Karnani Estate—a historic structure on AJC Bose Road. Beneath its ornate balconies and crumbling facades lies a contradiction: 117 makeshift homes on its rooftop, housing nearly a thousand people. They call them “servant quarters.”
But for those who live here, these narrow, asbestos-roofed tenements are anything but temporary. Their roots go deep, stretching back to the British Raj. When cooks, khansamas, and drivers served colonial officers in these bungalows, their accommodation was arranged right above them. The officers left, but the workers stayed.
But now, the current landlord wants them out. Police say they’re acting on a court order. They came with bulldozers, tore down homes. Residents say no papers were shown.
Watch the full video to know more.
Reporter / Camera: Sandipan Chatterjee
Producer: Divya Tiwari
Editor: Sudhanshu & Madiha
VO: Rani Jana
#KarnaniEstate #RooftopEvictions #KolkataNews #GroundReport #UrbanHousingCrisis #LivingCrisis #HousingCrisis #Kolkata #WestBengal #AJCBoseRoad
But for those who live here, these narrow, asbestos-roofed tenements are anything but temporary. Their roots go deep, stretching back to the British Raj. When cooks, khansamas, and drivers served colonial officers in these bungalows, their accommodation was arranged right above them. The officers left, but the workers stayed.
But now, the current landlord wants them out. Police say they’re acting on a court order. They came with bulldozers, tore down homes. Residents say no papers were shown.
Watch the full video to know more.
Reporter / Camera: Sandipan Chatterjee
Producer: Divya Tiwari
Editor: Sudhanshu & Madiha
VO: Rani Jana
#KarnaniEstate #RooftopEvictions #KolkataNews #GroundReport #UrbanHousingCrisis #LivingCrisis #HousingCrisis #Kolkata #WestBengal #AJCBoseRoad
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NewsTranscript
00:00We are 70 years old. We are all in the corner. We have opened my house. We are all in the corner.
00:12This is Lachmi Bahadur. She is 82 and for over 70 of those years she has called the rooftop of Kolkata's Karnani estate home.
00:23Not an apartment, not even a room, a shanty perched on the top of a colonial-era building where she lived and worked with her husband.
00:33Both of them domestic workers for the very residence below.
00:37We will live in any way.
00:39If we come here, we will notice that 10 days before we come here that we have to clean our house.
00:44Then we will also clean our house.
00:47We will not make an apartment.
00:48If we come there and leave our house.
00:53Now we are in a shop.
00:55We'll lose all the bags in the corner.
00:56No matter what we have to do, we will lose all of the bags in the kitchen.
00:58Then we will do this.
00:59We will not even come here.
01:03We will come here.
01:04Today is this beautiful night.
01:07My mom and dad will have all over here.
01:10But today we will too.
01:12Karnani Estate, a historic structure on AJC Bosse Road.
01:18Beneath its ornate balconies and crumbling facades lies a contradiction.
01:24117 makeshift homes on its rooftop housing nearly a thousand people.
01:31They call them servant quarters.
01:33But for those who live here, these narrow, asbestos-roofed tenements are anything but temporary.
01:42117 makeshift homes on its rooftop housing.
01:48Their roots go deep, stretching back to the British Raj.
01:52When cooks, khan-sama's and drivers served colonial officers in these bungalows,
01:59their accommodation was arranged right above them.
02:03The officers left, but the workers stayed.
02:06This was a kitchen room.
02:08The officers left, but they made food here.
02:12They said, you don't have enough money.
02:14You take a quarter, then you make food here.
02:17Then the officers left, then they made food here.
02:20Their parents, their grandparents, never told them to leave here.
02:24They told them to leave here.
02:26They told them to leave here.
02:27They told them to leave here.
02:29They told them they were hungry.
02:30They told them to leave here.
02:31Where would they go?
02:32They used to leave here.
02:33They didn't save 80, 70, or 55 years.
02:37The soldiers left and lived here.
02:41New landlords came, but nobody asked them to leave.
02:50They just continued, quietly, invisibly.
02:55Today, their descendants go to school here.
02:58They work in houses and offices nearby.
03:00They vote, they pay bills.
03:03Their electricity meters bear the name of their residence association.
03:07We live here from 40 years old.
03:10My children took me a little and a little.
03:14My children have become a mother, father and grandmother.
03:18Children.
03:19We left the house.
03:21We became older and older.
03:22Now, where are we going?
03:24We are going to live in the country.
03:27Now, my husband worked here.
03:30He came here.
03:31We are staying here.
03:33Now, where are we going?
03:35Where are we going, sir?
03:36Now, the roof is collapsing.
03:39Not structurally, but socially.
03:42The current landlord wants them out without offering them anywhere else to go.
03:48Police say they are acting on a court order.
03:51They tore down homes.
03:53Residents say no papers were shown.
03:57They are being erased family by family, shanty by shanty.
04:03All they ask for is proper rehabilitation because how do you relocate a life built over three generations?
04:11How do you tell someone to leave the only place they have ever known without offering them anywhere else to go?
04:19Up here on the roof, Hindus, Muslims, Christians live side by side, more joint family than slum.
04:28United by survival, by struggle, and now by eviction.
04:34Everyذا got bounced onto the roof is prettyaudible.
04:37They came here to see how we came.
04:38The rent will have no room for class.
04:39It sweeps from all kinds of Philippians.
04:40The house is a house鰍 of Dubai.
04:43Somebody came here to live outside.
04:45For a tale inside, we have one more trapped in the??
04:46Live towards Chinatown.
04:47You will see what they are downforce.
04:49We have to meet, which at theो, NevAllen in the house reallyans areóstoles.