Salt Lake: The hutments opposite Mayukh Bhavan in Salt Lake where more than 1,200 families lived were demolished in a drive that started late on Tuesday.
The eviction drive by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation precedes Calcutta Book Fair, which will be held at Central Park, in the township, from January 31 to February 11.
Metro had on December 22 reported that the shanties would be demolished to make room for stalls of the fair.
Many residents were seen leaving with their belongings when the civic team, armed with hydraulic earthmovers and escorted by around 100 policemen, arrived to demolish the shelters that had come up on a three-acre plot.
At least 40 mini-trucks were parked a little ahead, loaded with belongings of the residents such as solar panels, beds, ovens and chairs. The items were ferried to the vehicles from the shanties on rickshaw vans.
Anisur Mollah, 42, a mason who used to stay with his family of four, said they would shift to a room they had taken on rent in Duttabad, on the fringe of Salt Lake.
Neighbour Mohammed Nazir, 38, said he would stay with his cousin's family in their shanty near Tank number 12 in Salt Lake Sector III.
A civic official said that only 103 families could produce valid residential documents such as voter identity cards during a survey. "These families will be rehabilitated on three plots near Bidhannagar Sub-divisional Hospital," the official said.
Mayor Sabyasachi Dutta said the number of hutments had grown at a rapid rate over the past few years. There has also been a rise in the number of complaints against residents of these hutments.
"Instances of snatching were on the rise.... The slum-dwellers rarely allowed civic workers to spray larvaecide. Of late, they had also been trying to encroach on areas below the East-West Metro corridor," said Dutta.
A large police contingent, led by senior officers of the Bidhannagar commissionerate, stood guard as tenements made of bamboo poles and plastic sheets were pulled down. A few men and women protested and tried to stop the earthmovers but the cops, armed with bamboo shields and sticks, removed them.
The corporation has recently undertaken at least three major eviction drives off Karunamoyee bus stand, in front of Anandalok Hospital and near the Geological Survey of India office.
