Graft stain on civic deal

kharda: two months ago, a councillor of khardah municipality, saibal gupta, had written a letter to municipal affairs minister ashoke bhattacharya, alleging that the civic authorities had struck a deal with a private firm to build the municipality building. while the firm earned a profit of rs 2.5 crore, the municipal authorities earned nothing. gupta had appealed to the minister to order an inquiry.he had also brought the matter to the notice of then chief minister jyoti basu in 1997. no action was taken, though. gupta had also told basu and bhattacharya that the khardah municipality building had been erected over a pond which had been filled illegally. he claims that there was an order from the calcutta high court, which asked the municipal authorities to restore the water body to its original condition. no action was taken in this regard either, except that a small fountain was built in front of the building. anomalies such as these are aplenty in the khardah municipality. the private firm which had constructed the building, had promised to build a community hall and a car park as well. while the latter never materialised, the former was handed over to another private operator. a children's park promised by the cpm-controlled civic board was also never built. sadhan chakraborty, a former senior cpm leader, alleged that the 165 families who were residents of the building, also suffered from pollution and sewerage problems which were neglected by the authorities. an inquiry committee was constituted to probe into the allegations in 1998. the preliminary report was submitted in october 1999. the final report never saw the light of day. khardah municipality chairman brojo gopal saha denied that there was any corruption in the deal with the private firm. we did not construct the complex with a profit motive, he said. also, the firm in question has constructed a bus stand in the area which has cost about rs 50 lakh, he said. the chairman said that the entire ground floor of the civic building was given to shopowners of the area free of cost. the original plan of the complex was revised and there was no provision for a community hall and children's playground in the new plan, he said. interestingly, the contract for the construction of rabindra bhavan in khardah has also been given to the same private firm. materials were being bought at rates higher than the market rate, a section of councillors has alleged.