Following the under-construction building collapse in Garden Reach area, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is learnt to have decided to initiate an internal inquiry against its three officials who were asked to show-cause on why they did not report to the civic body on the illegal construction concerned in their borough.
The collapse of the illegal construction in Ward 134 in the Garden Reach area on Sunday night put KMC in a tight spot. On Monday, it had asked Borough-15’s executive engineer, assistant engineer and sub-assistant engineer to show-cause in 48 hours as to why they did not report the illegal construction to the KMC Building department’s director general. However, now it is learnt that the civic body will start a probe against these three officials. Further, they can be subjected to disciplinary action, sources said.
On Tuesday, KMC deputy mayor Atin Ghosh, while claiming that KMC certainly has a moral responsibility in the wake of this tragedy, had mentioned that an inquiry committee is likely to be formed to probe this incident. The civic body has also transferred three other Building department officials to other departments.
However, even though Mayor Firhad Hakim said that the Building department has to shoulder the blame for illegal constructions and that councillors cannot be accused for not having any clue of unauthorised constructions in their wards, it was only last year that he had instructed the Building department that borough chairmen must be given the list of the number of buildings sanctioned in their respective boroughs which further needs to be passed on to the councillors.
“Councillors need to be aware of the building plans sanctioned in their wards. If they spot any anomaly, they need to bring it to the notice of the KMC,” Hakim had said.