Tamluk, Aug. 21: The East Midnapore administration today demolished four of the19 hotels that had come up at Mandarmani after January 2012 in violation of coastal regulations and a directive of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The executive officer of the Digha-Shankarpur Development Authority (DSDA), Sujan Dutta, said: "The chief minister had said no hotel would be allowed to be built violating coastal regulations. But despite that, some hotels had come up at Mandarmani by flouting rules. Four such illegal buildings were demolished today."
More than 25 policemen led by the officer in charge of Ramnagar police station, Amiya Ghosh, were present during the demolition drive. The block development officer, Pratim Saha, supervised the drive.
A district official said according to a coastal regulation zone rule, no construction is allowed within 200m of the high tide line. The 19 hotels are located within 200m of the line. Construction is allowed between 200m and 500m of the high tide line but with several conditions.
During a visit to Mandarmani, the chief minister had instructed the DSDA and the district administration not to allow any further construction, an official said.
According to Dutta, there were similar illegal constructions in the beach resorts of Tajpur, Shankarpur and Digha and the administration would soon demolish those.
A survey conducted by block development and block land officers in May 2014 had identified 19 illegal constructions in Mandarmani. The block development officer of Ramnagar II, Sukanta Saha, had summoned the owners of the hotels in the first week of November last year for a hearing on the instruction of district magistrate Antara.
The chairman of the DSDA, Sisir Adhikari, said there were 65 hotels at Mandarmani when the chief minister visited the place in 2012. Now, there are 84 hotels.
"We had demolished four hotels at Tajpur earlier. Four more hotels were demolished today at Mandarmani. The rest of the illegal constructions will be pulled down soon," said Adhikari, the Trinamul MP from Contai.
The general secretary of the Mandarmani Hoteliers' Association, Debdulal Das Mahapatra, said the outfit did not oppose today's demolitions.
"There are differences of opinion over the coastal regulation zone rules. The hotels had come up with sanction from the local panchayats or panchayat samitis. But I do agree there are hotels that had come up without any official sanction," Mahapatra said.
One of the hotel owners said on condition of anonymity: "I had bought the land long time ago. A few years ago, I had constructed a small building. I have nothing to do if the administration demolishes it."
