It took 10 long years for AL Block to get a community centre after the foundation stone got laid. The two-storeyed building of the AL Block community centre was finally inaugurated on Sunday.
The foundation stone may have got laid on June 24, 2013 but block committee members say their quest for a community hall had started much earlier.
“We had been canvassing for land for a community centre since 2005. But we were told that since our park was so small no space could be carved out of it, as is the practice in other blocks. Around 2006, an urban development department official said he could offer us a plot with an electrical transformer on it, to which we immediately agreed,” said Ashish Kumar Hazra, convenor of the inauguration committee, who was then the block president.
But the rules required a bank balance of Rs 7 lakh for the allotment to be allowed, to ensure that the recipient had the financial capability to build on the plot. “We requested residents to put some money temporarily in the block committee account as a loan. Once the allotment was made, in 2009, we raised door-to-door subscriptions and returned the loaned amounts,” Hazra recalled.
But all they had till 2010 on the four cottah plot (AL 107 and 108) was a tin shed that the then councillor Saswati Mondol built for them.
Such was the situation that when a tender was floated in 2012 for the building with just Rs 4.5lakh in the block’s coffer, there were no bidders initially and block resident Subrata Ghosh, a contractor, was requested to put in a bid.
Construction started in 2013. While office-bearers like Hazra and secretary Subir Dhar were doing the running around along with some others, the biggest source of support was Choudhury Mohan Jatua, a resident of the block and a Union minister of state at the time.
A report dated September 8, 2017 in these pages on the unfinished community hall
The octogenarian had been present at the foundation stone laying 10 years ago, and was quite emotional at the inauguration. “When I had appealed to our MLA Sujit Bose and MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, both of them had readily granted the amount that I requested for to build this structure,” said the Parliamentarian representing Mathurapur. He also thanked mayor Krishna Chakraborty for donating the amount that was needed for the completion of the ground floor. All three guests attended the inauguration on Sunday.
Even then the funds were not enough to finish the building at one go. A single storey came up in 2015. Residents pointed out how Jatua had granted Rs 10 lakh from his MP local area development fund to build the second floor. Even that did not suffice. Hazra recalled how the block had used a report published in The Telegraph Salt Lake on September 8, 2017 highlighting lack of funds holding up the completion of the building to raise funds. “We printed that article on the back cover of our Puja souvenir with an appeal,” he said.
Though the building was finally completed, the pandemic delayed the inauguration, Ananda Gopal Das, the block’s treasurer, said. “Now on the basis of a consensus, we have to fix a rent which would be sufficient for the maintenance of the building.”
MLA Bose recalled granting Rs 3 lakh from his local area development fund at Jatua’s request. “It’s a matter of pride for me that both of us were present at the laying of the foundation stone as well as the inauguration today.”
MP Ghosh Dastidar, who had granted Rs 3 lakh from her fund, urged for proper utilisation of the building. “Most houses do not have space to host occasions like weddings and a community centre can be a suitable venue,” she said.
The mayor spoke of the difficulties that people of the block had to face in organising programmes in the absence of a community centre. She too had allocated funds for the construction as well as to convert a field into a playground for children.
“Today we have achieved a milestone. Our block is one of the smallest in Salt Lake and without a community centre we used to consider ourselves as marginalised, also since we are right next to the Kestopur Canal. This led to a feeling of inferiority. That is a thing of the past now,” smiled Dhar, a former block secretary.
Sib Narayan Bose, president of the residents’ body and one of the oldest residents of the block, thanked everyone involved in the long process.
Written with inputs from Bharati Kanjilal