Book sellers along College Street and its alleyways are tense after some of them were purportedly told to clear out, even though Kolkata municipal commissioner Smita Pandey denied there was any such order.
Some stall owners on Bankim Chatterjee Street, the narrow road that runs by the iconic Indian Coffee House opposite the main gate of Presidency University, said they had received the “verbal order” to clear out.
Prashun Das, a bookseller, said “KMC [Kolkata Municipal Corporation] officials” came and ordered the booksellers to clear the footpath on Saturday.
“It is very insensitive to order us to move,” said Das. “First of all, this is a heritage to us. It is not only the largest second-hand book market in the world, but it is also the largest book market in India.”
Das has several workers under his supervision, as do all the booksellers on Bankim Chatterjee Street.
“Where will we go if we are to close our shops overnight? It will mean loss of livelihood for so many families,” he said.
Another bookseller said the business needed space: “It’s not like we are selling shampoo packets that can be fetched from anywhere on demand. These are books, and they need a place to be displayed so that readers can understand what they want.”
Some said they have had their shops there for over 50 years.
The KMC’s Smita Pandey denied the civic body had issued any orders to evict book sellers from College Street. “There has been no such order from the KMC, nor do we plan for it to happen,” Pandey told My Kolkata.
“If the book sellers receive a notice, it might be AI-generated and should be verified with the police for authenticity.”
But the fear has spread, because a hawker- and encroacher-eviction drive has begun in Bengal since the change of guard in the Assembly election. Earthmoving machines have torn down stalls in places such as Howrah Station.
“Millions of students consider this place a haven,” said Swapan Dutta, secretary of the Bankim Pustak Byabshai Samiti which is a collective of more than 100 book sellers on College Street.
Most stalls in the one-and-half-kilometre stretch in north-central Kolkata known as Boi Para (Book Colony) sell text and “guide” books for school and college exams.
“Specially students who cannot afford new books come here for all their study-related enquiries. It is unjust to make us move,” Dutta said.