Salt Lake: The only way Bidhannagar mayor Sabyasachi Dutta will back down on the hawker eviction drive that started in Salt Lake on Tuesday night is if Mamata Banerjee orders him to.

"All footpaths along our thoroughfares will be cleared of illegal structures. I know there will still be resistance from various quarters, but only if the CM asks me to stop the drive will I do so," Dutta, also the MLA of Rajarhat New Town, told Metro on Thursday.

The Trinamul leader, so far known more for his support of the syndicates that operate in his constituency, said eviction of illegal hawkers was a challenge he took on after a year of planning. He pointed to the congratulatory messages flooding his mobile phone as a vindication of the effort.

By Thursday evening, 14 concrete structures, including a defunct ward office, had been demolished. Footpaths around Central Park and the Karunamoyee bus looked like a storm had passed by.

Some hawkers clutching Trinamul flags did try to prevent the demolition, but the police forced them to disperse.

Mayor Dutta shared with Metro the planning and execution of a drive that has raised the inevitable question: why can't the Calcutta Municipal Corporation do the same?

The plan

The decision to evict hawkers was taken at a board meeting of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation on December 27, 2016. The point of dispute was not the drive itself but whether the evicted hawkers should be rehabilitated.

"I turned down the suggestion because these hawkers have encroached on government land.... This is not their property," Dutta recounted.

The first phase of the drive was along a 4.5km stretch of Broadway Road ahead of the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

The caveats

A caveat each - it is a legal notice to a court to suspend proceedings until the notifier is given a hearing - had been filed in the high court, the Sealdah civil and criminal court and the Barasat district court in preparation for the drive. "We had eight lawyers ready with all relevant documents on Wednesday, just in case anyone moved court against the eviction," the mayor said.

The police deployment for the eviction was 200-strong. "I was also present throughout the night," Dutta said.

The intent

According to the mayor, intent is "the most important factor" in a drive against hawkers. "There was lot of pressure from the residents (to remove them). The CM too wants Salt Lake to be a clean township," he said.

Most of the hawkers not being voters registered with the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation helped. "Almost all of them are from outside. They had paid local strongmen to run their businesses here," Dutta said.