Mamata convenes meeting over evicting encroachers from footpaths

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would hold a meeting at the state secretariat on Thursday in connection with the ongoing eviction drive of hawkers and clearing of “encroached” footpaths at various places, an official said.

Senior bureaucrats and police officers have been asked to be present at the meeting, he said.

“Mayors of all corporations and chairmen of municipalities have also been directed to be present through video-conference,” he told PTI.

Police had on Tuesday started the eviction drive after Banerjee expressed strong displeasure over the "encroachment" of footpaths in Kolkata and its neighbouring Salt Lake area.

Hawkers, who had set up stalls to sell food items, garments and various products across the city and Salt Lake, were told to remove their structures, a police officer said.

"Government property and land are being encroached, and this is being allowed for money,” the chief minister had recently said.