Hundreds of hawkers evicted from Howrah and Sealdah station areas

More than 500 hawkers and illegal stalls were removed during large-scale anti-encroachment drives carried out at Howrah railway station and Sealdah railway station over the weekend.

In Howrah, the operation began late on Saturday night, with authorities demolishing over 150 illegal stalls and evicting close to 200 vendors from areas surrounding the station. At Sealdah, a similar drive that started on Friday night continued through Saturday, leading to the removal of around 300 hawkers, per a report by The Times of India.

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Stalls demolished near station entrances

At Howrah station, payloaders were used to clear encroachments stretching from the ferry ghat to the app cab stand and bus terminus. Police barricaded nearby localities before the operation began around 11 pm.

Food stalls, tea shops, juice counters and vendors selling daily-use items were among those removed during the drive. While some vendors attempted to resist the eviction, heavy police deployment kept the situation under control.

On Sunday morning, several affected hawkers were seen collecting damaged goods and materials from roadsides and pavements.

"A juice shop we had been running for 15 years was razed around 11.30 pm. We were not given any notice or warning. We have incurred huge losses. Where will we go now?" Mithilesh Kumar was quoted as saying by TOI.

Another vendor told TOI, "We ran a fast-food shop for many years. It’s now gone. No notice was issued to us before the shop was demolished."

Railway officials, however, maintained that notices had been served before the operation.

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Railways call it 'routine clean-up operation'

Officials from the Railways and state administration described the exercise as a "routine clean-up operation" aimed at clearing roadsides and improving passenger movement around the stations.

At Sealdah, Government Railway Police officials said around 150 hawkers were removed from the area between platforms 1 and 14, while others were evicted from the stretch between platforms 14 and 19.

"The drive was ordered to remove all hawkers from the station premises, including the space in front of the terminal, stretching till the taxi stand," TOI quoted a senior GRP official as saying.

Many passengers welcomed the move, saying congestion near platforms had reduced significantly after the eviction drive.