A division bench of Calcutta High Court on Monday asked the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to identify the officials responsible for illegal buildings across the city and start disciplinary proceedings against them.
The bench headed by Justice Joymalya Bagchi also asked the civic body to file a compliance report within two weeks.
The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by BJP leader Rakesh Singh after the collapse of an illegal building in Garden Reach that killed 13 people.
A bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam had heard the petition on March 21 and asked the civic body to submit a report to the court on the status of its probe into the collapse.
It also asked the civic body to tell the court what measures were taken to rehabilitate the people who were affected by the collapse of the building in Garden Reach.
On Monday, a bench headed by Justice Joymalya Bagchi heard the matter when it came up for hearing. The bench was not happy with the report submitted by the KMC.
The bench said the civic body had mentioned in the report filed in the court that the owners and the builder of the Garden Reach building had been arrested, but it did not say anything about whether the KMC had taken any action against its engineers and
officials.
“The report does not say anything about the action taken against officials who are responsible for illegal structures across the city. The KMC has to identify them, show-cause them and start disciplinary action against them,” Justice Bagchi said. “File a compliance report within two weeks,” he said.
Mayor Firhad Hakim told Metro on Monday that the KMC had initiated action against engineers who were in charge of the Garden Reach area where the building collapsed.
“We have show-caused the engineers and started departmental proceedings against them. A probe committee has been set up and one of its mandates is to investigate any involvement or negligence of any official or engineer,” Hakim said.
Sources in the KMC said about 850 illegal buildings, or portions of buildings that were illegal, have been pulled down in the last year in the Calcutta municipal area.
Four persons have been arrested so far in connection with the collapse of the
Garden Reach building. The promoter of the building, Mohammad Wasim; two owners of the plot, Pappu and Mohammad Dilnawaz, alias Raza; and Sheikh Rippon, a labour contractor, have been arrested.
The probe committee set up by the KMC will find out the load-bearing capacity of the soil on which the building came up and the quality of the materials used.