Promoter held for dumping building material on road

KOLKATA: The police have arrested a promoter — Soumen Chakraborty — for allegedly blocking a road with construction materials in the Purba Barisha area of southwest Kolkata on Monday. The cop action came after local residents put up a 30-minute road block to protest what they claimed was an everyday nuisance by the construction syndicates.
“For weeks now, we have been intimating the local police station and the councillor about the blocked roads. But till Monday, no action was visible. There are a number of constructions going on around Phillips Colony here and everyone is dumping construction material on the roads at night. Earlier, the syndicate members had threatened us when we protested,” said Satadru Bhattacharya, one of the locals. However, the cops have denied receiving any complaint about threats being issued in this regard.

“Construction material, like sand, gravel, iron and bricks, are dumped on the already congested roads. Sadly, the administration has turned a blind eye to this problem, so people have no fear of law and continue with such behaviour,” claimed another protester.

The cops, though, said that the accused, Chakraborty, is a local promoter and has no syndicate links. The incident took place on the Ishan Ghosh Road, adjoining the important Motilal Gupta Road that is a vital link between Behala and Tollygunge. The cops also denied that the problem lasted beyond a few minutes.

“There was no road block as such. We have registered a case of road obstruction. The sand and bricks dumped on the road has been removed. Just as we have registered a case against the promoter, we are taking action against those who tried to block the road. There was no prior intimation to us about the road getting blocked due to construction material,” said an officer.

CM Mamata Banerjee recently told the administration and party workers to refrain from blocking roads with construction material.