Fortnightly coordination meetings between Kolkata Police and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to “counter” illegal construction and “take preventive/corrective measures” will resume on Thursday, a senior police officer said.
The officers in charge (OCs) of all police stations and executive engineers, assistant engineers and sub-assistant engineers from the city’s 16 boroughs are supposed to attend the meetings.
The meetings will be convened by the deputy commissioner of police in charge of each of the 10 divisions of Kolkata Police. Engineers from the boroughs in each division will attend the meetings called by the respective deputy commissioners.
The joint commissioner (organisation) of Kolkata Police has sent a letter to the 10 divisional deputy commissioners asking them to convene the meetings to share information with KMC officials on illegal structures.
A copy of the letter was sent to the KMC commissioner. An officer of the city police said the first meeting in all divisions would be convened on Thursday.
The meetings, which were a normal feature till about three or four years ago, are being resumed following the collapse of an allegedly illegal under-construction building in Garden Reach close
to midnight on March 17. Twelve people were killed in the collapse and many were injured.
The fortnightly meetings are likely to speed up the sharing of information, a gap often cited for letting irregularities pass for a long time until it is too late.
The Telegraph has a copy of the letter from the police. It says: “As per direction of Ld. CP you are directed to hold coordination meeting fortnightly with OCs and representatives of respective Borough Office in order to take preventive/corrective measures to counter unauthorised construction under your zone.”
The KMC commissioner had written to the city’s police commissioner on March 23 seeking his “help” to resume the coordination meetings.
The need to resume such sessions was discussed at a meeting chaired by mayor Firhad Hakim on March 22. A senior officer from the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar were present in that meeting.
KMC officials said support from the police was crucial to stop illegal construction.
A standard operating procedure prepared by the KMC following the collapse of the Garden Reach building has made it mandatory for engineers to inform the police when an illegal construction is identified.
Once engineers of the civic body identify an illegal construction, they have to serve a stop-work notice to the owner or the builder.
A copy of the letter should be sent to the OC of the local police station, the deputy commissioner of police of that division and the joint commissioner of police, headquarters, in Lalbazar.
A KMC engineer who attended such meetings when they used to be held earlier said engineers and officials from the environment department of the KMC also used to attend those meetings, allowing discussions on illegal filling of water bodies.
The senior engineer could not say why the meetings stopped.
Residents of Garden Reach have alleged that the five-storey under-construction building that collapsed around midnight on March 17 was coming up on a plot where a water body had been filled illegally.