KOLKATA: Nearly three decades after Operation Sunshine, a major drive to evict hawkers in 1996, a series of raids by police and civic staff to clear carriageways and pavements of encroachments in the city's hawking hubs on Tuesday. The series was watched. Raids were conducted to remove hawkers from the streets and clear at least two-thirds of the footpaths in Garihat, Hathibagan and Newmarket. Hawker pushback drives were also conducted in other places like Bhawanipur, Bahala and Sealdah. By the end of the six-hour drive on Tuesday, the police nabbed 15 hawkers from a dozen points in the city, six of them from Gudiyahat. Sources said that the joint campaign will continue for the next seven days. Police personnel along with hawker union leaders conducted a pushback drive in Guryahat on Tuesday morning. The hawkers were asked to remove the plastic sheets that were being used as sheds to protect their wares from the rain. A surprise raid caught a section of hawkers off guard. They were seen busy removing their goods from the footpaths and plastic sheets from the top of the stalls. A panic soon spread among the hawkers in the prime hawking zone of South Kolkata as the police threatened to corner a section of hawkers on the pavement with dire consequences. Madhav Pal, a hawker who sells hosiery products near Basantidevi College, admitted that hawking in the area needs to be streamlined. “A section of hawkers are not following the rules laid down by the town-vending committee and we are paying the price. I have made it a point not to cross the line that delimits the hawking grounds. It does,” Paul said. However, Rajesh Mondal, who sells leather bags, felt that the drive launched by the CM was temporary and hawkers would continue to flout laws that include excessive use of plastic. In Hathi Bagan, Bodhan Sarani, stretching from Shyam Bazaar to Hathi Bagan, to Scottish Church Collegiate School, was seen removing illegal sheds and encroachments on the road in the presence of police officers from local police stations. On Tuesday, police officers, who have been bystanders in the past, took an active role in removing illegal sheds, plastic and encroachments from the roads. Hawkers sitting on the street in front of the town school were asked to vacate. “The police asked us to vacate the place this morning. The owner went to the market and now we don't know what will happen because we have been working here for the last 15 years,” said Tutu Majumdar, a hawker. In the afternoon, policemen from Newmarket police station went around KMC. headquarters and removed all the hawkers who were occupying the footpath in front of the Roxy cinema building. Muhammad Siraj, a hawker selling soft toys, said he had no choice but to listen to the policemen and shift to a suitable place until he was allowed to return to his place. To make it clutter free. Pada Poker Road, which on normal days is packed with two-wheelers and rickshaws, has never looked wider in recent times. Police started clearing the road of hawkers on Tuesday morning. Hawkers who kept their wares on the road were asked to remove them. “We have never seen Padapukkar Road so wide. Almost one-third of the road is occupied by hawkers selling vegetables and fruits,” said a shop owner in the market. Das Florist's 140-year-old shop on Padapukkar Road. “This road was a mess yesterday. The sidewalks are occupied by hawkers and people are forced to walk on the streets. Cars plying Padapukkar Road towards Sarat Bose Road face a tough time crossing the 100-metre stretch near Jadavabur Bazar,'' said shop owner Dilip Das.