Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation is facing problems with tenants' complaining about risking their lives while living in old and dangerous buildings whose owners have remained untraced.
Accordings to reports there are around 1,200 such buildings in the city located in
North and Central Kolkata located in Boroughs 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9.
"We had passed a Bill in the state Assembly on March 2017 that owners of dangerous and dilapidated buildings may apply to the civic body with rehabilitation package for the tenants. In such cases, we give clearance to pull down the old structure to make room for a new one with 100 per cent additional FAR (Floor Area Ratio). But there are a number of buildings in the city in which owners are untraced. We are examining legal provisions in case of these buildings," said Firhad Hakim, Chairman of KMC's Board of Administrators in response to a complaint at the Talk to Corporation programme on Saturday from an octogenarian
doctor residing at a similar building at M G Road in Central Kolkata.
The 80-year-old runs a private clinic in the ground floor of the residence and is living with the apprehension of the 150-year-old building caving in any day. "My owner has remained untraced for ten years. He even do not take any house rent. I submit the same to the Rent Control," he
claimed. A senior official of the Building department said that there are legal provisions for the government to acquire buildings in case there is no claimant and can engage an agency for doing the needful.