KOLKATA: Final-year BCom student
Amit Pandey is worried about his future as his father Uday Sankar was told to look for an alternative accommodation ahead of Amit’s semester exam next week.
Pandey’s family is one of the 30 families who have been asked to vacate the rickety three-storey building on Rani Rashmoni Road in central Kolkata. The century-old building is among six others for which municipal commissioner Khalil Ahmed had issued a special demolition order. Accordingly, a
KMC demolition squad reached the spot at 11am. By 2.20pm, large parts of the building were razed to the ground.
Though portions of the building occupied by the tenants were spared, the KMC building department engineers asked the tenants to vacate the premises by next week.
However, the civic drive took the residents of the building off guard. “Earlier, the civic team had given us only 48 hours to move out. This was not possible as we need time to do so. I have my semester exams. I can’t concentrate on my study amid such uncertainty,” Amit told TOI.
Similarly, 45-year-old Anita Roy, who has been a tenant of the building since birth, expressed concern over the future of her daughter who has been preparing for her CA (inter) exams. “The KMC has given us a new deadline. But we are an ordinary family and don’t have the resources to buy a new house or rent one in central Kolkata. I fear my daughter will find it difficult to prepare for her higher studies,” Roy said.
Nitesh Singh, a small-time trader on SN Banerjee Road, has been a tenant of the rickety building for four decades. Singh alleged that all appeals by the tenants for a thorough repair of the building fell on deaf ears. “We have seen portions of the building collapse thrice. This has created a panic among many of us. Recently, we had requested the owner to have portions of the building repaired after a large chunk fell from the roof on a car parked on the portico. But he turned down our proposal,” Singh said.
However, owner Biswajit
Biswas does not buy any argument citing lack of concern for the maintenance of the building. He claimed that due to the lack of funds generated from the rent collected, he was unable to carry out repairs and maintenance works on the building. Biswas said, “It is not that I am not concerned about the condition of the century-old building. But I can hardly take any step as the paltry amount I get from the tenants is far from sufficient to undertake even a small repair.
Some tenants occupy two or three rooms, but pay not more than Rs 50-100 per month. Repeated proposals to hike the rent have been turned down by a majority of the tenants. In such a situation, how is it possible for me to carry out a repair or renovation?” he asked.
