The Calcutta Municipal Corporation will set up a team at its headquarters for the demolition of illegal structures so the team is immune from resistance.
Mayor Firhad Hakim instructed the chief engineer of the civic body’s building department to form the team, consisting of officials only from the civic headquarters, during the weekly phone-in programme Talk to Mayor.
Hakim floated the idea after a caller from Garden Reach complained that an illegal structure had not been pulled down. “Please form a central team. Borough (teams) are often under pressure,” Hakim said.
Hakim later told Metro that since engineers in the borough have offices closer to the building being demolished, they are prone to threats. “They face resistance from local people,” he said.
“But if there is a team stationed at the headquarters, they can work more swiftly. They will go, carry out the demolition and come back. There is a less possibility of these engineers coming under pressure to not act,” he said.
The caller from Garden Reach’s Rajabagan complained that despite writing to the CMC about illegal construction in the area, the civic body had not done anything. Hakim then said there should be a central team.
Hakim said during the programme that engineers in the boroughs were involved in a lot of other work as well.
A senior official of the CMC’s building department said there was already a small team that coordinates the demolition of illegal structures with engineers in the boroughs. The official said they will now increase the strength of the team so they can be directly involved in the demolition work.
The demolition of an allegedly illegal building in Jadavpur was stopped midway in August following protests by some residents of the area against the move by CMC.
An official said on Friday that more than 500 illegal buildings, or portions of them, were pulled down in the past six months in Calcutta.
