Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday expressed concern about construction materials lying dumped on the roadside and blocking drains, increasing chances of flooding during the monsoon.

She told urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim to ask all civic bodies to impose penalties on people caught dumping construction materials on or along roads. The chief minister raised the issue during an administrative review meeting of several districts that she attended from Nabanna via videoconference.

Mamata narrated a personal experience while travelling to Behala, when she found that drains were blocked in Tollygunge, New Alipore and Behala.

“People keep bricks, sand and other construction materials on roads. As a result the drains get blocked,” Mamata said. “Fine them. You have to be aggressive at times. Conduct a drive and find out who is not adhering to rules. Fine them and withhold their permission till they adhere to the rules,” Mamata told Hakim, who is also chairperson of the board of administrators of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC).

“Why should someone dump materials on the footpath and block the drains. Don’t they have a responsibility? No one is saying that they cannot build a house. But why will other people in the neighbourhood suffer? People have to understand this,” Mamata said.

“I was going to Behala one day when it was raining. I found the drains blocked in the entire area from Tollygunge, New Alipore to Behala.”

Metro has reported several times how footpaths lie encroached with construction materials, forcing people to walk down roads putting their lives at risk. Outside some buildings under construction, materials block the footpath as well as the road.

Engineers and officials of the CMC admitted that dumping construction materials on footpaths or roads was common. “Anyone building a house is allowed to stack construction materials outside for three months from the day the building plan is approved. They have to pay a stacking fee to the CMC,” said an official.

“The three-month time is given on the assumption that after that period the owner will be able to create enough space on the plot to keep the materials. But even during this three-month period, no one should stack a huge quantity of materials that can block a drain, footpath or a road,” the official said.

Anyone who finds that a builder or plot owner has kept materials on a road for many months can lodge a complaint with the building department of the CMC. “We will issue a show-cause notice to the architect or the builder or the owner of the plot. If they still do not amend ways, we will issue a stop-work notice,” the official said.

The chief minister also criticised the tendency of councillors to only think about the welfare of their respective wards and not a neighbouring ward. “Some councillors have a habit that they ensure pumps work in their areas and not in neighbouring wards. They want their wards to remain clean but do not bother about a neighbouring ward. This cannot happen. All people are ours,” Mamata said.

Warriors honoured

Covid warriors from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s Borough III after their felicitation at the civic body’s solid waste management department in Narkeldanga on Tuesday Bishwarup Dutta

Covid warriors from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s Borough III after their felicitation at the civic body’s solid waste management department in Narkeldanga on Tuesday.
Covid warriors are those who have been rendering their services during the lockdown.

The borough’s outgoing chairperson, Anindya Routh, and other civic officials had organised the programme. The 110 people who were honoured included civic employees who sanitise an area or a building where someone has tested positive for Covid-19, municipal solid waste cleaners, drivers, doctors at civic clinics and some officials at Beleghata ID Hospital.

“All these people work in the nine wards of the borough,” Routh said. The borough covers Beleghata, Phoolbagan and Kankurgachhi