An earthmover stayed put for over five hours. It appeared not to be meant for use.
The giant yellow machine stood as a symbol of fear while hammers chipped away at a five-storey building.
More than one official supervising the demolition of two buildings on GJ Khan Road in Tiljala, where a fire killed two labourers and injured three on Tuesday, said the earthmover had little to do on that narrow lane lined by houses on either side.
But India’s dreaded and divisive symbol of instant “justice” dominated the scene by its mere presence — as a portent of what several residents called “the dangers ahead”.
The two buildings had by Wednesday been vacated of their residents, with eight to nine families having to move elsewhere all of a sudden. No formal notice was served, the families said, and they had to leave behind most of their belongings.
The nearby entry points, 200 metres from the buildings, had been sealed.
When The Telegraph arrived at the site, only the five-storey building where the fire broke out was being pulled down, the hammers having picked up from where they had left off on Wednesday evening.
(The demolition of the adjacent three-storey apartment block started later on Thursday, after this newspaper had left. Sources said the earthmover was used for a while on this building.)
The road was almost deserted, barring the large contingent of police and paramilitary carrying guns of various makes.
A menacing, high-pitched whirring sound, caused by a drilling machine, followed by a loud thud or the blow of a hammer, came cyclically from inside the building. Whizzzz, thump; whizzzz, thump.
Beyond the barricades, from the balconies of almost every house, people had their eyes fixed on the stationary earthmover.
“The sound is disturbing. It refuses to stop. Who knows, tomorrow it might be some other home, maybe ours,” said a 40-year-old woman, standing on the balcony of her home, transfixed on the yellow monster parked right next to the Tali Khola Jama Masjid.
“It’s heartbreaking to see your neighbours having to leave their homes, which will be demolished. Where will they go now? Some buildings here may lack complete documentation, but does that mean we are not Indians?”
As the five-storey structure was being demolished, a Kolkata Municipal Corporation official at the site said: “We are demolishing the top floor today. We will move from the top to the bottom. Razing the entire building will take more than a week, given our resources.”
He added: “Both buildings have been evacuated, but several household items and electronic appliances remain.”
Asked why the earthmover had been brought if it was not to be used, he answered with an arch smile, as though to suggest “you know why”.
What he left unsaid, many local people said explicitly.
“It’s the symbol of a new Bengal,” a neighbourhood pharmacist said as he shuttered the store early, since there were hardly any buyers.
“The entire area is sealed;how will anyone come here?” the man who has been running the store for over 15 years said.
Residents of the five-storey building said they had filed a petition before Calcutta High Court on Thursday seeking a stay on the demolition.
Their lawyer said it might be heard on Friday.
The security barricades forced people stepping out of homes in the neighbourhood, or headed towards them — delivery agents included — into detours.
Some residents who were returning home pleaded with the police and the paramilitary jawans manning thebarricades to be let in, pointing to their houses. Some of them were waved in; most were not.
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari had announced on Wednesday that power utility CESC had been told to conduct an audit to identify illegal buildings housing factories and disconnect their power supply.
He had named Kasba, Tiljala, Mominpore and Ekbalpore as areas where, he said, the problem was acute. All these areas have significant Muslim populations.
On Thursday, a CESC spokesperson said the audit was under way. “We are coordinating with the KMC. The civic body is identifying the illegal buildings, and we are identifying unauthorised connections.”
The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has turned the bulldozer into a divisive symbol, using it widely to demolish structures labelled illegal, with Muslims allegedly the worst sufferers. This model has been followed in several other BJP-ruled states.
The Supreme Court has over the past two years castigated the Adityanath government several times for these “overnight”, summary demolitions, calling them “lawless” and “inhuman”. It has insisted on “due process of law”, with occupants served with notices and given enough time to vacate and take away their belongings.
The seething tension in Tiljala had a brief flare-up when ISF leader and MLA Naushad Siddiqui arrived on Thursday morning and accused the administration of “creating a reign of terror”. He was led away by the police.