KOLKATA: Bidhannagar Police has started asking residents’ welfare associations in New Town to identify flats that have been converted into paying guest accommodations. They plan to make a database of outsiders staying as paying guests in the complexes. The cops are also asking owners to maintain a list of documents from the paying guests and provide them if necessary.
The order came from the police commissioner’s office following multiple instances of crime involving paying guests surfaced in the township — be it their involvement in fake call centres or some other crimes.
In October, a 21-year-old MBBS aspirant, preparing for NEET while staying as a paying guest in the city, was drugged and killed by a friend who had met him at the PG accommodation as he abducted him seeing his I-phone and flashy lifestyle, hoping to get a good ransom from his family in Malda. Multiple fake call centre executives who had been putting up as PG inside gated communities and were committing crime from their homes were also arrested earlier this year.
“We are trying to prepare a fresh database of paying guests living in the Bidhannagar commissionerate jurisdiction for better clarity of outsiders living here. We are not against flat owners keeping paying guests at their flats. We just want them to maintain proper documentation and want the RWAs to have a list of flats that are operating as PG accommodations,” said a senior officer of Bidhannagar City Police.
New Town complexes has a large population of paying guests, courtesy the presence of a number of universities and workplaces in the township.
According to the rules, the moment the number of boarders crosses five, a flat or a house is considered a guest house, for which a trade licence is required and New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) charges a fee of Rs 1,250 per year for them. The owners also inform local police about occupants and also provide verification documents of boarders. However, officials said, a majority of owners are either unaware of the rule or simply do not comply.
NKDA, on its part, is also conducting a survey across New Town to check and identify whether any residential household is utilising the building for commercial use. “There are certain rules to be followed and a fee to be paid if a residential building is being used as a commercial space,” said an NKDA official.
In March last year, Bidhannagar cops had undertaken a similar measure asking RWAs to maintain a database of tenants in their complexes. “We have already prepared a database of tenants and have handed them over to the cops. If needed, we will prepare a database for PGs as well,” said Dibyendu Roy of Akankha housing complex in Action Area II.
