A section of the residents of Karunamoyee Housing Estate has shot off a letter to the commissioner of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC), requesting the office of the deputy commissioner Bidhannagar and the Salt Lake cyber crime police station to be shifted out from the Karunamoyee municipal market complex immediately.
The letter was handed over to the Corporation's receiving section last month, days after a sit-in convention was organised at the adjacent playground. A copy of the letter is with The Telegraph Salt Lake.
In the letter, the residents have sought immediate shifting of the Salt Lake cyber crime police station and the office of the deputy commissioner of Bidhannnagar from the two floors of the municipal market complex.
The residents are upset as these two floors were originally meant to house a community centre for the residents of the housing estate.
“The residents are being deprived of a community centre for several years now and it was their fundamental right to seek the shifting of the police station and the deputy commissioner's office as now residents of all blocks of the housing estate are being forced to book community centres of other blocks as the premises are not vacant.
“Despite having infrastructure for the community centre we are not being able to use it for close to 10 years as it is being used by the Bidhannagar Commissionerate. What was meant to be a temporary arrangement seems to have got a seal of approval,” Basak said.
The backstory
The Bidhannagar East police station was set up in 2015 on a temporary basis on top of the market complex as the old building near Tank 8 was razed to make way for a new one. The police station shifted in 2018 after the new building became operational but the police barracks and living quarters remained at the market that is operated by BMC. Later the barracks made way for the Salt Lake cyber crime police station and the office of the deputy commissioner of Bidhannnagar that were earlier housed on the first floor of the Bidhannagar North police station.
A senior officer of the commissionerate said that they had not received any letter or request from the residents to move out. Basak said that they had sent the letter to the municipal commissioner and would also write to the police at a later date.
