After Haridevpur plaint, mayor puts buildings dept on the mat
Times of India | 9 June 2024
Kolkata: A call from a Haridevpur resident about an illegal building that had been constructed without leaving the mandatory space around it led to mayor Firhad Hakim hauling up KMC buildings department officials and questioning why they continued to be lax even after 13 people were killed when an unauthorised structure in Garden Reach collapsed three months ago.Hakim said, “Whenever I recall the tragedy in Garden Reach, I feel upset.”
Hakim instructed the KMC buildings department director-general to ensure the department sub-assistant and assistant engineers were sent out to identify structures that were being constructed illegally. “It is unfortunate that even after the building collapse tragedy in Garden Reach that claimed 13 lives, construction of illegal structures in some places is still on. We won’t tolerate this, and the civic officials must go all out to ensure these buildings are identified before the flats are sold and we need to demolish them without taking time,” said Hakim.
According to a senior official from the department, after a break in the civic drive against illegal buildings due to Lok Sabha polls, KMC will renew the drive. Borough-level officials were told to survey underconstruction as well as just-finished buildings in their respective boroughs to check for sanctioned plans. The KMC buildings department director-general had issued a notice to assistant and sub-assistant engineers, asking them to report to office by 10.30 am and leave for a round of the wards for the assessment.
An official at the KMC headquarters pointed out that it was common knowledge that building department officials in boroughs rarely ventured into illegal construction zones even if they were aware of such structures, given the hostility they often faced from residents.
Buildings department officials in charge of the Topsia-Tiljala belt that extends to Chowbagha and other neighbourhoods off EM Bypass said access to these zones were extremely challenging. The buildings department will also focus on parts of Behala and Tollygunge-Jadavpur. According to a civic official, the department has already stopped construction of a few hundreds underconstruction buildings across 10 boroughs. An official pointed out KMC needed greater coordination with Kolkata Police while razing illegal buildings, especially in “troubled zones”. “In most cases, we do not get adequate force from local police stations when we set out for a raid against the developer of an illegal building. We have had to retreat on some occasions,” said a KMC official.