BJP MLA exposes Durgapur parking scam: 18 zones allegedly handed to TMC-linked businessman via women’s SHGs
The Statesman | 28 May 2026
After the changes in the state’s guard, the BJP has unearthed a ‘huge’ scam in distribution of parking zones across the industrial city of Durgapur and the newly elected MLAs have brought charges of nepotism and ‘underhand business’ by a section of the office bearers of a state backed statutory body responsible behind such deals.
Chandrashekhar Banerjee, the newly elected MLA, Durgapur (Purba), alleged about the “parking scam” by the Asansol Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA) – the statutory body, accusing an INTTUC core committee member in steel sector of running a “Mafia Raj” over parking zones under the cover of some women’s self-help groups (SHGs).
About a year ago, ADDA had cracked down on illegal parking and soon after had allocated as many as 18 parking zones to the women-run SHGs. Banerjee alleged: “Those SHGs actually were the front faces but the parking areas were secretly handed over to a non-Bengali businessman who is an INTTUC core committee member in steel sector. It was a result of an unholy nexus.” He claimed that the businessman invested through his firm behind the SHGs.
“During TMC regime, loot had gone unchecked across this industrial belt. A TMC businessman leader controls the entire parking lots across the city under the guise of women’s SHGs,” Banerjee claimed. He alleged that before the tenure ended, the SHGs deposited large advances to ADDA to extend the term, and the money, each time, was paid by that TMC leader.
Following the allegations, a probe committee has been formed to investigate the “illegal acquisition” of the parking areas. The panel is expected to submit its report to the ADDA board next month, sources said.
BJP leaders have also alleged large-scale corruption in ADDA’s industrial and commercial land transfers in the name of several “fictitious projects”, claiming that irregularities in such land transfers have taken a “serious shape” in phases over the period.
The ADDA top officials meanwhile claimed that there was no anomaly in the tendering process of the parking zones. Aditi Chowdhury, Chief Executive Officer, ADDA told The Statesman on the charges: “The Urban Development & Municipal Affairs department has asked the ADDA to investigate about the proper functioning of the parking zones and to see whether they are charging exorbitantly flouting the ADDA prepared rate charts.” The parking operators were told to display rate charts, to which, many times they paid no serious heed, she said.
The CEO, Chowdhury also said: “The parking zone operators have been instructed to run businessman within the specified zone in one side of the road. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) has been assigned to check and monitor whether the operators are properly aligned with the UDMA guidelines or not.”