Calcutta HC orders rehabilitation for victims of building collapse

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the West Bengal government to rehabilitate the people who were displaced owing to the collapse of an unauthorised five-storey building in the Garden Reach area in the city earlier this week.

The court said it will hear on April 4 the PIL over the building collapse, in which at least 10 people were killed and several others injured.

A bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya directed the state government to rehabilitate the people who have been displaced owing to the collapse of the five-storey building at Garden Reach early on Monday.

The division bench directed the state government to provide the affected people with necessary shelter and support them with adequate ration material so that they would be able to take care of themselves.

The bench directed the authorities concerned to file a report in the form of an affidavit before it on the next date of hearing as regards the remedial measures taken by the state to rehabilitate the people affected by the collapse of the building.

The court was informed by the petitioner’s lawyer that those who died owing to the collapse of the under-construction building were residents of shanties around it.