Even as the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) faces charges of providing undue financial assistance to its private partner, Simplex Projects Ltd, they are now in the dock again for not taking action against the company for alleged encroachment on their land.

Interestingly, the civic authorities have expressed ignorance on the reports even as the site of ‘encroachment’ — New Market plot in central Kolkata — is at a stone’s throw distance from the KMC office.

The civic body neither has any document of the land deed nor was any lease agreement signed between the KMC and Simplex Projects Ltd. However, the plot has been turned into a parking complex by the private company.

“We did not lease out the land to them. The company must have made some arrangements with the Planning and Development department as the projects in which the company is our private partner are looked after by the said department,” said Sahidul Islam, joint municipal commissioner.

Islam added: “According to KMC rules, the department head has to take permission from the Chief Valuer and Surveyor’s office before allowing a private party to use the land. The Chief Valuer and Surveyor’s office is the custodian of all plots owned by the KMC.”

An official of the Chief Valuer and Surveyor’s office, however, maintained: “We did not issue any permission to the department for leasing out land. We did not receive any revenue from the private party and are looking into how the plot is being used by the company.”

... contd.