The construction of the new Durgapur Sub-Divisional Court building has run into controversy, with the BJP alleging corruption by a former minister, besides, against the chief of a statutory urban development body today.
Lawyers began cease work today citing multiple infrastructural deficiencies in the facility. The Durgapur Bar Association lawyers has threatened to continue agitating tomorrow. Lawyers alleged, the new five-storey Model Court lacks basic infrastructure and accommodation for lawyers.
Kallol Ghosh, general secretary of the Durgapur Bar Association, said: “There is no proper place for lawyers to sit. In this situation, it is not possible to serve the cause of the common people. We want the necessary infrastructure to be built quickly and our demands to be met soon. Chandrasekhar Banerjee, the newly-elected MLA from Durgapur (Purba) joined and backed the agitation and accused the Asansol Durgapur Development Authority of corruption.
“Even though a Rs 29-crore project surprisingly shoot up to Rs 38 crore, no infrastructure is built as yet. Where did the extra money go? There should be a probe,” Banerjee said.
The ADDA sources said that the construction work of the G + 4 building that had began in 2018, almost came to a halt as the allocated fund was exhausted. Considering this, the judicial department, in just six days, had further allocated additional Rs 1.60 crore to help resumption of construction work. The Assistant Secretary of the judicial department, on 20 February, approved a fresh fund support worth Rs 60 lakh and Rs 1 crore on 26 February. One ADDA official said: “We also were surprised, how the fund was falling short and the procured materials were rapidly vanishing from the site, which needs to be investigated properly.”
MLA Banerjee cited irregularities in the purchase of furniture, chairs and air conditioning machines as well. “If former law minister Moloy Ghatak and former ADDA chairman Kabi Dutta are involved in this corruption, they will be traced back wherever they are and I will put forward the lawyer’s demand to the government,” he said. Former law minister Ghatak’s response to the charges wasn’t available today.
Currently the judicial services are conducted here from the second administrative building commissioned by ADDA that was inaugurated in 1978 by former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu at City Centre here that’s almost in shambles now.