Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s buildings dept will conduct the much-discussed hearings on Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee’s properties on Friday. All eyes will be on ‘Shantiniketan’, a prime property on Harish Mukherjee Road owned or co-owned by Banerjee, his family or his company. Apart from this building, the dept will also hold a hearing on another prime property linked to Abhishek on Kalighat Road. The hearings were scheduled as per the directive of the Calcutta High Court.The KMC buildings dept on May 18 pasted a notice on ‘Shantiniketan’ on Harish Mukherjee Road over alleged unauthorised construction on the premises. A KMC buildings dept official said this property is among 17 properties “owned or co-owned by Abhishek Banerjee, his company and family” that are under the civic body’s scrutiny.Officials said notices under Section 400(1) of the KMC Act, 1980 — issued for deviations from sanctioned plans — were pasted on all 17 addresses. KMC’s assessment dept initially prepared a list of 42 properties, but the list was later pruned to 17. Banerjee has vowed to fight back. He sought additional time from KMC to reply to the notices, but his family later decided to move court against the civic action.In the notice pasted on ‘Shantiniketan’, the persons concerned were directed to appear before the executive engineer of the buildings dept with the sanctioned plan as well as a fresh drawing of the alterations made. According to KMC building rules, after the submission of documents, owners are given an opportunity to appear at a hearing. “Let the owners appear at the hearing and plead their case. We will go by the KMC rules and make a decision after conducting the hearing. We may need to conduct a second hearing depending on the results of the first hearing,” said a KMC buildings dept official.According to rules, if the official conducting the hearing is satisfied that no major deviations have taken place, an order for regularisation can be issued against payment of a penalty. Otherwise, the hearing officer may pass an order for demolition of portions of the structure that were built in gross violation of building rules.“We go by the provisions of the KMC building rules while deciding the fate of any building that deviates from the sanctioned building plan. A demolition order is given depending on the degree of such deviation,” said a KMC official.At a meeting of TMC MLAs at Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence on May 20, Abhishek remarked: “Let them do whatever they want. Raze my home, send notice. I won’t bow down. Come what may, my fight continues against BJP.”The civic body’s assessment wing has also initiated the process of reassessing some of his properties, including ‘Shantiniketan’. Notices have already been sent to these addresses, asking the owner or owners to furnish details.Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari categorically said that Banerjee’s properties are under the scanner and that the govt would put the “corrupt ones” behind bars.
