A Kolkata Municipal Corporation and police operation outside Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee’s residence in Kalighat on Thursday removed iron fencing, demolished a police kiosk, cleared a stretch used for family parking and converted the area into a no-parking zone.
Officials and police personnel arrived early at 121, Harish Chatterjee Street, where a payloader was used to remove the fencing. CCTV cameras installed outside the residence were also taken down, although they were reinstalled in the evening. The operation followed the removal of a temporary bamboo shed outside the house by Abhishek on Wednesday evening.
The shed had been built in 2014 after Abhishek was accorded Z-plus security and had provided shelter for security personnel deployed outside the residence. A police officer said the kiosks had been removed several weeks earlier but were left in place because they had been installed by the directorate of security. According to the officer, they were removed because they were encroachments on the road and the security cover was no longer in place.
Thursday’s action also altered how the road space outside the residence was used. The stretch where Abhishek and his family usually parked vehicles was cleared, cordoned off with guardrails and designated as a no-parking zone. The changes place the stretch under the same public-space and traffic-use restrictions that apply to other road areas, although the supplied report does not specify whether a separate municipal order was issued for the designation.
The operation came after chief minister Suvendu Adhikari recently said that “no individual” should enjoy special privileges in Kalighat. The temporary shed had already been dismantled before the municipal and police teams returned to remove the fencing and kiosk.
The use of a payloader has given the clearance drive a political dimension. Similar machines have featured in other clearance and demolition operations in Bengal, including action against alleged illegal structures and the eviction of hawkers in areas such as New Market. Payloaders, commonly described as bulldozers, have also become associated nationally with demolition drives involving alleged illegal construction and politically sensitive properties.
Abhishek met Mamata Banerjee at her Kalighat residence on Thursday evening. Reacting to the operation, he told reporters, “They have cleared their own garbage. That is none of my business. If they feel they will bulldoze me with a bulldozer, I do not care at all.”
Trinamool MLA Kunal Ghosh said Abhishek had discussed the matter with Mamata and that the party had decided not to resist the government’s action. Ghosh described the decision as deliberate and said it was intended to show the public how the BJP government exercised authority in the name of governance.
The immediate administrative explanation centres on road encroachment and the withdrawal of the security arrangement that had supported the kiosk and shed. The political response, however, has focused on whether the enforcement action represents even-handed governance or selective use of civic and police power. The next official steps will determine how the newly cleared stretch is maintained as a no-parking zone and whether further security-related structures are removed.
