Councillors will be given a list of buildings in their wards whose construction has been approved by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) so they can keep a tab on any illegal construction there, mayor Firhad Hakim said on Saturday.
Hakim said once the list was available to them, councillors cannot shrug off responsibility if an illegal construction took place in their ward.
The building department of the KMC will provide the list of buildings approved in a borough — comprising many wards — to the borough chairperson, who will distribute the list among councillors of wards in that borough.
Councillors used to receive a list of buildings approved for fresh construction or the addition of floors till about five years ago, but the practice was discontinued.
The list that used to be handed over earlier only had the address where construction had been allowed along with the ward number.
Hakim promised to give the councillors a more detailed list while speaking at the KMC's monthly meeting of councillors held on Saturday. "The list should have figures like how much area can be constructed, how many floors can be built, the plot area and the address."
The mayor also said that councillors were always blamed if there was any illegal construction.
"I have seen that whenever an illegal construction is detected, the media puts the blame on the councillor of the ward...," he said while asking the secretary of the KMC to take note of what he was promising in the civic house.
A senior official of the KMC later said that a circular would be issued soon informing the chief engineer and all borough executive engineers of the KMC's building department that they must give the list to the borough chairpersons.
About 3,500 new constructions and the addition of floors are approved under the Kolkata municipal area every year, said an official of the KMC. But this is not equally distributed among all boroughs.
"There is little any space for new construction in north and central Kolkata. Fewer new buildings come up here while a large number of new constructions take place in the southern suburbs," said the official.
The official added that the KMC pulled down nearly 500 structures or parts of structures in the last year that were built illegally.
Many councillors welcomed the move suggested by the mayor.
Jui Biswas, the chairperson of borough X, told The Telegraph that councillors would benefit if they receive the list. "If we have the list, we will be able to spot the ones being built illegally and inform civic officials."
