Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality has lodged a police complaint against a mobile service provider for erecting a signal tower off VIP Road without its permission.

The municipality said the unauthorised cellphone tower was exposing residents of the locality to harmful “electromagnetic emissions”.

“We are also trying to identify illegal towers in other parts of the municipal area,” municipality chairman Tapas Chatterjee said.

According to government guidelines, a mobile base station should be at least three metres away from the nearest building.

“A lot of induced current is generated by these mobile base stations. The radio waves they transmit are dangerous, too,” a municipality official said.

“Mobile towers can also be a threat to residents of adjacent buildings during earthquakes or storms,” he added.