Apartment building collapses in south Kolkata
Kolkata, Jan 14: An apartment building collapsed in south Kolkata's Bagha Jatin area on Tuesday while work was underway to strengthen its foundation, officials said.
The incident happened around 1.30 pm in Kolkata Municipal Corporation's ward 99 near the SC Mallick Road, they said.
No one was injured in the incident as the four-storied building was vacated, they added.
A Haryana-based firm was given the contract by the developer to strengthen the foundation as the 10-year-old building had tilted to the right over time, an official of the KMC said.
For the works, the residents were shifted to another building in the area, he said.
However, the KMC was not informed about it, the official said.
The entire building is likely to be razed now, he said.
A case has been lodged against the developer who is now on the run, police said.
Jadavpur MLA Debabrata Majumdar said the work was started by the developer without any authorisation and strict action will be taken against him.
In March last year, 13 people were killed after an under-construction building collapsed in the Garden Reach area of the city.
The owner of one of the flats in the collapsed building alleged that an additional floor was added illegally and low-quality materials were used in the construction.
"We had not dared to protest as they are powerful people with political patronage. Now, what will happen to us? We had spent all our savings to buy this flat," the woman said.
A newly constructed building in #Kolkata's Baghajatin, titled 60 degrees and collapsed after the base of ground floor caved in due to the poor quality of the construction material used. #Watch
— Mirror Now (@MirrorNow) January 14, 2025
All residents of the residence have been safely evacuated, no one was injured in this… pic.twitter.com/wz1BcuRPze
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BJP's reaction to Rahul Gandhi's comments on EC fuels 'mistrust': Sharad Pawar
Pune (PTI): NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday claimed that BJP leaders routinely respond whenever Congress MP Rahul Gandhi questions the Election Commission's functioning, fuelling "mistrust" in the poll panel.
Responding to a question on Rahul Gandhi's criticism of the Election Commission of India over alleged "vote chori", Pawar said Gandhi and other Opposition leaders have raised key issues about the ECI's functioning.
"When Gandhi, the leader of opposition (in the Lok Sabha), raised the issue in Parliament, the institution concerned should have taken note of it. But what is happening is that when Gandhi raises questions and criticises the ECI, the ECI does not answer - it is the BJP and its leaders who respond," he told reporters here.
Instead of the Election Commission, the chief minister and other leaders are responding to such issues, the former Union minister noted.
"By doing this, they are actually contributing to the mistrust about the ECI, which is not good," he added.
Sharpening his attack on the issue of “vote chori” (vote theft), Gandhi last week accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who destroyed democracy.
To buttress his allegation, the leader of the opposition cited data from two assembly constituencies in Karnataka and Maharashtra, where he claimed voters were deleted/added in a fraudulent manner.
The Election Commission has dubbed the allegations as incorrect and baseless, and said, “No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Gandhi.”
