'Dont think I'm weak,' Mamata Banerjee told promoters after school demolition in Kolkata.
Kolkata:
Two days after a school near the Kolkata airport was suddenly demolished, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee issued a stern warning to greedy promoters, saying she would not tolerate any attempt to build houses by bringing down schools. The school education department, she said, would build the school, where children were seen reduced to tears on Saturday morning.
"I am shocked to learn that they tried to demolish the school to construct a housing society," Ms Banerjee said. "Why should they have so much greed? There is a limit to it. We will not tolerate it. Do not think that I am weak".
Some 70 musclemen of a real estate promoter had allegedly pulled down the two-storey building that housed a nursery and primary school. When students of the Lila Devi Memorial came to attend classes, they were totally shocked.
The headmaster Kaushik Bhattacharya, who had rushed to the school after being told, said he had been manhandled. "Some 10-12 men came out of the broken building, abused me, physically picked me up and threw me out. I don't know what's happening," Mr Bhattacharya said.
With the school authorities suspecting political connivance in the demolition, Trinamool councillor Swati Bhattacharya, who came to the spot around Sunday noon, was heckled by angry parents and locals. Even the children hurled a barrage of questions at her. "Aunty, how would you feel if your school had been broken like this?" asked one girl. The councillor had no answer. "I had no idea about these complications," she said.
The police have arrested the promoter who had recently bought the property. He claimed he had bought the building located on 8 cottahs of land in 2008 from one Abdul Hasan. Ever since, he had been demanding possession, but in vain. But pull down a school? "They were only doing business here," he said.
"I am shocked to learn that they tried to demolish the school to construct a housing society," Ms Banerjee said. "Why should they have so much greed? There is a limit to it. We will not tolerate it. Do not think that I am weak".
Some 70 musclemen of a real estate promoter had allegedly pulled down the two-storey building that housed a nursery and primary school. When students of the Lila Devi Memorial came to attend classes, they were totally shocked.
The headmaster Kaushik Bhattacharya, who had rushed to the school after being told, said he had been manhandled. "Some 10-12 men came out of the broken building, abused me, physically picked me up and threw me out. I don't know what's happening," Mr Bhattacharya said.
With the school authorities suspecting political connivance in the demolition, Trinamool councillor Swati Bhattacharya, who came to the spot around Sunday noon, was heckled by angry parents and locals. Even the children hurled a barrage of questions at her. "Aunty, how would you feel if your school had been broken like this?" asked one girl. The councillor had no answer. "I had no idea about these complications," she said.
The police have arrested the promoter who had recently bought the property. He claimed he had bought the building located on 8 cottahs of land in 2008 from one Abdul Hasan. Ever since, he had been demanding possession, but in vain. But pull down a school? "They were only doing business here," he said.
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