From 2002 to 2007, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had incurred an expenditure of Rs 14.29 crore on heritage conservation and restoration. The fund has, however, been allegedly misused due to lack of proper planning.

According to the report, of Rs 14.29 crore, the KMC spent Rs 83 lakh on beautification of the crematorium at Keoratala — not a scheduled classified heritage site. And despite a budgetary allocation of Rs 6 crore for developing and beautifying the crematorium, the money was withdrawn from the heritage fund.

The KMC mobilised resources from its own revenue fund, MP Local Area Development fund and a corpus fund constituted in February 2006, which provides that the Municipal Commissioner may receive voluntary contribution towards the cost of maintaining any heritage building.

The report, however, states that the civic body did not initiate mobilisation of any resources for the corpus fund. The KMC, it said, had not taken any action to get such donations exempted from income tax, as recommended by the Expert Committee on Heritage.

“I admit that there were some irregularities in case of managing the fund meant for heritage conservation and restoration that has been pointed out by the examiner of accounts,” said Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya. “We have produced all documents required to justify the use of the funds. Accepting the diversion of fund due to the lack of planning, we have also stated that we will try to use the available resource in an effective manner,” he added.

Despite having an Heritage Conservation Committee and a department comprising highly paid historians, panels of architects, conservation specialists, the Star Theatre — a historical auditorium associated with the modern Indian theatre movement, which was gutted in a devastating fire in 1991 — has lost its original architectural significance despite a Rs 12.54-crore makeover. Plus, the standard of work was not proportionate with the expenditure incurred, the report had mentioned.

According to it, the civic body acquired the premises with 28 cottahs of land valued at Rs 2.21 crore for the construction of an auditorium, commercial plaza and car parking. The amount spent for the construction was Rs 8.90 crore in February 2006. As a consequence of these commercial constructions, the Star Theatre is nowadays is being used more as a commercial plaza and cinema hall than a theatre.