The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has decided to issue certificates recording the names of tenants before the civic body decides to demolish dilapidated buildings on the grounds of public safety.
The certificate will be signed by an executive engineer of a borough to ensure that the tenants get back their share of space when the building is reconstructed.
According to a KMC buildings department senior official, the strategy is aimed at giving a sense of security to a section of tenants who often choose to stay back at the dilapidated buildings rather than shifting to a safer site at the cost of their lives.
After mayor Firhad Hakim gave a go ahead to this plan, the buildings department brass conveyed the message to the KMC borough executive engineers to communicate the civic plan of action to the tenants staying in the vulnerable buildings across the city.
This measure should add some sense of security for tenants. Deaths and injuries should be avoided at all costs.TimesView”We are hopeful of receiving a good response after offering the tenants of dilapidated buildings this opportunity of recording their rights with our buildings department. This new scheme is expected to bring down the number of building collapses every monsoon,” said a KMC buildings department official.
Sources in the KMC buildings department said that after the borough executive engineers were asked to prepare a list of highly insecure buildings in five boroughs, they recently came up with a list of 150 buildings, which the civic body would need to demolish in order to prevent collapses.
“Though we have a long list of 3,000 insecure buildings, we need to raze 150 buildings that pose a threat to public safety. We have asked the borough executive engineers to initiate talks with the owners as well as tenants so that demolition of these buildings can be completed without hassles. In this context, the new scheme of rehabilitating the tenants in the reconstructed properties may encourage the tenants in vacating the rickety houses without hesitation,” said a KMC building department official.
Some of the most vulnerable buildings are located in Burrabazar, Pathuriaghata Street, Chitpore, Beodon Street, Jorasanko, M G Road, Bidhan Sarani, APC Roy Road, College Street, Bowbazar, Taltala, Park Circus, Bhowanipore, Kalighat, Lake Market among other areas. A KMC official said the civic body had already approached a few of the tenants at some of these vulnerable buildings.
