KMC to demolish ‘highly insecure’ buildings

KOLKATA: The civic body has decided to demolish ‘highly insecure’ buildings which have become vulnerable in the monsoon. Mayor Firhad Hakim announced this at the civic body’s monthly meeting on Saturday. Hakim was replying to a query from Prakash Upadhyay, a Congress councillor, who sought to know about the fate of insecure buildings across the city.
Hakim conceded that it was becoming extremely difficult for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) buildings department officials to protect several dilapidated buildings which have grown old and developed major cracks. “We don’t want loss of lives following collapse of insecure buildings — particularly in monsoon. I have asked the buildings department officials to identify extremely vulnerable buildings and demolish those at the earliest to save the lives of the inmates,” Hakim said.
However, the mayor said that the civic body would take care of the rights of the tenants and ensure that no tenants are evicted. “In most cases, tenants die every time an insecure building collapses because. The residents insist to stay in the dilapidated buildings and seldom move out in fear of losing the property,” Hakim said.
After identifying and demolishing a dilapidated building, the KMC buildings department will set up makeshift homes for the tenants at the site. This apart, the KMC assessment department will record names of each tenant to protect their interest. Finally, the buildings department will be asked not to sanction plans of any buildings or structures on the same land without a proper rehabilitation of the tenants. “We need to take these measures to safeguard the interests of tenants. Otherwise, the tenants may get deprived of their rights once a dilapidated building is demolished,” Hakim said.
A KMC buildings department senior official conceded that over 100 buildings were in vulnerable state and needed to be demolished immediately.
“Going by the borough-wise list of insecure buildings, we need to demolish over 100 buildings to save the residents. But in most cases, tenants resist any demolition drive fearing that they would be rendered homeless,” a KMC buildings department official said.