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Anjali
Dutt, a middle-aged working woman at Writers Buildings, lives in a
rented flat at Beliaghata with her daughter and son, both studying in
colleges. For over a decade or so Anjali carried her tiffin with her
from home but after the mushroom growth of wayside shops and food
stalls around Writers Buildings and the BBD Bag areas, she started
patronising the wayside food centres and at times also carried food
home. Like other office-goers, Anjali too changed her food habits – from roti and vajis to chilly chicken and fried rice or masala dosa and dahi-bada. In the office areas at Chowringhee, Esplanade and the BBD Bag, there are a large number of wayside fast-food centres built "illegally". At these makeshift stalls all kinds of food is available at reasonable rates. Roadside delights include dry foods like fish and chips and stews, vegetables chops and cutlets, kachuris and chatnis, masala muris( puffed rice) and different kinds of sweets and fruits. One can get chowmein and chilly chicken as well as idli, dosa and dahi bada. From the typical Bengali khana like dal, rice and vegetables to bhelpuri and dal-makhani tarka these stalls are patronised by babus as well as bosses from the Writers Buildings and other offices. In Kolkata, thousands of office-goers and others survive on wayside foodstuff which is prepared on the spot in improvised kitchens and sold to the customers "hot" at reasonable prices. Former Chief Secretary, Rathin Sengupta, discloses how during his long service at Writers Building he depended primarily on wayside food for lunch. At his first posting at Writers Building as the under secretary, he regularly carried a huge tiffin box fromhome but when he was promoted and posted there as labour secretary, then the home secretary and subsequently, the chief secretary, he gave up the practice and switched over to wayside foodstuff which he found delicious, hygienic and cheap. Another senior IAS officer, Ajoy Sinha who was Jyoti Basu’s secretary at Writers Buildings for over a decade admits that throughout his service, he seldom brought tiffin and relied fully on wayside food stalls. Ministers of Siddhartha Shankar Ray and Jyoti Basu’s governments too depended on these stalls for their tiffins as does the present chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and finance minister, Asim Dasgupta. Both prefer buying the delicious jhal muri ( hot masala puffed rice) from a wayside shop. In 1996, the then state transport minister, Subhas Chakraborty had launched a massive eviction drive against hawkers and wayside food sellers, calling it "the operation sunshine". At that time there was no court order or political and official decision but his party and people in general supported his move. Chakraborty was in the streets along with a 10,000-strong contingent of policemen and a large number of civic officials supervising the eviction drive for cleaning up Job Charnock’s city. His idea was to make Kolkata, more comfortable and hygienic, particularly for the tourists and other foreign nationals and corporate bosses who avoided the city since it was so filthy. The drive was conducted simultaneously in different parts, both in the office-area and the residential localities for a couple of days. The city had assumed a new look, free from the hawkers, unauthorised food and vegetable sellers and other illegal occupants of the roads. The Marxist leader was
credited for saving the city from the hawkers menace. But soon there
were large scale protests and demonstrations not only by the affected
hawkers but also several opposition parties because then the
livelihood of thousands of poor people was at stake. The resentful
"babus and bosses" stood by the affected hawkers who went on
to stage continuous protests and agitations. At several places, the
hawkers also launched a hunger strike. There were at least three
starvation deaths in the following few months of their agitations. The
Hawkers Association and a few voluntary organisations went to Calcutta
High Court and filed a PIL petition demanding the protection of the
livelihood of thousands of affected hawkers and their families. After
several days of hearings, the High Court ordered in favour of the
wayside hawkers and food vendors, saying that till an alternative
arrangement was made by the government, hawkers and wayside
shop-owners should be allowed to operate in the streets. Soon
afterwards, hawkers and food sellers returned to the streets. Since
then there has been no urge from the government either to evict them
or rehabilitate them.
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