Illegal buildings and those that pose fire hazards have no place in a modern metropolis. The Bharatiya Janata Party government’s ostensible priority to tackle such municipal challenges is welcome. But such interventions must take place according to due process. It appears that the new government has faltered on this important aspect. In Tiljala, an interim stay by the Calcutta High Court has halted the controversial attempts of municipal authorities to dismantle a building on the grounds that the prescribed strictures had not been met. Incidentally, the Supreme Court has already laid down pan-India guidelines to check arbitrary demolition drives. These include a specific notice period to the persons concerned before the demolition is to take place, an opportunity for the affected parties to contest the demolition orders and so on. What prevented Calcutta’s municipal authorities and its minder — the state government — from adhering to these guidelines? The chief minister’s signalling on this issue has been far from assuring. While revealing that a power utility service had been instructed to conduct audits of illegal buildings, Suvendu Adhikari had expressly named four localities with sizeable Muslim populations. The truth is that several other parts of the city face a similar problem: the trade hubs of Central Calcutta are one example. Municipal action must take place in these as well. That is the essence of the rule of law and Mr Adhikari and his government have been given a handsome mandate by the people of West Bengal to uphold it without prejudice. This spirit of unbiasedness must also inform the government’s initiatives to ward off other civic malaises, be they sound pollution by religious establishments or the conduct of faith-based rituals in public spaces.
Another attendant issue should not go unremarked. There has been a lot of chatter — jubilant as well as critical — over the appearance of the bulldozer on Calcutta’s streets. The symbolic transformation of a mere civic tool into a mode of vigilantism is a testament to orchestrated lawlessness threatening to subvert the rule of law.