Kolkata: The future of one of south Kolkata’s most popular Durga Pujas — New Alipore Suruchi Sangha — has been thrown into uncertainty with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) serving a legal notice on the club, directing it to vacate a disputed plot where it used to organise the puja. LIC has given the club a month’s deadline.The club, closely associated with former minister Aroop Biswas and his brother Swarup Biswas, has been asked to hand over possession of nearly 23 cottahs that LIC claims it owns and that the club has allegedly occupied without authorisation.The notice comes barely two weeks after LIC lodged a police complaint alleging encroachment of the land, which has for years been used by the club for its internationally acclaimed Durga Puja and other activities.The development has cast a shadow over this year’s festivities, with club president Kingshuk Maitra admitting that organisers are uncertain whether the puja can be held at all if the land has to be vacated.“If there is no ground, where will we organise the puja? Forget the past grandeur, we don’t know if we can even organise it on a small scale now. We will take a final call on the fate of the puja by next week after speaking to all members,” Maitra said.On Saturday, TOI found a legal notice pasted outside the club’s boundary wall. Issued under the letterhead of advocate Sanjukta Ray on behalf of LIC, the notice directs the club authorities to vacate plots numbered 498, 499, 500 and 501 in Block M, New Alipore, by July 18 under provisions of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.The notice alleges that the club illegally constructed buildings and other structures on the land without LIC’s consent and asserts that the corporation never granted permission for the property to be used for running a club.“If you fail to quit, vacate and deliver up peaceful and vacant possession of the land … a suit shall be filed without any further reference to you,” the notice states.The eviction move follows renewed efforts by LIC to reclaim the property. A day after BJP supporters allegedly vandalised the club premises following Swarup Biswas’s arrest earlier this month, senior LIC officials visited the site and sought police intervention to regain possession of the land.LIC officials have maintained that the corporation repeatedly raised the issue with successive administrations, claiming the property was forcibly occupied and that repeated representations over the years failed to yield any action.The dispute is not new. In 2010, TOI reported LIC’s allegations that Suruchi Sangha had taken possession of the plot in 2008, three years before the Trinamool came to office in Bengal. By then, however, Aroop Biswas had already emerged as an influential political figure after winning the Tollygunge Assembly seat in 2006 on a Trinamool ticket.Sources said LIC attempted to recover the land in 2017 with the backing of a court order. However, the effort did not succeed, with officials alleging that the club continued to retain possession through the influence wielded by the former minister.According to sources, representatives of the puja committee had at one stage sought the land as a “donation.” LIC officials estimate the current market value of the property at more than Rs 11 crore.
