West Bengal hawkers row: Mamata Banerjee takes protest to the streets, Calcutta HC stays evictions till June 30

Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday took to the streets of Kolkata over the bulldozer politics of the Suvendu Adhikari-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

Protesting against forceful and sudden hawker evictions by the new government, Mamata and her supporters walked with placards around their necks decrying the evictions.

The rally saw Mamata choose to mark her silence as her protest. Several hawkers have been evicted from various parts of the state, including the Howrah Railway Station and others. Hawkers were caught off guard with the sudden evictions, even as the state government termed the placement of hawkers’ stalls as illegal.

Meanwhile the Calcutta High Court is hearing 25 petitions which have been clubbed into one common petition on hawker evictions.

On Wednesday, the court said that eviction notices have been issued in several cases for land adjacent to railway stations, but also raised questions on whether the land actually belonged to the railways. The railways have been asked to conduct a survey of these areas and submit a letter to the court.

In railway station areas where hawkers have been evicted—including Ballygunge, Bamangachi, Baruipur, Dankuni, Guma, Bongaon, Durganagar, Mathurapur and Jadavpur—the previously issued eviction notices cannot be enforced until June 30.

The court also asked the railway to submit reports in each case explaining the reason for the notice, if permission was granted to the hawkers, and their stand in the future for hawkers on railway land.

For specific cases, the court has also directed the railways to consider and report alternate accommodation for hawkers before proceeding with the evictions.