Panel formed to enact law on dilapidated houses of Kolkata

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) today set up a committee to enact a law to deal with the city's old and dilapidated houses that pose danger to people.
The panel headed by State Law Commission chairman Justice Pranab Kumar Chattopadhyay would submit its report within a month, Mayor Sobhan Chatterjee said.
There are around 3000 old and dilapidated houses in the city, mostly in north Kolkata, that often collapse causing injury to people and even death, KMC officials said.
According to the existing laws, the KMC can only paste a notice that a house is dangerous to live in but cannot force its occupants to leave.

Sometimes the occupants of such houses move court, the officials said adding owners generally were not eager to repair such houses as tenants live there at very low rent.
The new law would be enacted keeping in mind all the aspects, the Mayor said.
Additional Chief Secretary, Secretary of department of law, Director General of West Bengal Fire services, the Commissioner of Kolkata Police and others were members of the committee.
After it was enacted, the law would be applicable to everywhere in the state, Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said.