Mayor Firhad Hakim on Saturday came down on the civic body’s engineers when callers to the weekly phone-in programme — Talk to Mayor — complained about illegal constructions continuing despite the Kolkata Municipal Corporation having served notices on them.
Hakim said it was inefficiency, rather than corruption, that has earned the civic body the name “chorporation”, a play on the word “corporation” that suggests the civic body is full of “chor (thieves)”.
The first complaint came from Izzatullah Lane in Tollygunge. An engineer of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) told the mayor that the KMC had served a notice on the allegedly illegal construction. Hakim retorted that the work was still going on despite the notice.
“This is like a slap on the face of KMC. We have the legal authority but we are not being able to stop illegal constructions. They are challenging the KMC’s authority. If there is a Garden Reach-like incident tomorrow, your job will be at stake,” Hakim said.
Thirteen people died when an under-construction building that was being raised illegally collapsed in Garden Reach’s Azhar Molla Bagan in March.
After a few calls on other subjects, a caller from Tagore Park, off EM Bypass, complained about illegal construction in the neighbourhood.
A few more calls later, a woman from RK Chatterjee Road in Kasba complained that the KMC was not complying with a court’s direction to pull down a structure. The woman also complained that new illegal construction had been added to the structure.
This time, the mayor got angry at the engineers. “This why people call us ‘chorporation’. It is not because we take bribes, but because of our inefficiency. This happens because of our casual attitude. Why will you be casual? Act immediately. People should have confidence in us,” Hakim told a senior engineer of the building department.
“If a building collapses tomorrow, the press will accuse me, not you. I earn a bad name because of you,” he said.
Hakim told the chief engineer of the building department that he should inform the mayor about such cases since Hakim was also in charge of the building department of the KMC.
Hawker menace
During Saturday’s phone-in programme, Hakim also received complaints about hawkers gobbling up pavements or roads and violating street vending rules.
A businessman from Gariahat said that hawkers near his store were still hanging tarpaulins. He said he had informed the police, but nothing had changed.
“I have told police so many times to remove the tarpaulin sheets. Why did we spend so much money to build them the stalls if they still hang the tarpaulin sheets?” Hakim said.
The street vending rules notified by the state government in 2018 mentioned that hawkers cannot use tarpaulins or other flammable substances to build their stalls.
A caller from Jodhpur Park complained about new hawkers encroaching on the roads outside Jodhpur Park market. He said the hawkers were multiplying with time.
It was then that Hakim said that he would speak to the city’s police commissioner. “Please write a letter. I will speak to the police commissioner,” Hakim told KMC’s commissioner.