A single-storyed room with a fibre glass roof in FD Park is in the eye of a storm with the bone of contention being the usage and maintenance rights to the room, being claimed by both the local councillor and the block residents’ association. Matters reached a head on Tuesday morning when the police was called in after councillor Banibrata Banerjee, also a block resident, objected to repairs being carried out on the structure by the association and ordered a stopwork.
Now charges are being traded on where the key to the room is. The room came up in 2014. While the association believes it was built out of local MLA Sujit Bose’s local area development fund, Banerjee affirms that it was he who had footed the construction bill out of his councillor’s fund, making it a Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) property. “The room is used for block women to do yoga thrice a week.
The key was with the block association all these years. The block would also maintain the structure. Out of the blue, we received a letter this January from the BMC joint commissioner asking us to hand over the key to the room and alleging that we were letting the space out illegally,” said Abhijit Majumdar, secretary of FD Block Association.
The block responded claiming the room was never let out. “The joint commissioner wrote back, asking us not to let out the space henceforth without the Corporation’s permission. We thought the matter had ended there,” he added. Meanwhile, a decision was taken by the block executive committee to repair the structure.
“Rats had damaged the floor, the false ceiling too was in bad shape. We decided to dig up the concrete base and take down the false ceiling. Repair work had started about a week ago. On Tuesday morning, we heard from the contractor that the councillor had stormed in, ordered them to stop work and taken away the key that was in the keyhole,” the block secretary alleged. There was also a notice pasted on the office wall from the BMC mentioning a written complaint submitted by Banerjee about unauthorised repairs.
It also asked again for the key to be returned to the BMC. When contacted by The Telegraph Salt Lake, Banerjee denied having taken the key away. “It was I who had called the police. The repair was illegal as they had not taken permission from the Corporation,” he said. The block association office bearers say they had sought verbal permission from local MLA Sujit Bose when he attended a Dol get-together in the block on March 16. “We plan to approach him now,” said committee member Santanu Biswas. Majumdar, who is in his third year as secretary, points out that Banerjee was part of the block’s executive committee as an invited member.
“He had never objected to the yoga class happening all these years. In fact, he had himself taken the initiative to build an adjacent structure and start a medical cell, providing doctor’s consultation at affordable fees, in FD Park in 2022. A library also runs in another structure. It is the block association which runs all these facilities. Even the keys to the park’s gates are with us. This is the norm in every block of Salt Lake,” Majumdar said.
Banerjee points out that he is not against the yoga classes happening. “But they do not have a right to let out the space,” he said, insisting that at least one sraddha programme and cooperative body meetings have taken place there, for which money was deposited in the block association’s account. “There are pictures of the room decorated with white (funereal) flowers.” Asked why he did not object earlier, he said the illegal practices had started only about two years ago.
“The original key is with the Corporation. They must have got a duplicate made,” Banerjee said. Block committee members claim Banerjee has turned non-cooperative ever since the block election