Builder, 2 others jailed for illegal construction

Kolkata: The owner of a house, its builder and another person were sentenced to 3 months of imprisonment by the Chief Magistrate of Municipal Court for illegal construction. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each defaulter. If they fail to pay the fine, the imprisonment period will increase by another 3 months.

The Chief Magistrate, Pradip Adhikary, also instructed the Building department of Kolkata Municipal Corporation to raze the illegally-built floor within 15 days.

A portion of the building, located at Shib Krishna Dawn Lane under Phoolbagan police limits, was built flouting Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC)'s Building rules. Earlier, the inspectors of the Building department had served stop work notice to the owner after they found deviations from the sanctioned plan. But, the owner went ahead with the construction and completed a floor illegally. The civic authorities then filed an FIR against the owner and the builder. Earlier, Firhad Hakim, chairman, board of administrators had said stern action would be taken against the builders who would carry out illegal construction.

Illegal construction in three areas—Jadavpur, Behala and Garden Reach, which were added to KMC in 1985, became rampant. Thousands of illegal buildings had come up in these areas without any sanctioned plan.

After coming to power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee had instructed the civic authorities to take stern action against the builders carrying out unauthorised construction.