Shop owners and footpath traders came to blows in the New Market area on Saturday over who had the right to the road.

In this case, the fight was over whether the shop owners could park their two-wheelers on a stretch from where the hawkers had been recently evicted.

The clash around noon snowballed into more trouble as shop owners from Shreeram Arcade, New Market and the roads surrounding New Market shut their shops and blocked roads twice in two places — once on Chowringee Road and again in front of New Market police station on SN Banerjee Road.

The skirmish reflected the tension simmering across Calcutta’s shopping hubs, be it New Market, Hatibagan or Gariahat.

Taxpaying shop owners everywhere complain about hawkers blocking the visibility of their stores and access, reducing their footfall and eating away from their business. The hawkers allege that many shops also keep their wares on pavements.

“For years, we have complained about how hawkers have made it difficult for us to run our businesses. They have taken over almost the entire width of the footpath outside my store. Customers who used to come in cars have stopped visiting as they cannot park their cars anymore,” said the owner of a store on Bertram Street in the New Market area.

The hawkers there occupied the part of the road earmarked for parking cars, the shop owner said.

The owner of a garments store on Gariahat Road echoed him. “When it rains, hawkers hang plastic sheets over their stalls. This completely blocks the visibility of my shop,” the Gariahat trader said.

Many of the hawkers pilfer power. The wires they use are cheap and sparks leading to small fires are frequent on the pavements of Gariahat, alleged shop owners.

“All the stalls have lights. They draw the electricity from a meter that could be several metres away.... It can cause an accident any time,” he said.

A fire that started in a hawker’s stall and had spread to a building through the overhanging plastic sheets gutted several rooms of two adjoining homes and destroyed several stores in Gariahat in 2019.

In north Calcutta’s Hatibagan, hawkers’ stalls have nearly eclipsed the sight of shops along the pavements. The hawkers have hardly left any space on the pavement for pedestrians to walk.

In the New Market area, Saturday’s trouble had its root in a dispute over whether shop owners from Shreeram Arcade would park their two-wheelers on a stretch of Humayun Place or hawkers would set up their dalas (stalls) there.

Humayun Place is the road between Shreeram Arcade and the erstwhile New Empire cinema.

A police officer said the hawkers used to set up their stalls on the road just outside Shreeram Arcade till Wednesday afternoon, when police began a drive to remove stalls on the road. Humayun Place was cleared of hawkers within an hour on Wednesday evening.

The police’s drive followed a meeting chaired by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday where she vented out her anger at the police, government officials and politicians for allowing indiscriminate encroachment of pavements and roads.

The hawkers on Humayun Place had not set up their stalls since Wednesday evening. They objected when the shop owners started parking their two-wheelers in that space.

“The northern side of Humayun Place has a Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) approved parking bay where cars and two-wheelers used to remain parked earlier. But the parking stopped a few years ago as hawkers started to set up stalls on the road. The shop owners again started to park their two-wheelers after Wednesday’s drive cleared the road of hawkers,” said an officer of Kolkata Police’s South traffic guard.

The opposing demands of shop owners and hawkers led to the skirmish on Saturday.

The deputy commissioner of police (central), Indira Mukherjee, met the shop owners from New Market and neighbouring roads after the second round of roadblocks on Saturday.

“The shop owners in the area told us they were feeling scared to open their shops. We promised them all help from the police. We have also created a post at the junction of Bertram Street and Humayun Place to prevent any trouble,” said Mukherjee.