Consecutive fire incidents become cause of concern for admin

Kolkata: The two consecutive fire incidents in two slums in the city have become a major cause of concern for the administration.

According to sources, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is already trying to find out the cause behind the two fire incidents that took place in Pragati Maidan and New Alipore. On Sunday, Jui Biswas, councillor of Ward 81 in New Alipore visited the slum near Durgapur Bridge which was gutted on Saturday evening.

She alleged that despite the people in the slum living for almost 20 years, the Railway which is the owner of the land did not take any action.

Biswas also claimed that several people gave the shanties on rent. “We have not seen any initiative from the Railways to check and take steps to rehabilitate these people. Though a few people have voter cards, that does not mean they can occupy others land,”

said Biswas.

However, the fire brigade officials in both the fire incidents alleged that inflammable objects like plastic is one of the major causes of fire taking devastating shape. On Saturday around 6:50 pm, a fire broke out at the slum in New Alipore. About 15 fire tenders were pressed into action.

Before that another major fire had broken out at a slum near Parama Island on Thursday. At least 100 shanties were gutted.