A piece of crumbling culture in Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s Calcutta claimed the life of one labourer and left another seriously injured on Wednesday morning, when a concrete slab came crashing down from an under-construction jatra address on Bagbazar Street.

The accident occurred six days after the concrete casting was completed on the roof of Phanibushan Bidyabinod Jatra Mancha — an exclusive state-steered jatra address, six years in the making.

“One unknown person died, while Shantanu Das was admitted to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital with serious injuries,” said Dulal Chandra Dey, officer in charge, Shyampukur police station.

The construction of the 800-seater Phanibushan Mancha on 12 cottahs opposite Girish Mancha started in September 2000. Construction was stalled two years later.

The second phase of work started a few months back and the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) was to hand it over to the information and cultural affairs department on November 30.

The accident is the latest in a long line of controversies linked to the government’s precious jatra destination.

Most members of the jatra community were against the project from the beginning. “We were never asked for our views, our needs. We don’t need such a jatra hall in Calcutta,” said the member of a leading jatra company.

Rudraprasad Sengupta of Nandikar was scathing: “Tapas Sen (the late stage-lighting expert) had inspected it and said the building was a giant mistake. It even looks awful, like a warehouse. It’s nothing but a sheer waste of money. I hope the chief minister takes steps to pull it down and put the money to better use.”

The plan of a permanent jatra hall had been conceived by actor Anup Kumar with the approval of then minister for information and cultural affairs Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Besides fundamental opposition to the concept of such a jatra hall, complaints of poor acoustics, faulty positioning of greenroom and other flaws have poured in.

“It’s a wonderful hall. The accident is a minor setback that cannot stop the show,” countered Samik Sen of Paschim Banga Jatra Sammelan, organiser of Jatra Utsav at the Mancha from January 11.