Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has taken a strong stand to prevent the mushrooming of illegal buildings in the city.
Mayor Firhad Hakim said on Saturday that allowing the construction of an illegal building will be ‘considered a dereliction of duty’ and the concerned engineer designated as ‘AC’ or ‘AE’ in KMC parlance will be ‘suspended immediately’.
“The Municipal Commissioner has already come out with a circular giving effect to such immediate suspension. The job of the engineer is to serve a notice to the owner with a copy to the concerned police station as soon as he comes across an illegal pillar. If the construction continues even after his action, he will inform the executive engineer who will inform DG (Director General) Building. The DG will then inform the Municipal Commissioner who will communicate the matter to Kolkata Police Commissioner,”
he said.
“Accordingly, a central team from KMC will go and pull down the illegal construction. So, the concerned borough engineer should be vigilant and be proactive in not allowing illegal construction to go on,” Hakim said.
He admitted that many such illegal buildings have come up in the city during the erstwhile Left Front rule.
“We cannot forcibly evict people from such illegal buildings but what we can do is to prevent further mushrooming of such buildings,“ he mentioned.