West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday urged Kolkata Metro to immediately release compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each of the families affected by subsidence and cracks in their buildings at Bowbazar area of the city during construction work of a metro project in the area.
Metro railways should also provide rent to those who were evacuated from their houses following the subsidence and the development of cracks, she said during ameeting with its officials here.
Banerjee also urged the Metro authorities to pay a monthly compensation to those whose daily incomes were affected in the incident.
The chief minister said the state government and the Metro railways would pay Rs five lakh to each girl of the affected families whose wedding has been fixed in January.
Our government will cooperate the cooperate with the Metro railways in all possible manners as per our capacity, she said.
Kolkata Metro general manager P C Sharma, KMRC managing director Manas Sarkar and other senior officials, city Mayor Firhad Hakim, senior police officers and members of the affected families were present at the meeting.
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She asked Metro railways authorities to look into the option of building new houses and shops for those whose properties have been damaged due to the seepage of water under the foundations of their buildings.
The Metro railway authorities must consider paying them (the affected people) an immediate compensation of Rs five lakh so that they can restart their livelihood ... The families whose houses have collapsed due to the metro work have lost everything.
"They (the affected families) dont have clothes, utensils or anything else needed for their daily life. You (metro officials) should have declared the compensation earlier, Banerjee said.
The portion of a building collapsed in the congested Bowbazar area in the central business district of the city, while several others subsided or developed cracks during tunnel boring work for the metro project to connect Salt Lake to Howrah across the Ganga on Sunday.
The building collapsed entirely on Tuesday.
"This is not the time to find who was responsible. We must think of helping the families who have been affected. We have asked the Metro authorities to build a house for a house, a shop for a shop and they have agreed to it, she said.
The metro authorities should conduct a survey of the damaged buildings in the area and give written promises to the owners to rebuild the houses, Banerjee, who was the Railways Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, said.
Kolkata Metro could accommodate those who have been evacuated in one of its office buildings close to Bowbazar, she said.
She also urged it to allow one person from each family to return to their residence with police personnel and members of the disaster management group to fetch their valuablkes and documents.
The state government will provide help to get back documents like Aadhar cards and ration cards lost by the affected people, the chief minister said.
Banerjee also said that a core group, under the chief secretary, has been constituted to look into developments arising out of the incident. It would include the home secretary, Kolkata mayor, police commissioner and deputy commissioner of police, secretaries of the disaster management department, transport as well as representatives of the families whose houses have been affected in the incident.
Residents of several buildings in the area, where tunnel boring work for the East-West Metro is on, had earlier been shifted to hotels.
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