Mayor Firhad Hakim on Saturday asked an official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) why the civic body was not approaching the courts against the builder of an under-construction “illegal” structure. The builder had obtained an injunction against KMC’s demolition order and used the window to raise unauthorised floors in the building.
Hakim said it was a “slap on the face” of the KMC.
A woman from Karaya complained to the mayor that the builder had reconstructed portions of the building that the KMC had earlier pulled down because they had been added illegally.
This prompted Hakim to ask the official why the KMC did not have the information.
The complaint and the conversation between the mayor and the senior official was during the weekly phone-in programme Talk to Mayor on Saturday afternoon. The Telegraph was present in the room.
“Why haven’t we approached the high court against the stay order? The builder has obtained a stay order against your demolition and then gone ahead with illegal construction. This is a slap on your face,” Hakim told the official when he informed the mayor that the builder had obtained a stay order after the KMC started to demolish the building.
“Why would a common person inform me about this? Why will the KMC not have the information? If this has happened, why won’t we go to court against the builder?” Hakim asked.
The mayor said if common people went to court against KMC officials for contempt of court, the civic body should also do so against those who are violating a court order.
He then told officials to immediately file a petition against the builder. “The KMC earns a bad name because of callousness. This gives people the opportunity to call the KMC corrupt,” he said.
Thirteen people were killed in March when an illegal under-construction building collapsed in Garden Reach. KMC officials admitted that there were many illegal structures across the city.
The complainant had called Hakim earlier, in January, alleging illegal construction in the Karaya building and that she was assaulted for raising her voice against it.
“After I complained to the mayor, a team from the KMC came and demolished portions of the illegal floors on February 1. But after the Lok Sabha elections were declared, the builder reconstructed the demolished portions,” she told Metro on Saturday evening.
She added that a KMC team had again come to demolish the illegal floors on June 25 but went back within 30 minutes.
A KMC official said they went to demolish the building last month but the builder showed them the stay order.
“But the stay order did not allow the builder to go ahead with the illegal construction. The reconstruction of the pulled down portions is a violation of the stay order,” said the senior KMC official.
“We will move high court against the stay order next week. We will appeal to the high court to allow us to pull down the entire illegal portion of the building in the presence of police. We will say in our petition that the owner built back the portions we pulled down while there was a stay order by the municipal building tribunal,” said the official.
The woman said the building was now five-storeyed. While the first two floors had a KMC permit, the rest was built illegally. A KMC official said he knew the builder had added illegal floors but did not immediately remember how many.
