Kolkata: At least 15 CPI(M) workers were injured and six were arrested after a clash broke out between party workers and police in the Jadavpur area of South Kolkata during a protest against a hawker eviction drive at the railway station.
The clash occurred on Sunday night, and on Monday members of the CPI(M)’s student wing, Student’s Federation of India (SFI), protested against the police lathi-charge outside Jadavpur University campus, demanding the immediate release of those arrested, including the general secretary of SFI, Srijan Bhattacharya.
Claiming that the police resorted to a baton charge mercilessly, a senior CPI(M) leader told media persons that injured Bhattacharya had to be admitted to a local private hospital at Jadavpur and had to undergo a CT scan there. The same thing happened with the CPI(M)’s central committee member, Sujan Chakraborty, who was also present at the hawker’s eviction drive at Jadavpur on Sunday night.
“All the shops adjacent to Jadavpur station have been demolished. Railways have given 15 days’ notice to the remaining ones. We strongly condemn this bulldozer drive by the new government,” the CPI(M) leader said.
The hawker eviction drive began near Jadavpur Station late Sunday night. Several illegal shops and constructions were demolished using bulldozers.
A joint protest by the CPI(M)-led Left Front and Congress has been going on since Sunday evening to stop the eviction drive. A large number of police and Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel were deployed at the spot, and barricades were raised.
While being taken into a police van, Bhattacharya said that the railways are doing illegal work. “They have come to evict hawkers ignoring the court’s order. I was forcibly and illegally arrested. Many people, including theatre activist Joyraj Bhattacharya, were injured during the police action,” he said.
Another CPI(M) leader questioned the silence of Trinamool Congress as the principal opposition party with 80 legislators on the issue of hawkers’ eviction which has been ongoing since the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power in the state.
“Trinamool Congress has 80 legislators. We have only one. But it is our leaders and party workers who are resisting the hawkers’ eviction drives at the spot since the beginning. Trinamool Congress has surrendered.,” the CPI(M) leader said,
(IANS)
