KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2022 was passed in the state Assembly on Thursday with the objective of fast-tracking the process of pulling down dangerous and dilapidated buildings in the city where people continue to live risking their lives and accordingly develop it.
The collapse of dilapidated buildings particularly during the rainy season has been a major concern for the KMC and there have also been instances when precious human lives have been lost.
"The Bill will also allow the occupiers of dilapidated buildings to erect temporary structures in the premises itself for rehabilitation after the demolition of the building before the commencement of development work, which the landlord or the occupiers, as the case may be, has to carry out. It will also provide occupancy certificates to the occupiers under supervision of the KMC, if they shift somewhere else to facilitate the process of development work," Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim who is also the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister said.Hakim added that with the implementation of the Bill, automatic mutation of the land will be done as soon as its registry is completed."It will make the process of submission of online application for sanction of building plan easier through a single window system and to fix the modalities as well as fees, for submission of online application forms," Hakim said.
The Bill allows the Municipal Valuation Committee to exercise options for the categorisation of blocks etc for the purpose of unit area assessment to make it more practical and rational.The Bill has kept provisions for charging license fees from advertisements.
"The Metro railway is executing various projects in the city and we have given them relaxations of Rs 500 crore for land. However, they have been using pillars and other structures for advertisements and earning revenue from them. We have made provisions in the Bill so that the agencies that are advertising should pay a license fee to us," Hakim remarked.