Baharampur/ Kolkata (WB), Mar 19 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday held Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim responsible for the collapse of an illegal under-construction building claiming 10 lives and said that he should have resigned on moral grounds.

Hitting out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for not sacking Hakim as the mayor for this, Chowdhury said police should have arrested him.

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The five-storey building crumbled down early on Monday in the constituency of Hakim who is also the Urban Development Minister of the state.

"Firhad Hakim has committed a crime. Why will no action be taken against him? If he had any morality, he should have resigned," Chowdhury, the state Congress president, said here.

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It is also alleged that the building that collapsed was being erected after filling a pond illegally.

"He (Firhad) is solely responsible for the deaths of those people. Rules were flouted leading to the collapse of the under-construction building. If Mamata Banerjee had any morality, she must have removed him from the Mayor's chair," Chowdhury said.

He also alleged that such builders have become a source of income for the ruling TMC.

"The TMC is playing with the future of the innumerable citizens of Kolkata," he said.

On the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Chowdhury claimed that both the BJP and the TMC were using it for political gains and to get votes as the new law lacked clarity.

"The Congress has been protesting against the CAA in Parliament. The prime motto of the CAA is to confuse people, divide them based on religion, and then get their votes. I do not know whether there is anybody who has been helped by this CAA," he said.

The Berhampore MP claimed that his party had cleared all confusion regarding citizenship in 1955 and there was "no problem for anyone".

"Now, people have to make fresh applications for their citizenship. I do not see any logic behind this. There is no substance in this as nobody is facing any problem. The problem is created by the BJP," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)