Claiming that the collapsed under-construction building at Garden Reach was coming up during the last couple of years only, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member and former Calcutta mayor Bikash Bhattacharya on Monday accused the ruling Trinamul Congress of blaming the Left for any ills in West Bengal.
Responding to city Mayor Firhad Hakim's accusation that illegal construction in Garden Reach and some other areas in Calcutta has been a trend since the Left Front era, he asked what the TMC has been doing during its 12-year rule even if such an accusation was considered to be true for the sake of argument.
"If anything bad happens in the state, the TMC finds it convenient to blame the erstwhile Left Front government," Bhattacharya told PTI.
The TMC came to power in West Bengal in 2011, defeating the Left Front, which ruled the state for 34 years from 1977.
Claiming that the building, which was admitted by Hakim to be illegal, was being constructed over the last couple of years, Bhattacharya said that the local councillor and the MLA are both from the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Hakim, who is also the state's Urban Development minister, is the local MLA.
"Were they keeping their eyes closed when this illegal construction work was taking place?" asked Bhattacharya, who was the mayor of Calcutta from 2005 to 2010.
When asked by reporters that several buildings in the area were constructed illegally, Hakim claimed that construction of unauthorised buildings in the area has been a trend in the area for a long time.
"It has been the trend here and also in some other areas since the Left Front era. Now it does not happen so much," he said.
Hakim said that there was a lapse on the part of the officials for failing to notice the illegal construction and take steps, while asserting that it is not the job of the local elected councillor to see which construction is according to a sanctioned plan from Calcutta Municipal Corporation and which is not.
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