Kolkata, Jan 29 The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Thursday, petitioned a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court seeking permission to visit the site of the burned warehouse in Anandapur, located in the southern outskirts of Kolkata, where the remains of 21 individuals have been found, and several others are still unaccounted for.
Adhikari approached the Calcutta High Court after the police imposed prohibitory orders in a 100-metre radius around the gutted warehouse following the LoP's decision to visit the spot and conduct a protest march in the area, accusing the state government of negligence.
The Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh has admitted the petition. The first date of hearing is yet to be intimated.
Initially, the LoP had first approached the police for permission to visit the site and conduct a protest march in the area. However, the local Narendrapur Police Station denied permission on the grounds that as there are schools and hospitals in the area, any protest march would lead to traffic congestion, causing inconvenience to students, their guardians, patients and their family members.
In addition to that, the police also imposed prohibitory orders within a 100-metre radius around the gutted warehouse. In the prohibitory order notice, it was stated that such orders have been issued to prevent the destruction of evidence, obstruction of investigation, and obstruction of rescue operations.
The LoP has claimed that the prohibitory orders were issued four days after the fire broke out, only to prevent him from going to the spot. “This is nothing new for me that I get denied police permission from conducting any programme, and subsequently I get the same from the Calcutta High Court,” Adhikari said.
On Thursday, the first eyewitness and the person who alerted the fire services after the fire broke out told media persons that the tragedy could have been avoided if the state fire services department had acted promptly instead of losing time over jurisdictional protocol.
The eyewitness, Virendra Yadav, owns a cattle shed next to the Pushpanjali Decorators warehouse, where the fire first broke out before spreading to the adjacent warehouse of Wow Momo.
Yadav was the first to call the fire department after noticing the blaze. However, when he dialled 101, the call went to the district control room. Instead of dispatching help immediately, officials asked him to contact the Kolkata control room.
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