The Telegraph India: Silchar: Friday, July 06, 2018.
An inquiry
has been initiated into the allegation of an illegal construction of the fourth
floor of Goldighi Municipal Mall, a shopping-cum-entertainment hub here.
A two-member
team, including assistant director Shantanu Das and junior engineer B.
Borgohain, of the drainage and sewerage division of the department of town and
country planning, Guwahati, visited the mall on Wednesday evening and inspected
the fourth floor, the multiplex, food joints and other stores.
Ranjan Roy,
president of Adarsh, an NGO, who had raised the allegation and filed some pleas
under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, last year, on Thursday said the
team had discussed the matter with him on Wednesday.
He submitted
various documents to the team to corroborate his charges.
Roy said he
had told the team that there was no permission to construct the fourth floor.
Besides, neither the Silchar Development Authority nor the department of town
and country planning gave permission for that.
Roy claimed
that the Silchar Municipal Board allowed an agency illegally to carry out
construction on the fourth floor though there was no permission by the Silchar
Development Authority or the department of town and country planning. The
Authority had given permission for the construction of the basement and up to
the third floor of the mall, he added.
Rajesh Das,
secretary of the mall, said the team, apart from the fourth floor, inspected
the entire complex, including its parking lot and other facilities. The team
will submit a report to the department following which necessary steps would be
taken, he added.
Dismissing
Roy's allegation, Silchar Municipal Board chairperson Niharendra Narayan Tagore
said the mall was built in November 2012, following a blueprint provided by the
civic body and the plan allowed construction on the fourth floor.
The team
discussed the issue with Tagore on Wednesday afternoon. It also met some
officials of the Silchar Development Authority.
The team,
however, did not speak to the media.