KMC starts demolition work of illegal construction at Garden Reach

Work came to halt as residents of the building complained that demolition was being carried out without giving them any prior intimation

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), on Thursday, began its demolition work of a portion of an allegedly illegal construction which had leaned towards another building last year in Garden Reach’s Fatehpur area.

A 40-member team of KMC arrived at the spot to demolish portions of the building at the address 474 C/1 at the Fatehpur area. It was learnt that the pillars of the building had started developing cracks over time. The civic body team was accompanied by the police.

However, work came to halt as residents of the building complained that the demolition was being carried out without giving them any

KOLKATA: A specially-abled man who was engaged in managing traffic voluntarily was killed in a road accident on Wednesday night at the Rathtala Crossing on B T Road in Belghoria.

According to sources, Priyotosh Sarkar alias Sanjay from Ariadaha was specially-abled. He used to live with his mother. For the past 30 years, Sarkar has helped the traffic cops in managing traffic at Rathtala voluntarily. As he was specially abled, he could be inducted as a civic volunteer. To help him to run his family, cops used to raise funds for him every month from other police personnel and give the money to Sarkar. Also unofficially, a khaki dress was given to him from the Kamarhati Municipality.

On Wednesday, while Sarkar was managing traffic standing in the middle of the B T Road, a bus coming from Feeder Road allegedly violated the red signal and moved ahead. When Sarkar tried to stop the bus, he was hit and run over by the bus. Immediately after the accident, the bus driver tried to flee but other police personnel chased and caught the accused.

Later it was reportedly found that the driver was drunk. Meanwhile, Sarkar was rushed to Sagore Dutta Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries later. Police have registered a case against the offending bus driver on charges of death due to negligence and rash driving.

prior intimation. The owner has alleged that the KMC is not demolishing the portion which is illegal and is instead using hammers on the portion belonging to him since he is a BJP party worker.

It was learnt that the KMC

had served a notice to the building owner informing that it was an illegal construction. KMC sources said that it will demolish all the illegal portions in due course of time. On Thursday, the portion where work began was unoccupied. However, the civic body has taken measurements of the total area in the building occupied by residents. Plans are afoot to rehabilitate them under the Banglar Bari scheme.

About six buildings in that area have been identified by the KMC as illegal. All of these would also be demolished. It reportedly came to light that there are close to 40 such illegal constructions there. Mayor Firhad Hakim said: “Action will be taken once we get a compiled report from the inquiry committee that has been set up for the purpose.”

The police have said that police stations have already been intimated about the demolition work and KMC will have no problem in executing their work.

Belghoria: Specially-abled man killed in road accident

For the past 30 years, Sanjay helped the traffic cops in managing traffic at Rathtala voluntarily