KMRCL officials meet Chief Secy to tackle discrepancies in compensation claims
Kolkata: Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL) on Friday held a meeting with state Chief Secretary Malay De to overcome the discrepancies that have cropped up in 112 declaration forms submitted by the residents, for claiming compensation for the damages caused to their houses due to construction work of East-West Metro in Bowbazar area.
"Today (September 13, 2019), we conducted a meeting with Chief Secretary Malay De at Nabanna in connection with the discrepancies in 112 declaration forms," said A K Nandy, general manager (Administration), KMRCL.
The meeting was also attended by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) officials and Kolkata Police officials. While the process of handing over the Rs five lakh cheques to beneficiaries started on September 7, the verification of the residents eligible for getting the compensation was being carried out by KMC officials.
In a bid to get the compensation, the head of the family has to submit the declaration form mentioning the address and the name of the hotel they have been shifted to, at the control room formed at Goenka College of Commerce and Business Administration. The KMC then verifies the details and approves the names of the beneficiaries.
The KMRCL officials pointed out that they had received 112 declaration forms with discrepancies. This apart, different heads of the same family have claimed compensation.
According to sources, Subhashish Sen, resident of 9 D, Durga Pithuri Lane, had received a cheque of Rs five lakh but the drawee had stopped the amount. He visited the control room urging the KMRCL officials to issue the compensation on Friday.
According to sources in the control room, the amount was apparently stopped because of litigation. Sen is one of four siblings, all of whom claimed that they were beneficiaries of the compensation.
The number of beneficiaries in the list is increasing as the residents are still registering their names to avail the compensation at the control room.
However, the KMRCL had formed a Human Interface group to prepare a building-wise head count of the people. "We are now disbursing the compensation amount directly to the accounts of beneficiaries. Today, we have transferred Rs five lakh to the accounts of 14 residents through RTGS," added Nandy.
A Building Assessment Committee (BAC) had been formed to categorise the buildings as per their extent of damage in Durga Pithuri Lane, Syakra Para Lane and Gour De Lane. The five-member BAC has already started health study of the buildings that can be restored, as well as the ones that need to be demolished.
