Residents’ body vs councillor tussle in FD Block; Police called over repair of yoga room in park
Telegraph | 29 March 2025
A single-storyed room with a fibre glass roof in FD Park is
in the eye of a storm with the bone of contention being the usage and
maintenance rights to the room, being claimed by both the local councillor and
the block residents’ association. Matters reached a head on Tuesday morning
when the police was called in after councillor Banibrata Banerjee, also a block
resident, objected to repairs being carried out on the structure by the
association and ordered a stopwork.
Now charges are being traded on where the key to the room
is. The room came up in 2014. While the association believes it was built out
of local MLA Sujit Bose’s local area development fund, Banerjee affirms that it
was he who had footed the construction bill out of his councillor’s fund,
making it a Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) property. “The room is used
for block women to do yoga thrice a week.
The key was with the block association all these years. The
block would also maintain the structure. Out of the blue, we received a letter
this January from the BMC joint commissioner asking us to hand over the key to
the room and alleging that we were letting the space out illegally,” said
Abhijit Majumdar, secretary of FD Block Association.
The block responded claiming the room was never let out.
“The joint commissioner wrote back, asking us not to let out the space
henceforth without the Corporation’s permission. We thought the matter had
ended there,” he added. Meanwhile, a decision was taken by the block executive
committee to repair the structure.
“Rats had damaged the floor, the false ceiling too was in
bad shape. We decided to dig up the concrete base and take down the false
ceiling. Repair work had started about a week ago. On Tuesday morning, we heard
from the contractor that the councillor had stormed in, ordered them to stop
work and taken away the key that was in the keyhole,” the block secretary
alleged. There was also a notice pasted on the office wall from the BMC
mentioning a written complaint submitted by Banerjee about unauthorised
repairs.
It also asked again for the key to be returned to the BMC.
When contacted by The Telegraph Salt Lake, Banerjee denied having taken the key
away. “It was I who had called the police. The repair was illegal as they had
not taken permission from the Corporation,” he said. The block association
office bearers say they had sought verbal permission from local MLA Sujit Bose
when he attended a Dol get-together in the block on March 16. “We plan to
approach him now,” said committee member Santanu Biswas. Majumdar, who is in
his third year as secretary, points out that Banerjee was part of the block’s
executive committee as an invited member.
“He had never
objected to the yoga class happening all these years. In fact, he had himself
taken the initiative to build an adjacent structure and start a medical cell,
providing doctor’s consultation at affordable fees, in FD Park in 2022. A
library also runs in another structure. It is the block association which runs
all these facilities. Even the keys to the park’s gates are with us. This is
the norm in every block of Salt Lake,” Majumdar said.
Banerjee points out that he is not against the yoga classes
happening. “But they do not have a right to let out the space,” he said,
insisting that at least one sraddha programme and cooperative body meetings
have taken place there, for which money was deposited in the block
association’s account. “There are pictures of the room decorated with white
(funereal) flowers.” Asked why he did not object earlier, he said the illegal
practices had started only about two years ago.
“The
original key is with the Corporation. They must have got a duplicate made,”
Banerjee said. Block committee members claim Banerjee has turned
non-cooperative ever since the block election