Two months after forming a team with police to crack down on unauthorised structures, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has decided to regularise around two lakh illegal constructions.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya announced the civic body’s intention in his budget proposal tabled on Saturday. According to the proposal, awaiting approval by the civic house, illegal buildings from wards 101 to 141 — known as added areas — will be regularised by relaxing building rules.

“We are offering the relaxations for a number of reasons. The areas were not part of the original CMC area and were added only in 1984… We do not have documents of most of the buildings in these areas. Besides, one needs to remember the impact of the Partition, that had led to an influx of refugees in these pockets,” Bhattacharyya told Metro.

The mayor made it clear that demolition of unauthorised structures will continue in the rest of the city.

Documents with the civic building and assessment department show that of the three lakh-plus illegal structures in Calcutta, around two lakh are in Chingrihata, Behala, Garden Reach, Jadavpur and in the industrial estates in Kasba and Beleghata. The reasons for the buildings being illegal range from conversion of garage space to addition of extra floors .

The regularisation proposal is only for the illegal structures in Behala, Jadavpur and Garden Reach.

Refuting Bhattacharyya’s argument, former mayor Subrata Mukherjee said: “The added areas have witnessed rapid real estate development over the past few years. Most of the illegal structures in these areas have come after they were merged with the CMC.”

According to the rulebook, the house-owners will have to get their buildings mutated in their names first. Then, they will have to prepare plans of their building and submit them to the CMC for regularisation, along with certificates of structural stability.

The plan will be sanctioned against the payment of the sanction fees. No penalty will be imposed for any deviation from the building rules.

“The illegal buildings are not recorded in the assessment books. By regularising them, we are trying to broaden the tax net,” explained Bhattacharyya.

According to civic assessment records, annual property tax earning from the 41 wards is around Rs 30 crore, whereas that from the 100 wards in the city proper is more than Rs 281 crore.

But the opposition parties and house-owners are not willing to buy the mayor’s arguments.

“It is the Left Front’s way of appeasing voters in these wards. The Left used to have a strong base in these areas but is fast losing ground. So, they are desperate to win over the voters,” said Pradip Ghosh, the Congress leader in the CMC.

“If the illegal buildings in the 41 wards are spared, we will not allow any demolition in the rest of the city,” asserted Javed Ahmed Khan (Trinamul), the CMC leader of the opposition.

Amar Mitra, of the All Calcutta House Owners Association, dubbed the proposal an instance of double standards. “Rules and relaxation should be uniform.”

Even a section of civic officials are against the move. “Mushrooming of illegal structures has been one of the biggest problems in the city. The recent 100-hour blaze in Nandaram Market highlighted the risks illegal structures pose,” said an official.

“The CMC lacks the zeal to crack down on illegal buildings. There has been a flood of complaints in the past year, but only 100 buildings, all in the city proper, have been pulled down,” the official added.