Kolkata, Apr 25 (PTI) Expressing concern over unauthorised constructions, particularly in Garden Reach area here where a recent building collapse resulted in the loss of 12 lives, the Calcutta High Court on Thursday asked the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to empower its officers to take action.
In an interim order, the court asked the Registrar of Assurances not to register any sale deed or document or a power of attorney concerning a building, for which there is no sanctioned plan.
During the hearing of two PILs addressing unauthorised constructions, the division bench, led by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam, emphasised the necessity for stringent action and urged the state to empower its officers to enforce laws rigorously and impartially.
“It is with anguish we are saying, you please do something, you empower your officers,” the court said, asking the KMC to give a free hand to its engineers to take action against unauthorised constructions.
The court stressed the importance of granting KMC engineers autonomy to combat unauthorised constructions and expressed skepticism about future action plans without genuine determination.
“You tie officers’ hands behind their backs and ask them to function and take diktats of a political supremo, nothing can happen,” the court said.
The Chief Justice said that during his three-year tenure here, he has found that there is “no political will” and zeal to work.
He said unless there is a will to enforce the laws, court orders cannot stop unauthorised constructions on the ground.
Criticising the lack of political and administrative resolve, the Chief Justice lamented the city’s ongoing challenges with unauthorised construction and hawker regulation.
Furthermore, the court mandated an escalation in financial assistance for the families of the deceased to Rs five lakh from Rs two lakh, and for the seriously injured people to Rs 1.5 lakh from Rs 50,000, in response to the Garden Reach building collapse on March 17.
The division bench, also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, said it has been seized of several other matters relating to unauthorised constructions and that demolition of such illegal buildings could not take place despite orders by it, citing public resistance.
The bench said the court is not inclined to believe that such unauthorised constructions could take place without the knowledge of the elected representatives of the local bodies concerned, not only in Kolkata, but in other places of West Bengal.
“However, the question remains as to what the officials and elected persons of local bodies were doing when the construction was in progress,” the court said, holding that they cannot plead ignorance.
Maintaining that the public of the locality elected those persons to represent the local bodies, the court said, “if they fail in discharging public function, they are unfit to continue in the posts and have to be forthwith removed.” The court will hear the case again on May 9. PTI AMR MNB
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