Councillors’ Clubroom, a high security zone at the city civic headquarters, now appears to have acquired the dubious tag of being a favourite haunt for burglars.
In a trend that has got the civic bosses worried just lately, ‘unknown persons’ have been sneaking off with branded stainless steel taps from the washbasins of the gents’ toilet at the Councillors’ Clubroom.
And in what testifies to the apparent dare and brazenness of the culprits, the majority of the thefts had reportedly happened in board daylight.
This despite the presence of two security guards-one male and one female-posted right outside the gents’ and ladies’ washrooms at the facility.
In the latest to the sequence of thefts at the washroom, yet another of the stainless steel taps was stolen on Tuesday, leaving the connecting pipe in the washbasin open.
Taking a look around at the gents’ washroom on Tuesday, this correspondent found two taps missing from their moorings in washbasins. Of the four washbasins inside the gents’ toilet, only one is in decent working condition, while another has been lying unused due to a defective sensor.
Designated as a high security zone, the Councillors’ Clubhouse houses the offices of Rupa Bagchi, the leader of opposition in the current Trinamool Congress-run civic board, Mala Roy, senior leader of the Congress Municipal Party, Dipankar De, the municipal accounts committee chairman, Amal Mitra, Left Front chief whip at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Meena Devi Purohit, leader of the BJP Municipal Party.
{{/usCountry}}Designated as a high security zone, the Councillors’ Clubhouse houses the offices of Rupa Bagchi, the leader of opposition in the current Trinamool Congress-run civic board, Mala Roy, senior leader of the Congress Municipal Party, Dipankar De, the municipal accounts committee chairman, Amal Mitra, Left Front chief whip at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Meena Devi Purohit, leader of the BJP Municipal Party.
{{/usCountry}}A preliminary enquiry into has revealed that the security guards had little or no clue about regular trespassing in an area deemed a high-security space and the missing washroom fittings.
“I had been away to fetch someone from the electrical wing to tend to a minor fire at the office of the Left Front chief whip when the culprit made his way into the men’s washroom and bolted with a steel tap,” a security guards posted outside the washroom told HT.
Hari Shankar Roy, the caretaker of the Central Municipal Office building of the KMC offered a bizarre explanation. “Such incidents are fairly routine at all high-security offices in the city. Go to Writers’ or the FCI office, you’ll find several such instances there,” Roy told this correspondent.