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Hawkers claw their way back

CITY CORRESPONDENT
Hawkers have staged a comeback and occupied footpaths at important city points especially around the busy shopping malls.
In the last few days, thousands of illegal traders threw up makeshift shops at Gulistan, GPO, Baitul Mukarram, Dainik Bangla Crossing, Purana Paltan, Motijheel, Bangabazar, Mouchak, Rampura, New Market and other places under the very nose of the mobile courts and law enforcers.
The authorities set up at least 22 mobile courts ahead of Ramadan to maintain law and order in the city till Eid.
A home ministry meeting chaired by state minister Lutforzzaman Babar and attended among others by Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka promised to ensure security for the city dwellers 'so that they can do their Eid shopping without any trouble.'
It decided deployment of paramilitary BDR, police, ansars and Armed Police Battalion (APBN).
It also decided to set up summary courts and 40 patrol teams as strike forces to check crimes and traffic snarl-up.
As shopping perks up, plainclothes policemen were supposed to keep watch in and around the city's important shopping malls.
The meeting even decided not to allow sale of iftar items alongside roads as it causes traffic jam and chaos.
But all the promises fell flat as the pedestrians have again been pushed out of the footpaths. Traffic situation has gone out of control and mugging incidents are steadily on the rise, according to newspaper reports.
This correspondent yesterday observed that hawkers and illegal parkings are the two main causes of traffic jam at Motijheel, the city's busiest commercial hub.
As hawkers took control of most of the footpaths, the situation becomes worse after the office hour.
The story goes similar for the areas between North Gate of Baitul Mukarram Mosque and Dainik Bangla Crossing or from Shapla Square to Tikatuli Crossing.
Some disgusted shoppers alleged that police are now busy collecting toll ahead of Eid rather than keeping law and order.
In New Market and Baitul Mukarram areas some hawkers admitted that they bribe police on daily basis but remained tightlipped on who collect the money and how.