Tensions escalated at the Jagaddal railway station in North 24-Parganas on Monday when hawkers affiliated to the CPM-backed Citu had a heated exchange with Railway Police Force (RPF) personnel during a demolition drive targeting illegal structures and shops on the station premises and along the platform area.

Soon, Citu activists and local CPM leaders rushed to the spot and staged a protest.

Demolition drives have spread rapidly beyond major terminals under the Sealdah and Howrah divisions, turning into a politically sensitive issue over livelihood and rehabilitation barely within a fortnight of the BJP government assuming power in Bengal.

A hawker’s shanty being dismantled at Jagaddal railway station on Monday

Leading the protest in Jagaddal, Gargi Chatterjee, Citu North 24-Parganas district committee secretary, accused the railway authorities of carrying out eviction without a rehabilitation plan for affected hawkers.

“Hawkers have been left without livelihood,” Chatterjee said. “Eviction without rehabilitation is unacceptable.”

The drive at Jagaddal was suspended after talks between the railway authorities and Left representatives.

At Bandel railway station in Hooghly, CPM leader Minakshi Mukherjee was stopped by police while leading a rally against eviction drives. She later joined a demonstration outside the station premises and addressed a gathering of hawkers and supporters.

Tearing into the BJP-led Centre and railway authorities, Mukherjee said the eviction campaign reflected an anti-poor policy.

“If you could provide jobs, nobody would be interested in standing in front of your face,” she told railway officials.

“It appears that the Centre is desperately acting against financially weaker people. Now the Centre has targeted the railways to sell it to private entrepreneurs and simultaneously launched eviction drives against slums and hawkers. If the BJP-led Centre aims to unleash terror using bulldozers, they will commit a grave wrong,” she said.

“Since Bengal has a double-engine government, they (the Centre and the state) can jointly decide to provide shelters to evicted people, even under the Prime Minister’s housing scheme,” she added.

A North 24-Parganas BJP leader admitted that thousands could face a severe livelihood crisis if demolition drives continued without rehabilitation. “We expect chief minister Suvendu Adhikari to speak with the Centre for a solution,” he said.