Days after five people were suffocated to death at an illegal leather processing unit in the eastern part of the city, CESC officials initiated a day-long drive against the illegal tanneries on Saturday.

A team of 30 officers from CESC, Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) and the West Bengal Pollution Control Board visited Tangra, Topsia and Karaya on the city’s eastern fringes and identified the illegal units. At the end of the day, electric lines of 110 tanneries were disconnected.

As news of the CESC’s drive against tanneries reached Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamul Congress chief and union minister for coal and coal mines postponed her Delhi trip and stepped in for the tannery-owners who have not yet shifted their units to the Calcutta Leather Complex from the eastern part of the city. An impromptu dharna was started on Chowbhaga Road to protest against the drive, in a rerun of the Writers’ Buildings sit-in a decade ago when she was denied entry into chief minister Jyoti Basu’s chamber with a deaf-mute rape victim.

Banerjee was on her way to Dum Dum airport when the news reached her. Her flight was scheduled to take off at around 5 pm. The Trinamul chief drove straight to Topsia and sought an explanation from CESC officials about the power supply disconnection.

Police said tension broke out as soon as Mamata and mayor Subrata Mukherjee reached the area. They demanded immediate resumption of power supply. But the CESC officials refused.

According to senior CESC officials, the drive was initiated in accordance with a state government order. “The plan was chalked out a few days ago by the departments of commerce and industries, and pollution. We were told that a drive against illegal tanneries would be initiated over the weekend,” said a CESC spokesperson.

“We followed the government’s instruction. Today’s drive was peaceful and there was no resistance from the tannery-owners.” He said the drive would continue on Sunday as well.

Sabyasachi Sen, secretary for commerce and industries, pointed out on Saturday that running tanneries from Topsia was illegal now.

Burial ground opening

Earlier on Saturday, Mamata Banerjee unveiled a Muslim burial ground off EM Bypass near Science City in the Topsia police station area. She was accompanied by mayor Subrata Mukherjee and other senior Trinamul Congress leaders.

For the past couple of days, the issue of handing over the land by the CMC was raising uncomfortable questions for the party as a section of people alleged that it was a disputed site and no burial ground or mosque could be built upon it.

“Subratada (Mukherjee) had been trying for the last three years to locate land that could be used as a burial ground. Every time we try to do something, allegations are made to stop the good work. This land belongs to the CMC and there is no dispute over it,” she clarified.

“In the past 200 years, no new land was considered for the purpose and the existing grounds are insufficient,” Mamata said, adding that a boundary wall would come up soon.