Kolkata church, orphanage razed in KMDA’s road expansion drive

Kolkata, India - The Christian community in West Bengal is up in arms over the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) demolishing a church and an orphanage at Kalikapur today, despite their legality being undecided by court.

KMDA officials, equipped with bulldozers, surrounded the place at about 10 am and razed down church. They also brought down the adjacent orphanage which had about 50 inmates, including 30 children and 20 women.

The church authorities had been served an eviction notice by KMDA earlier, as the civic body claimed that it became an impediment to road expansion. But the church authorities filed a PIL, questioning the viability of such an eviction notice. They also wrote to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and the Minority Commission about the demolition drive.

‘‘The Minority Commission had written back to us saying they would look into the matter. We filed a lawsuit and the case is going on, but now they have done this… How can the Marxists do this,’’ asked Herod Mullick, general secretary of Bangiya Krishtiya Parisheba, the umbrella organisation of Christians in the state.

The Trinamool Youth Federation, which had an office nearby, tried to intervene, but could not save the church. When they started to protest, a large police contingent was immediately deployed to maintain peace.