Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation buildings dept will send a team from borough IX to several Abhishek Banerjee properties in the Kalighat area for physical inspection. This inspection is needed, as per the KMC buildings rule, to determine on the spot whether the owner has indulged in any sort of deviation from the sanctioned plan. According to a KMC official, based on the findings on the spot, the owner/owners of these properties will be called to attend a hearing at the KMC headquarters. The hearing officer will decide the fate of these buildings.“We will need to carry out a physical inspection. Based on the findings, the owners will be given an opportunity to appear before a hearing officer. The hearing officer will decide if the unauthorised portions will be demolished or will be regularised,” said a civic official. According to a KMC source, a team from the buildings dept will visit the Shantiniketan building on Harish Mukherjee Road and another multi-storey building on Kalighat Road. These properties are either owned or co-owned by Banerjee, family, or his company.‘Shantiniketan’, where a notice was pasted on May 18 for alleged unauthorised construction, is among the 17 properties “owned or co-owned by Abhishek Banerjee, his company and family” that are under the scrutiny of the civic body’s buildings wing, an official of KMC said.Officials said notices under section 400 (1) of the KMC Act, 1980 — issued for deviations from the sanctioned plan — have been pasted at 17 addresses, including the two in Kalighat-Harish Mukherjee Road.KMC’s assessment department initially prepared a list of 42 properties allegedly owned or co-owned by Banerjee, which was later pruned to 17. Banerjee vowed to fight back.At a meeting of TMC MLAs at Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat home on May 20, he remarked: “Let them do whatever they want. Raze my home, send notice. I won’t bow down. Come what may, my fight continues against BJP.”In the notice pasted on ‘Shantiniketan’, persons concerned were directed to appear before the executive engineer of the buildings dept with the sanctioned plan as well as a fresh drawing of the alterations made. “Once the documents are submitted, we will give the owners an opportunity to appear for a hearing.” Abhishek sought additional time from KMC to reply to the notices.However, later the KMC buildings dept changed its stance and decided to first physically inspect prime properties and then issue notices based on the findings, said an official.The civic body’s assessment collection wing has also initiated the process of reassessing some of his properties, including the Shantiniketan building. Notices have already been sent to these addresses asking the owner/owners to furnish details.
