Kolkata Feb 27 PTI Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim has courted controversy by claiming that councillors are unaware of illegal construction in their respective wards while the KMCs Building Department and the police are supposed to have such information In a web programme on Saturday he also said that councillors are not involved in corruption and only some unscrupulous elements in Kolkata Municipal Corporations Building Department and the police may be involved in taking money for allowing illegal construction BJP alleged that Hakim was trying to shield councillors from graft charges by squarely putting the blame on his own corporation while CPIM said he was casting aspersions on his department and another headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself In response to a telephonic complaint by a resident of ward number 69 of KMC on Talk to Mayor programme over illegal construction Hakim said a councillor would not know which construction is legal and which is not in his ward and it is known by the Building Department and the police The Building Department will first know if a building is legal and can report to the police The councillor would not know which part of a building is legal and which is not as he does not possess the sanctioned building plan Hence in a bribery case the councillor cannot be implicated Hakim also the state Transport Minister and a close aide of Banerjee said To prove his point Hakim said that in his ward number 82 he doesnt know if any illegal construction is taking place He however assured the complainant that he will take up the issue of illegal construction in ward number 69 with authorities concerned and if the allegation is found to be true necessary action will be taken BJP and CPIM attacked the Kolkata mayor over his statement BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh alleged that Hakim is trying to shield the councillors from any graft charge while squarely putting the blame on the people of his own corporation Everyone is aware of the extortion racket and cut money culture in different wards of the city How come he pleads ignorance he said CPIM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said that by making such a statement Hakim is casting aspersions on his own department and the one headed by the chief minister PTI SUS ACD ACD

Kolkata Sep 19 PTI Kolkata on Sunday recorded a rise in its active COVID-19 cases to 1311 as per a bulletin issued by the Health DepartmentThe city reported 117 new cases while 110 people recovered in the last 24 hours it saidWest Bengal reported 635 new cases and 11 more deaths during the dayThe states active cases went down to 7906 as 685 more people recoveredThe state has so far reported 18652 deaths and 1561 lakh COVID-19 casesSo far 1535 lakh patients have recovered from COVID-19 in the stateOf the new deaths recorded Hooghly and Darjeeling recorded the highest at three each the bulletin saidSouth 24 Parganas North 24 Parganas Howrah Purba Medinipur and Jalpaiguri recorded one death each it said PTI AMR SOM SOM