Railway hawker eviction drive turns ugly in West Bengal

A hawker-eviction drive launched by Government Railway Police at Baruipur railway station in South 24-Parganas today turned violent with hawkers and police coming to blows leaving 7 persons, including police officials and journalists, injured, a GRP official said.
Four railway personnel, including a senior officer, Kamal Ghosh, and three photographers belonging to vernacular press, were injured in the incident, the official said.
The trouble started in the morning when GRP personnel began evicting hawkers who were illegally hawking their ware on the railway platform, the official said.
Nearly 3,000 hawkers, belonging to INTTUC, the trade union of ruling TMC, put up a stiff resistance pelting brickbats at the police and bursting bombs, the official said.

They squatted on the railway track to prevent normal functioning of trains, the source said.
However, the railway authorities used the adjacent track to run the suburban service, they added.

Ghosh, who tried to reason with the hawkers, was badly beaten up and had to be admitted to B R Singh hospital in Kolkata, the official said.
Three other railway personnel were also injured in the brickbatting.
The photographers who were beaten up by the mob were rushed to the local hospital where they were discharged after first aid, the official said.
The hawkers later moved to the adjacent maidan belonging to the railways and staged a sit-in there.

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Reacting to the incident, the Eastern Railway authority, however, alleged non-cooperation on the part of state government in their eviction programme.
"We had informed the local administration much earlier about today's drive to evict all unauthorised hawkers from Baruipur station, but they did not cooperate with us," a senior railway officer said.
He also said that those responsible for the incident have been identified from the CCTV footage and action as per Railways Act would be taken accordingly.
"No unauthorised hawkers will be allowed on any rail station or over railway property," he added.
Meanwhile, the ADG (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma told reporters at the State Secretariat Nabanna that the local administration opposed such a drive, but the railway authority did not listen to them and continued with it which had led to the incident.

Sharma also said the state Home Secretary Moloy Dey was having talks with the high officials of Eastern Railway on the issue.