Booksellers in College Street won’t be evicted, clarifies KMC

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation will conduct no drive to remove the bookstalls in the College Street area, municipal commissioner Smita Pandey clarified on Thursday.

According to the municipal commissioner, though regular drives to remove encroachment on the carriageways will continue in and around College Street, the civic body will spare the traditional bookstalls. “We have no plans to remove the bookstall owners from the pavements of College Street. Though drives are being conducted to free the carriageways of encroachment, we won’t evict the booksellers,” said Pandey.

According to a KMC official associated with the regular anti-encroachment drives, the city-wide drive by the KMC and cops to make the carriageways free of encroachment have sent a wrong signal to the pavement booksellers in College Street. “These bookstall owners have been doing business for decades. These stalls have become part and parcel of Kolkata’s academic and cultural growth. We won’t conduct any eviction drives there. However, we will ask these booksellers not to encroach on the carriageways as that is totally illegal as per hawking laws,” said the civic official.