Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee has been asked to vacate his youth wing office at Kolkata’s Camac Street after a fire safety audit found the sixth and seventh floors lacked adequate fire safety measures, officials said.
The West Bengal fire services department on Friday sent a letter to Rama Devi Goenka, owner of the sixth and seventh floors of the eight-storey building. The two floors were leased out to the Trinamool Youth Congress in March 2020 for a period of 10 years.
“Considering the fact that due to non-maintenance and inadequacy of the required fire safety measures, the occupancy is unsafe from fire and life safety point of view. It poses imminent threat to the safety of life and property of the building and its surroundings. You are directed to vacate the occupants immediately. You are further directed not to use the occupancy until and unless the fire safety measures are complied with and the renewal of fire safety certificate is obtained,” the fire department’s letter to Goenka said.
This comes days after the fire brigade department sent a team to conduct an audit of the two floors from which Banerjee runs the office of the TMC’s youth wing.
{{/usCountry}}This comes days after the fire brigade department sent a team to conduct an audit of the two floors from which Banerjee runs the office of the TMC’s youth wing.
{{/usCountry}}TMC leaders, including Abhishek Banerjee, didn’t comment on the developments till the time of filing this report.
On August 27, a scuffle broke out between TMC leaders and workers and the police when a team of officials from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation removed an allegedly unauthorised TMC billboard from the building where Abhishek Banerjee’s office is located. A case was registered against Banerjee and police questioned him on Tuesday. On Thursday, a group of armed masked men ransacked and looted Banerjee’s office on Camac Street in the early hours.
Sagnika Banerjee, advocate representing Rama Devi Goenka, said, “A lease agreement was signed with TMC Youth Congress on March 1, 2020 for 10 years. He (Banerjee) was supposed to occupy the floors and operate legally after we received the completion certificate (CC) from the civic authorities. Obtaining CC is a statutory requirement. But he forcefully took possession of the floors even before the CC could be procured.”
According to the letter sent by the state fire brigade department, the fire safety certificate was renewed on August 10, 2023 for a period of three years. It has expired and wasn’t renewed this year.
Advocate Sagnika said that the signatory of the lease was TMC leader Debraj Chakraborty, a close aide of Abhishek Banerjee. He was arrested by the STF in July on various charges, including extortion, money laundering, criminal intimidation and possession of assets disproportionate to income. He is now in custody.
“As Chakraborty and several other TMC leaders, who frequently come to the office, have multiple criminal cases pending against them and some have already been arrested, we have already asked the TMC youth wing to vacate the two floors. Also, there was a breach of trust as the floors were occupied before the CC could be procured,” the advocate said.
The basement of the 2B+G+7 building was also found to be lacking fire safety measures. The fire brigade has asked the authorities to vacate the basement.