About 20 families were trapped inside a five-storey building after portions of the structure collapsed and blocked the stairway while a developer was pulling down the old building.
A resident of the building on Madan Mohan Burman Street said the builder had bagged a contract from the landlord to demolish the existing building and raise a new one in its place.
The residents, however, alleged that the landlord signed the agreement with the builder without informing the tenants.
Many of them initially refused to leave the building when fire brigade personnel arrived on Friday to rescue the trapped residents.
“The builder had engaged men to pull down the structure. The demolition work started about a fortnight ago. On Friday, they were pulling down a small reservoir on the terrace when a portion of the terrace collapsed and fell on the stairway, blocking the exits of the first and second floors,” said Chetan Jha, a tenant in the building.
An official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said the stairway also collapsed.
The trapped residents were brought down to safety by fire brigade personnel using ladders.
The building is nearly a century old, and the KMC had tagged it as a bipojjonok bari (dangerous building) several months ago.
“The landlord did not consult us while signing an agreement with the developer. We do not know whether we will have any space
in the new structure. The builder is telling us that there will be no space for us as all the new flats will be at least 1,000 sq ft. They are asking us to accept money and leave,” alleged a tenant.
When asked about the anxiety of the residents, Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim said on Friday evening that the civic body has the power to give possession certificates to tenants of old buildings that are being pulled down.
“We will give them possession certificates that will ensure they get space in the new building if they come to us,” Hakim said.
The building had nearly 80 families residing there. While many no longer live there but have their rooms locked, several others took severance pay and left. About 20 families still reside in the building and want assurance that the new building will have apartments for them.
Sources in the KMC said the civic body has approved a plan to raise a new building on that site. The plan was approved under Section 142 of the KMC Act, under which the civic body allows a new building to have more space than what is normally permitted on a plot of that size and with a certain front road width.
The relaxation under the section is allowed only for buildings that have many tenants.
The section was introduced so that builders can rehabilitate tenants of the old building and sell the remaining space to make a profit.
The official, however, could not immediately say how many tenants were shown by the developer while seeking approval for the new building plan.