Mayor Firhad Hakim on Saturday told engineers of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation too many illegal buildings were coming up in wards 75 and 76, which cover areas like Hastings, Watgunge and Kidderpore.
Hakim received a call from a resident of Ward 76 during the weekly phone-in programme Talk to Mayor. The woman complained about a building that was allegedly being erected illegally. She said she had complained to police and work on it was stalled for the time being.
The mayor then asked an engineer of the KMC’s building department who is in charge of borough IX to go and check the site. Wards 75 and 76 are part of borough IX of the KMC.
“Do you know that a person died in this area when a rod from an illegal building fell on his head?” the mayor asked the engineer. “So what are you doing? Go and check the site.”
A 21-year-old man died after a rod from an under-construction building in Watgunge fell on him in April.
The caller told Hakim she had sent a letter to the engineer in charge of the borough and to the chief engineer of the KMC’s building department.
Hakim said people blamed the local councillor for illegal structures. “It is impossible for the councillor to know this... It is police and KMC who would know,” he said.