amtol area on Tuesday, said, “I cannot believe it happened -- we are walking on the footpath freely.”
“The [Chittagong] City Corporation officials have done a tremendous job in freeing footpaths without imposing any force,” added Azam, a resident of the city's Chawkbazar area.
Though residents are happy to see the footpaths free, some others doubt if the hawkers might come back and rule the footpaths again.
SM Nazer Hossain, president of Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB) in Chittagong, said it really is a positive sign that the CCC and CMP had been able to free the footpaths without imposing force.
“At the same time, we feel concerned least the footpaths should be reoccupied,” he said, adding, “Earlier, we saw hawkers were driven out, but they returned after some days.”
Under the new arrangement, the hawkers could vend on the footpaths from 5:00pm to 9:00pm on Saturdays through Wednesdays. On Thursdays, they could vend from 2:00pm to 9:00pm. However, they can start selling from the morning on Fridays and other holidays.
Asked, how the footpaths were freed, CCC Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin said, “It happened through consultation with the hawkers.”
“I had a number of meetings with the hawkers over the last one year as I had committed to make the city a clean and green one.” “I sought their (hawkers) cooperation in this regard and assured them of rehabilitation.”
“I made them [hawkers] understand that their customers, mainly lower and lower-middle income groups, cannot afford to go to shopping malls; therefore, they would get customers no matter what schedule they maintain,” said the mayor.
“We will provide them with identity cards and will earmark portions on the footpaths for them…,” he said.
Nasir said he would free all the footpaths in the city from hawkers gradually and would bring them under discipline.
Meanwhile, the hawkers complained that their income has decreased by half due to the new schedule.
Mohammad Hossain, a hawker on Station Road, said his daily income, which was around Tk 2,000 before, has come down to around Tk 1,000.
Contacted, Harunur Rashid, general secretary of Hawkers' League of Chittagong city unit, said around 3,500 enlisted hawkers on footpaths of the two roads are struggling to maintain families as their income has now decreased significantly.
“The mayor sought our cooperation to make the city a clean one and we responded to it,” he said, adding, “But we are now struggling to make ends meet.”
“We would request him to construct a market for us…,” he said.
Harun said there are around 10,000 enlisted hawkers in the city while 10,000 more unlisted ones.
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