Hawkers moved out from Pondy Bazaar

Obstruction of traffic and pedestrians and causing hindrance to shops by roadside/pavement vendors have become contentious issues in cities and towns all over the country. Thousands of street/pavement vendors/hawkers have come up all over the cities/towns particularly in big cities encroaching upon pavements and roadsides with political patronage and connivance of corrupt officials. The encroachment of roadsides and pavements by hawkers/vendors cause obstruction to the shop keepers leading to clash between regular shopkeepers and hawkers. Sometimes road-side stall owners also fight over occupying a space. In some cases they become law unto themselves with political patronage and as a result regulation becomes difficult. In many cases, the local authorities have removed the encroachments by hawkers. But after some days they return to the same spot. Even intervention by the Courts has produced nil results. For instance, in the busy business centre of Pondy Bazaar in T. Nagar, Chennai, hawkers have set up business on roadsides and pavements causing obstruction to the shopkeepers, besides causing traffic problems and inconvenience to the pedestrians. Pavement on both sides of the entire stretch of Pondy Bazaar has been occupied by hawkers obstructing traffic, pedestrian movement, besides causing great inconvenience to shopkeepers. The pedestrians invariably are edged out. Such a situation in which the shops encroach upon the space meant for pedestrians, thereby forcing them to use the carriageway is not particular to Pondy Bazaar alone, but a problem confronting the entire city. Based on complaints from shopkeepers and pedestrians, the corporation authorities removed the encroachments with police protection on many times, but the hawkers have returned with redoubled vigour. Finally, it seems that the traders have been forced to vacate the pavement shops and move into the three-storey shopping complex built for their benefit by Chennai Corporation on Thyagaraya Road. After more than two decades pedestrians in Pondy Bazaar got a glimpse of what the area would look like without the ubiquitous footpath shops.Shop owners believe the removal of hawkers will improve their business But the shopkeepers as well as pedestrians are skeptical about shops but we don’t what will happen tomorrow. Similarly, the roadside and pavement of the entire stretch of NSC Bose road was encroached by hawkers. But the corporation authorities have recently cleared them on the orders of the Madras High Court in a Public Interest Litigation filed against the encroachments. Yet encroachments by hawkers are still visible here and there. The attempt by the Chennai Corporation to rehabilitate the hawkers in alternative locations and multi-storeyed Complexes has not yielded any discernible result.