West Bengal: The Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) demolished an illegal 5-storey building in Ward 44.
Udai Shankar Bag of Howrah Municipal Corporation says, "This is an illegal construction. That's why our commissioner told us to demolish it... This building was permitted for G+1, but it's built up to G+5. First, labourers broke the terrace. And JCB is also working downstairs...".
A municipal official said over 1,000 structures had been earmarked for demolition in Topsia-Tiljala and that at least 70% of all structures built in the last decade were illegal.
The BJP government of West Bengal led by CM Suvendu Adhikari has launched anti-encroachment drives in and around Kolkata. Bulldozers have rolled into localities of Kolkata, including Sealdah and Howrah railway stations. Bengal minister Dilip Ghosh said that the drives in Kolkata were just the beginning, and more bulldozer action across the state would follow.
follows a major anti-encroachment drive that took place in Howrah and Sealdah railway stations late on Saturday and ended early on Sunday.
Amid the Suvendu Adhikari-led BJP government's anti-encroachment push, Bengal minister Dilip Ghosh said that it was only the beginning of a wider crackdown on illegal construction and encroachment across the state. He promised to run bulldozers across West Bengal.
Encroachment has long been one of Kolkata's most political and urban management challenges. From roadside markets and makeshift stalls to illegal extensions jutting onto pavements and roads, large parts of the city operate in a blur between formal and informal space.
Alongside this, illegal construction, including unauthorised extra floors, shop extensions and buildings allegedly raised without approval have emerged as a growing civic concern.
The BJP alleged that the Trinamool Congress, during its 15-year-rule in the state, had patronised them.
The scale of the issue is especially visible around Howrah Station and Sealdah stations, two of India's biggest and busiest transport hubs.
The areas surrounding both stations are lined with street vendors selling everything from tea and cigarettes to vegetables and clothes to cooked food for travellers. Many of these stalls have been operating there for years, even decades. The encroachments often choke key footpaths, forcing pedestrians onto already congested roads and contributing to traffic snarls outside the critical transit hubs.
Similar scenes play out across Kolkata in areas like Park Circus, Gariahat, Esplanade, Burrabazar and Topsia, where unauthorised commercial activity and illegal structures have steadily expanded into public spaces over decades.
The lanes around New Market are infamous for being encroached by hawkers of all types, which reduces traffic flow to a crawl.
(Image: India Today Digital)
BENGAL CM SUVENDU ADHIKARI ORDERED DEMOLITION DRIVE IN TOPSIA-TILJALA AFTER BLAZE
Days after taking over the reins of the state government in West Bengal, the Suvendu-led administration on May 12 conducted a demolition drive in Kolkata's Topsia-Tiljala belt, which is a major leather goods manufacturing hub in Kolkata.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had previously designated the area as a red zone for demolition alongside Garden Reach, Metiaburz, Rajabazar, Burabazar and EM Bypass. A Red Zone denotes that a specific area has a lot of illegal construction, and they are marked for demolition.
The demolition drive, where earthmovers and bulldozers moved into the area under police and CRPF protection, came a day after a fire in an illegal leather factory in a multi-story building had killed two people in Tiljala.
West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari ordered the KMC to raze the building while announcing a "zero-tolerance policy" against any and all illegal constructions in Kolkata.
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