Bustees to get thika land label for avoiding eviction of dwellers: Firhad Hakim
Telegraph | 31 March 2025
Bustees will be declared thika land to stop the eviction of dwellers for real estate projects, Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim said on Friday.
The legal formalities needed for that conversion will be followed, he said.
Slums have come up on lands that were owned by zamindars, owners of factories who wanted to settle their workers near the factories, plots held by private owners and even on government-owned land. Many bustees are already recorded as thika lands
It is, however, unclear how the government will declare private plots as thika land.
Hakim said he had seen an inclination among a section of developers to evict slum dwellers for real estate projects.
To stop this, all bustees should be recorded as thika land, Hakim added.
An official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said the ownership of any thika land lies with the government and no individual can buy or sale a thika property.
They can have a long lease, but never own it.
A real estate developer will stay away from constructing a building on a plot that he would neither be able to sell nor legally register in his name, the official said.
“We will declare all bustees, which our government has renamed Uttaran, as thika lands. I have noticed an inclination among developers to build large buildings after evicting slum dwellers,” Hakim said on Friday.
“I went to Chakraberia on Thursday, where a fire broke out. The dwellers were alleging that a developer had set fire to the slum. Many people have evacuated on their own, and few are resisting. A police probe is on,” said Hakim.
He has seen two bustees in Ward 72 (in Bhowanipore) disappear, the mayor added.
The state government has renamed the bustees as Uttaran, which means uplift in Bengali.
There are about 3,300 listed slums in the Calcutta municipal area, said a KMC official.
“The state government has now allowed construction of multi-storey buildings on thika plots. The ownership of the plot will still rest with the government,” said an official.
The official said if the state government wanted to declare bustees as thika lands, they have to withdraw a 2011 order that stopped the conversion of non-thika land into thika land based on application by thika tenants.
“There are many plots that belonged to zamindars and their tenants have been living on these plots for generations. In government records, these may not be recorded as thika land. To do so, the thika tenants had to apply, and the government converted the land after inspection. This process was stopped in 2011,” said the official.
A KMC official said the execution of what mayor said on Friday would need an amendment of the West Bengal Thika Tenancy (Acquisition and Regulation) Act, 2001.