9 killed in Kolkata building collapse; oppn fires ‘corruption’ salvo at Didi govt
KOLKATA: The collapse of an illegal under-construction building in Kolkata’s western fringes claiming at least nine lives and injuring 17 more early on Monday provoked a fierce political debate over whether the incident opened up yet another Pandora’s box of corruption under the TMC regime in Bengal.
Despite some 18 hours having passed since the collapse, several people were still believed to have remained trapped inside the rubble, triggering apprehensions of a further rise in the death toll, which kept mounting through the day. The deceased included two women who lived in the vicinity.
In the aftermath of the five-storey building, allegedly being constructed by filling up a water body, crumbling down on neighbourhood shanties occupied by unsuspecting dwellers in the thickly-populated Azhar Mollah Bagan area of Garden Reach, state Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari claimed that the locality teemed with no less than 800 such unauthorised buildings.
Demanding a court-monitored audit by central bodies like the CPWD into constructions in urban areas of the state, Adhikari set a onemonth deadline for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to publish the list of authorised and unathorised structures in its 141 wards.
“I will also file RTIs with the KMC secretary seeking details of such constructions and bring the details out in public domain,” he declared.
While Md Wasim, the promoter of the building, was arrested, the investigation into the collapse was handed over to the homicide department of the city police. IPC sections pertaining to murder, attempt to murder and criminal negligence were slapped on the accused, police said.
“There are several builders involved in the project. We are on the lookout for the others,” a senior officer said.
Governor Bose also visited the accident site and spoke to the locals, rescue workers and police personnel posted there. Later, he visited the hospital and met the injured. Speaking to the media, Bose said, “The helpless people die of no fault of theirs. This is a human failure. There is a lapse on the part of the builder, but the failure of supervisors is greater. They have failed miserably in their duties.”