A day after an under-construction warehouse collapse in Kolkata killed 10 people, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday alleged that the building had received approval despite having a faulty design.
Addressing the Assembly, he said the sanctioned plan bore the signature of former Kolkata mayor and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Firhad Hakim and added that those responsible would be held accountable.
"No one will be spared," Adhikari said, while alleging that the previous TMC administration had failed to put in place modern equipment or professional emergency response teams during its 15 years in power.
The chief minister told the Assembly that nine people had died and 20 others were injured in the collapse of the warehouse in Kolkata's Taratala area. However, sources at SSKM Hospital, where the injured are being treated, later said one more person had succumbed to injuries on Thursday morning, taking the death toll to 10.
A state government official said eight of the deceased had been identified so far.
In a statement in the Assembly, CM Adhikari announced Rs 10 lakh compensation for the families of each deceased and Rs 1 lakh for those injured in the incident. Of the 20 injured, one is in critical condition, and four are in serious condition, the chief minister said.
Five people have been arrested so far, Adhikari said.
Those arrested have been identified as Gulzar Hossain, the supervisor of building contractor Asgar, iron structure fabricator Kamal Samanta, land lessee Sambhunath Behera, labour supplier cum trimex contractor Dibakar Bhandari and Abdul Hamid, who brokered the sanctioned plan for KMC, he said.
Efforts are being made to trace Asgar, the chief minister said in the Assembly.
He said that despite structural defects and faulty design, the building plan was approved, and the sanction bears former Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim's signature. "No one will be spared," he said.
Hakim was also the state's urban development minister during the Mamata Banerjee regime.
Those found guilty in the incident will face criminal prosecution and have their properties attached to extract compensation, the chief minister said.
"There will be zero tolerance."
Adhikari said the building plan of the collapsed structure was sanctioned on January 17, 2026, when the TMC was in power. "The city of joy and greater Kolkata has been turned into a deathhouse," he said, accusing the TMC, which ruled the state and the Kolkata civic body until recently, of accepting illegal gratification for every work.
The chief minister alleged that no building plan submitted to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) was sanctioned without the nod of a person named Kali. "This Kali is constructing the new Trinamool Bhavan for Rs 200 crore," he said in the House.
Adhikari said the erstwhile TMC government had failed to learn from earlier disasters, including the building collapse in nearby Garden Reach in 2024, in which 14 people died.
"In Garden Reach, Muslim workers from Murshidabad district, who vote for Mamata Banerjee, died; not a single person could be rescued," he said.
Adhikari said an FIR has been registered in connection with the Taratala incident, and the police were taking all necessary action.
A day earlier, he visited the accident site, met the injured at state-run SSKM Hospital here, and later said that preliminary inputs received from Kolkata Municipal Corporation engineers suggested that there were defects in the building plan approved for the warehouse.
"This government will not allow any compromise with people's lives," the chief minister said.
The roof of the warehouse located on the Transport Depot Road near Brace Bridge in the Taratala area caved in at around noon on Wednesday.
Several people were working at the site at the time of the incident.
Adhikari said in the Assembly that five bodies have been handed over to their families after post-mortem, while the autopsy of the other four was being done. He said the government will ensure medical treatment for all the injured.
Pointing to a report by the authorities, the chief minister said that sub-assistant engineer Aminur Sheikh, assistant engineer Nirmalendu Sardar and executive engineer Ranjan Das failed to discharge their duties and responsibilities in respect of the collapsed under-construction warehouse.
He lauded the Indian Army, which deployed 215 jawans, for their role in the rescue operations.
The erstwhile TMC dispensation, during its 15-year rule in the state, did not make any arrangement for cutting or dismantling heavy iron beams in case of emergency, the chief minister said. "There is no modern equipment or professional team to deal with such emergencies," he said.
"It is only because of the 215 Army personnel, especially from the Bihar Regiment, who were pressed into the rescue operation with modern equipment that 20 people could be rescued alive."
He said that four NDRF teams worked round the clock to rescue trapped people and described them as "angels of God."
Adhikari announced that all construction work, except for emergency services, in the KMC area, Rajarhat-New Town, Mahestala, Budge Budge, Pujali, Bishnupur Rural area in Sonarpur, Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district, will remain suspended for four weeks.
"All sanctioned plans will be audited. A committee will be formed for this, which will be headed by additional chief secretary Rajesh Pandey," he said.
The other members of the committee would be Additional Chief Secretary Khalil Ahmed, Principal Secretary of Disaster Management Department Rajesh Kumar Sinha, Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand, KMC commissioner cum administrator Smita Pandey, and Labour Department Secretary Rachna Bhagat. It will also comprise the PWD chief engineer, DG Building of KMC, one representative each from Fire and Emergency Services, RITES, IRCON and IIT Kharagpur.
"All the building plans sanctioned by the corrupt Trinamool Congress by taking cut-money and through brokers to turn Kolkata into a death house will be audited. No further construction work will be allowed till that is completed," the chief minister said.
Making a jab at former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, he said that unlike the previous regime, the BJP government does not bypass the Assembly to make announcements when the House is in session.