Kolkata: After having stationed the deputy thika controller at its headquarters for the ease and convenience of Thika tenants in obtaining services, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is learnt to have executed the first lease deed in favour of three thika tenants of Ward 7 who were handed over the deeds by the mayor Firhad Hakim.
With Thika tenants within the KMC area often facing problems in obtaining Thika services due to a lack of documents or alleged non-cooperation from some Thika tenancy officials, a Thika cell was set up at the civic body’s headquarters at SN Banerjee Road for providing fast and effective services like mutation, building NOC, Thika lease etc.
Under the new rules which came into effect after the state government amended the West Bengal Thika Tenancy (Acquisition and Regulation Act), a Thika tenant is now considered a leaseholder and a sub-tenant an assignee. KMC has shared that ever since the state government positioned the deputy Thika controller at the civic body headquarters, the first-ever lease deed was executed on June 28 in favour of three Thika tenants of Ward 07.
The mayor has handed over the deeds to them in the presence of the municipal commissioner Binod Kumar.
An official said that such a step was in line with the KMC’s vision of eventually ridding the city of slums. Most slums in Kolkata are situated on Thika lands which the government had acquired from zamindars post-independence while allowing the tenants to continue to occupy these lands.
The 2019 amendment has allowed these tenants to become lessees, thus giving them the right to develop their homes on these lands. This also allowed them to secure bank loans to build houses on a small area of land; up to 3 cottahs. In Kolkata, there are about 2000 acres of Thika tenancy land.
As a first step towards making it easier for Thika tenants to obtain no-objection certificates (NOC) against a sanction plan for building their homes, Mayor Firhad Hakim ensured that control of Thika lands was transferred to the UDMA from the Land and Land Reforms department.
Hakim said: “With the Thika cell at KMC headquarters, we are confident that the number of illegal construction on Thika lands will also come down....”