Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
High drama unfolded at Gobardanga Railway Station in Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district on Tuesday as traders and hawkers blocked railway tracks, protesting against eviction measures amid an anti-encroachment drive across the state.
Videos from the station showed men and women occupying the tracks and raising slogans of “cholbe na, cholbe na” (we will not tolerate this) as they resisted efforts to remove stalls and shops. In a desperate show of defiance, an elderly woman lay down on the railway tracks during the protest.
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The demonstrators said their livelihoods depended entirely on the businesses they operated at the station and accused railway authorities of taking away their means of survival.
“They are kicking us in the stomach,” one protester said, arguing that the eviction drive would leave many families without any source of income.
The protest comes amid a large-scale railway land clearance initiative launched last month. Authorities demolished makeshift shops, stalls and other structures near major railway stations, saying the drive is aimed at freeing public spaces and improving passenger convenience.
On May 31, a joint team of Railways, Kolkata Police and paramilitary personnel carried out an overnight eviction operation at Dum Dum Junction. Vendors were woken up as encroachments and stalls lining the road leading to the station were cleared.
Before that, around 250 hawkers and stalls were removed from the premises of Howrah station. Bulldozers and earthmovers razed temporary structures occupying footpaths and public spaces near the bus stand and the Ganga ghat area.
Several hawkers affected by the operations alleged that they were not given adequate notice before the demolitions. Many said the drive had severely disrupted their livelihoods. They demanded rehabilitation or alternative vending arrangements before any eviction.
“We will have to resort to suicide if no rehabilitation is provided,” a stall owner affected by the drive told PTI.
The anti-encroachment campaign has also extended to other busy commercial areas. In Kolkata’s New Market, bulldozers have removed several unauthorised commercial structures in recent weeks.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC), now in opposition after 15 years in power, has accused the BJP government of pursuing a “bulldozer culture” and vowed to hit the streets against the alleged forcible eviction of hawkers from railway land and station areas.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Monday alleged that common people and small traders were living in fear and said hawkers were being evicted without a proper rehabilitation plan.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
