Officials of the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (KMRCL) on Sunday faced protest by the residents of the city’s Bowbazar area who claimed they were yet to receive compensation even as it has been three years since their houses got damaged due to work on the metro project in 2019.
The officials, who visited a campsite set up for those shifted in the last three days after their houses developed cracks in Bowbazar’s Madan Dutta Lane, were gheraoed by the protesters. Since Friday, at least 183 people have been shifted from nearly a dozen houses at Madan Dutta Lane. The camp was set up for redressal of grievances of those affected.
“They should appoint one person who can can listen to our grievances and resolve them in a proper manner,” a protester said.
KMRCL general manager AK Nandy said they listened to the protesters and they will will convey it to the high-ups.
Madan Dutta Lane’s is the third incident of houses developing cracks in Bowbazar due to work on the metro project that includes an underwater metro tunnel across the Hooghly river and will be India’s first. The East-West Metro would connect Sector V in Salt Lake with Howrah Maidan across the Hooghly through the underwater tunnel.
Meanwhile, local councillor Biswaroop Dey on Sunday allegedly thrashed a worker of a company that has been entrusted with providing food to the affected residents who have been shifted to some hotels at the government’s directions.
The incident took place after the owner of a small hotel that also developed cracks in Bowbazar complained that he was refused food at the camp. Dey said, “There is an old hotel in Bowbazar whose owner had gone to Odisha and his son was looking after the property. When he returned on Saturday he wasn’t allowed to enter the hotel since it developed cracks. Now these people refused him food on the ground that he had come from Odisha just to have a meal. ” TMC govt insensitive: Adhir Ranjan
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury termed the TMC government as “insensitive”. “People are suffering because of her (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) selfishness and her decisions. Realignment of the metro route was done by her just to please some builders. What was she doing all this while? Why didn’t she hold a meeting of all stakeholders earlier?” he asked.
TMC leader Sougata Roy said, “The metro line has come up in vacant areas like Garia, Joka. The small stretch from Sealdah to Chittaranjan Avenue has a number of old houses. I am sure the metro authorities will do something about it. Such problems do arise when a big project passes through an area like this. Technical issues need to be identified and rectified. But the project can’t be stopped because some houses got damaged,” said Roy.
