Hawkers Protest Against Eviction at Belgharia Station in West Bengal

Railway police and state police had to retreat to evict hawkers at Belgharia station. Since coming to power, the BJP government in the state has been evicting hawkers without rehabilitating them. The politics of bulldozing has been going on. The leftists have been continuously agitating against this immoral step of the state government. On Thursday, when the hawkers went to evict the hawkers at Belgharia station, they were stopped by the state and railway police. Their protest was attended by CPI (M) leaders Sayandeep Mitra and Gargi Chatterjee. The CITU leadership spoke to the station master and RPF police officer of Belgharia at the office, where Gargi Chatterjee and Sayandeep Mitra were engaged in an altercation with the RPF and station master. The railway police demanded that the illegal shops be demolished and the workers'leader demanded that the shops cannot be demolished without rehabilitation. The leadership said that there are about 250-300 shops where many families have been living over 40 years. If these shops are demolished, the government will have to do alternative arrangements.