Bengal fire dept asks Trinamool Congress to vacate Abhishek Banerjee's Camac Street office in Kolkata

Kolkata, Sep 4 (IANS) West Bengal Fire Services Department on Friday directed the former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress' "original but minority" faction to immediately vacate the party office of its General Secretary and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee on the Camac Street in Kolkata.

The State Fire Services Department had identified a lack of adequate fire-fighting measures in that office. 

According to a State Fire services Department official, the said office failed to comply with fire safety regulations, thereby posing a risk to public safety.

The department directed that the seventh and eighth floors of the main building should be vacated, and a letter to this effect has been sent to the owner.

Earlier, on September 2, the state fire services department slapped a notice alleging severe fire safety norms irregularities at the office of Abhishek Banerjee on Camac Street.

In the notice, a written response has been sought within 48 hours, citing six types of irregularities in the fire safety system. 

The fire department said that the fire safety certificate expired on August 10 and, in addition to that, there were multiple flaws in the fire safety system in Abhishek Banerjee's office on the seventh and eighth floors of the said building, sources aware of the development said.

In the notice, the state fire services department has also sought an explanation as to why the said office should not be sealed because of inadequate fire safety arrangements.

Now that the deadline for submitting that response is over, the state fire services department has ordered the vacating of the seventh and eighth floors of the buildings, which house the office of Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Mamata Banerjee.

Abhishek Banerjee's Camac Street office in Central Kolkata, is already in the middle of controversies in connection with FIRs lodged over the August 27 clash during the removal of an allegedly illegal billboard from the roof of that building on August 27.

Tension broke out on Camac Street on August 27 after Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) staff, accompanied by police personnel, reached the Trinamool Congress General Secretary's Camac Street office to remove the illegal billboard.

The KMC staff and police personnel faced stiff resistance from party activists led by Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O'Brien and other Trinamool Congress leaders. 

Scuffles broke out between the police personnel and the Trinamool Congress activists.

In the three FIRs filed at the Shakespeare Sarani Police Station, the Kolkata police have accused the Trinamool Congress activists of not only assaulting the on-duty police officers but also attempting to outrage the modesty of a female police officer.

In two of the three FIRs filed, Abhishek Banerjee, O'Brien and other Trinamool Congress leaders, such as Humayun Kabir and Baishwanar Chatterjee, have been named. 

The police have arrested 14 people in this connection so far.

Abhishek Banerjee, O'Brien and Abhishek Banerjee's personal assistant Sumit Roy had already been questioned by the Kolkata Police in the matter.