The shed built on Durgapur Expressway, which Trinamul insists hasn’t been blocked. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Aug. 30: Mamata Banerjee and her supporters refused to clear Durgapur Expressway when National Highways Authority officials met them this afternoon armed with a Calcutta High Court order to unclog the road.

Overnight, the Trinamul Congress has built a new dais and a shed that encroaches three feet into the expressway.

The new constructions, opposite the main dais that Mamata occupies, virtually ensure that both flanks of the road are blocked.

“This will give my supporters protection from the rain and sun,” Mamata said.

Acting on the court directive asking the authority to ensure free traffic movement on the highway, the agency has filed an FIR at Singur police station declaring all the camps “illegal”. The FIR is against the “21 political parties (Trinamul and the other outfits supporting it) which have also damaged the highway”.

After a meeting with Hooghly district magistrate Neelam Meena and police chief Rajeev Mishra, a highways authority team led by project director Avdesh Kumar went to the Trinamul leaders.

Seeing the officials, Kalyan Banerjee and Sovon Chatterjee came down from the dais and were joined by a mob screaming “go back”. The leaders took the officials into a car for a 30-minute conversation.

Kumar said later: “They even refused to take the letter in which we asked them to remove the blockade. I will intimate the higher authorities regarding today’s development.”

Chatterjee denied encroaching on the highway. “The manchas are not in the middle of the road. Who has stopped them from opening the highway to traffic?” he asked.

Yesterday, Mamata, too, had denied blocking the road. But she had also told district officials: “You may clear the road…. But if an accident takes place while clearing the road, the administration will be responsible.”

After the meeting with the Trinamul leaders, Kumar again met the district officials.

Superintendent of police Mishra said: “The highways authority has given us a letter and declared the pandals on the highway illegal. It has sought our assistance to ensure free flow of traffic.”

The court had asked the authority to take the government’s help in clearing the road.

Industries minister Nirupam Sen said the state would have to take steps to clear the blockade if “the court directs us”. “If somebody breaks the law and the court directs us to take steps, then we will have to act. The blockade on Durgapur Expressway cannot be allowed for long,” the minister said.

Leader of Opposition Partha Chatterjee today turned down another appeal by truckers to leave one flank of the road open from 10pm to 6am.

Mishra said the police were averse to using force to clear the highway. “If necessary, we would speak to Mamata Banerjee again,” he said.

Hundreds of trucks carrying perishables and essentials are stranded since last Sunday, when the blockade began.

Mamata vowed to continue with it. “We are here until 400 acres are returned to the unwilling farmers.”

District magistrate Meena held an emergency meeting with senior police officers tonight. “We are in constant touch with the highways authority and will decide the course of action tomorrow,” she said.