Kolkata: For years now, people in Kolkata had faced restrictions while travelling on the arterial Harish Mukherjee Road, thanks to a posse of heavily armed policemen standing guard outside the house named Santiniketan. Even an armoured vehicle remained parked outside.
Slowing down, leave alone stopping, was a strict no-no near the premises. Photography was strictly banned. Permission would be denied to processions, if their route was close enough.
But then, 188A, Harish Mukherjee Road is no common address. It is the residence of MP and Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of party supremo and outgoing chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Things started changing after the Monday evening, when it became clear that the Trinamool Congress had been routed in the West Bengal Assembly polls. People started arriving in large numbers in cars and on motorcycles outside the house to celebrate the BJP’s landmark victory.
They faced no resistance. The few policemen who remained preferred to stay close to the gates of the house. The people of Kolkata had fi
nally reclaimed their street.
Similar scenes were witnessed near Mamata’s 188A, Harish Chatterjee Street residence. Movement was restricted along the entire street. Even residents had to seek permission from the police to allow guests to enter.
Things changed after 6.30 am on Wednesday. The Kolkata Police announced a scale down of security at both locations. The other addresses where security has been scaled down are the Abhishek’s office at 9, Camac Street and the party office on 121, Kalighat Road.
“Some of the security arrangements like scissor barricades were replaced by manual guardrails on Tuesday,” a police official, aware of the developments, told Hindustan Times.
“Only the Z+ security arrangement will remain. The extra police personnel, who were deployed beyond the Z+ category security, were withdrawn,” an IPS officer aware of the developments said.
The joint commissioner of Kolkata Police (HQ), issued the internal memo, ordering the trimming of security cover.
Some of the hi-tech security arrangements such as scissor barricades, which were installed on Harish Chatterjee around 200 metres ahead of Banerjee’s residence in the Kalighat area, were removed on Tuesday. These machine-operated barricades, which are usually set up in high-security zones, were replaced by manual guard rails.
Meanwhile, West Bengal’s advocate general Kishore Datta sent his resignation to Governor R N Ravi.
“I have sent my resignation to the Governor on Tuesday,” he told HT.