The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has asked three rooftop bars and restaurants that challenged the civic body’s notice asking them to stop work to come for a hearing on May 27.
On May 6, Calcutta High Court ordered the KMC to allow the petitioners, which included the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and three rooftop eateries, to be heard before taking any coercive action against them, unless there was an immediate danger to people’s lives or property.
A KMC official said owners of all three establishments were asked to come on the same date, but they were likely to be heard separately because each case was different.
“We have served them notices. They have been asked to come for a hearing on May 27 (Tuesday),” a senior KMC official said on Wednesday.
At least one of the owners said they had yet to receive any formal communication from the KMC about the hearing by Wednesday evening.
The KMC, fire services and police had earlier inspected the premises and noted the alleged violations.
KMC sources said they had not yet found any sanctioned building plan with the owners that allowed construction on the roof. “We will see if the owners can provide any sanctioned building plan allowing construction on the roof,” said an official.
Last week, the KMC commissioner had formed a committee, headed by the civic body’s additional commissioner, to conduct the hearings. Copies of the notice were sent to the excise, police and fire services to nominate their representatives.
“The excise directorate has nominated a senior joint commissioner, the fire services have nominated a divisional fire officer, and the police have nominated an assistant commissioner on the committee,” said a senior KMC official.
The hearings will be conducted at the KMC headquarters on SN Banerjee Road.
KMC officials said a bar-cum-restaurant needed a trade licence from the KMC, an excise licence to serve liquor, a no-objection certificate from the fire services, and a nod from the police to run. “That is why all these wings of the government will jointly hear the owners of the three establishments. Each one might have questions and would like to point out lapses in the properties,” said an official.
The crackdown on rooftop restaurants, bars and cafes came after mayor Firhad Hakim announced on May 2 that Calcutta’s rooftop cafes, lounges, bars and restaurants would be shut down.
“A terrace means a common area. No one can sell it,” Hakim had said. “Just like one can’t sell stairs or the common space in a building, a terrace can’t be sold.”
The announcement came a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited the fire-ravaged Rituraj Hotel in central Calcutta, where 14 people died on April 29, and asked the business community to follow fire safety norms or face government action.
Kolkata Police had prepared a list of 83 cafes, bars and restaurants, and all were inspected, but hearings of only three will be done now to comply with the high court’s order, said a KMC official.
Some of the establishments on the list are not located on the roof, but on a lower floor. Civic body officials said inspections revealed that some of the establishments on the lower floors may have set may have encroached on space that was meant to be a fire refuge.
