With Eid shopping in full swing, street-side shops have made a return to Mahatma Gandhi Marg, making the central artery of Ranchi difficult to manoeuvre for commuters all over again.
To make it across Main Road, as MG Marg is popularly known, drivers and pedestrians have to make it through haphazardly erected makeshift shops, stacks of merchandise showcased on streets and throng of shoppers visiting these shops.
Many street vendors have crowded the connecting alleys leading to MG Marg whereas some can be found peddling their goods on sidelines of the street between Daily Market and Shaheed Chowk, like they used to before the stretch was cleared of hawkers and wrongly parked vehicles.
On orders from Jharkhand High Court, MG Marg was declared a no-vending zone, effective from April 15, to resolve the traffic snarls along one of the busiest roads in the State capital. Although the hawkers kept clear, more or less, of the main street for the past two months, the promise of good business from crowds of Eid shoppers seem to have attracted them back to their old marketing spots.
Meanwhile, authorities assure action in days to come in order to enforce the High Court order of keeping MG Marg clear of street vendors and wrongly parked vehicles. No permission has been granted to the street vendors for setting up shops before Eid, stated both traffic police officials and functionaries of Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC).
“Drives are being continuously conducted from time to time to remove hawkers from Main Road, but they tend to come back after some days after they are driven away. Even we are occupied with Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Ranchi. Maybe the brief absence of personnel looking after anti-encroachment drives is giving courage to hawkers to take back to Main Road,” stated Deputy Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Dilip Xalxo.
The drives to remove street vendors from MG Marg will be intensified in days to come, added Xalxo.
On the other hand, the civic body mandarins of Ranchi are planning to shift street vendors to a suitable-for-all destination.