A group of traders who run their businesses on railway land in and around Siliguri has started protesting, seeking rehabilitation in case of eviction.

The traders took out a rally to the office of a railway official in New Jalpaiguri on Monday with this demand.

The move follows recent announcements by railways that there would be major infrastructural developments in New Jalpaiguri and Siliguri Junction stations.

“Hundreds of traders, who run their shops and stalls on railway land for years now, are apprehensive that they would be evicted from the land. We are not against development but want the railways to rehabilitate the traders,” said Biplab Roy Muhuri, the secretary of the Brihattar Siliguri Khuchra Byabsayee Samiti, an apex body of retail traders in the city.

According to the functionary, there are around 30,000 retail traders with shops in 90 different markets in and around Siliguri.

“Among them, close to 2,000 traders have their shops in 30-odd markets on railway land near NJP, Siliguri Junction and Siliguri Town stations. These people and their workers are worried about losing their livelihood after running their shops for the past 50-60 years,” Muhuri added.

A few months back, the Northeast Frontier Railway announced a sum of around Rs 395 crore would be spent to develop NJP infrastructure. There are similar plans for Siliguri Junction, which, over the past few years, has emerged as the second most important station in the city.

The traders, who submitted a memorandum to the additional divisional railway manager at NJP, said they would resort to protests if the railways attempted to evict them without a proper rehabilitation plan.

“The railways have started serving notices. We want to make it clear that if any eviction drive is carried out without providing alternative space to us, we will launch a movement,” said a shop owner based in NJP.

Railway officials, however, made it clear that those running the shops had simply encroached upon the railway land.

“We understand their situation. But for decades, they have made earnings by encroaching upon railway land. Now if the railway needs the land for improvement of infrastructure, they have to move elsewhere. There is no option for us to rehabilitate them as we are not taking their land,” said an official of the NFR.