Ex-mayor’s sign on building plan, CM blames TMC’s ‘sins’ for disaster

Kolkata: CM Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday blamed the previous Trinamool Congress dispensation for the collapse of the under-construction warehouse in Taratala, telling the party, “This is the result of the sins you committed.”Holding a copy of the sanctioned building plan of the structure, which bore the signatures of then Trinamool mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Firhad Hakim, and three engineers of the civic body, Adhikari said in the assembly, “By allowing such structures in exchange for money, you have turned the City of Joy into a city of death.”Hours after the CM’s statement, police detained Kalicharan Banerjee, who was Hakim’s officer-on-special duty.During his speech in the H, Adhikari repeatedly referred to Banerjee, widely known as ‘Kali’ in KMC circles. “We know exactly what was happening in KMC all these years. There was hardly any illegal project or plan that moved without Kali’s approval. If he is questioned, the entire truth about the previous regime will come out,” the CM said.“Once Kali is arrested, all information will surface. He influenced the process followed by KMC in sanctioning building plans and was a key figure in the construction of the Rs 200-crore Trinamool Bhavan on EM Bypass. Kali was appointed from Camac Street,” Adhikari said, referring to the office of Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

The CM recalled raising the issue of the “Kali syndicate” during his tenure as leader of the opposition in the assembly, noting that Hakim, then urban development minister apart from being Kolkata’s mayor, defended his OSD on the floor of the House.“Those found guilty in the incident will face criminal prosecution and have their properties attached to extract compensation,” Adhikari said. “There will be zero tolerance.”He produced KMC files while speaking on the tragedy, which has so far claimed 11 lives, revealing that the building plan for the warehouse was sanctioned on Jan 17, 2026.“You learned no lessons from multiple instances of building collapse in the past,” the CM said, addressing the opposition benches. “The signature of the former mayor (Hakim) is right there on the sanctioned plan. Preliminary findings indicate that permission was granted despite severe structural deficiencies in the project.

No one will be spared.”Referring to KMC’s fact-finding report on Wednesday’s collapse, the CM named officials who had allegedly failed to discharge their responsibilities.“It was found that sub-assistant engineer Aminur Sheikh, assistant engineer Nirmalendu Sardar and executive engineer Ranjan Das did not discharge their duties with regard to the premises in question,” the CM said, quoting from the report.He referred to the death of 14 people in the collapse of a multi-storeyed building under construction in Garden Reach in March 2024. “In Garden Reach, Muslim workers from Murshidabad, who vote for Mamata Banerjee, died. Not a single person could be rescued,” he said, accusing the previous govt of “never involving the Army and NDRF in rescue operations”.Hakim denied any knowledge of signing the sanctioned plan. “If the (KMC) commissioner sends the MBC (Municipal Building Committee) report to me, then it gets approved just by forwarding it.

Other than that, we have no knowledge of it, because so many plans get sanctioned. Which plan is what, what it contains, what happens, we do not know,” he said.Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh demanded that Hakim, who won from Kolkata Port on the TMC ticket in the recent assembly polls and then switched to the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction, be “taken into custody” and questioned.“This is a terrible disaster, and we support whatever the CM said. He has mentioned a few names, including Hakim’s. We demand they be taken into custody and questioned. Some arrests have been made. The CM’s statement in the assembly should not be more political than real in intent. The person whom he accused should not be let off just because he is in the BJP-friendly camp,” he said.