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Bill to keep count of waterbodies

By Rajesh Kumar, Section Kolkata Municipal Corporation
Posted on Fri Jun 17, 2005 at 03:24:30 AM EST

The wetlands are fast disappearing from the face of Calcutta, even though Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's government ritualistically repeats every year that it will not allow waterbodies to be filled.

In reality, the government does not know the large number of waterbodies that have disappeared from different neighbourhoods, thanks to the realtor-politician-police nexus and the absence of records of the exact number of wetlands in and outside the city.

A few environment lobbies have moved court, seeking measures to stop the vanishing act by waterbodies.

A senior minister in Bhattacharjee's Cabinet said on Thursday that the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) was not providing his department with the names of the owners of wetlands in and around Calcutta.

"Consequently, we cannot initiate action against offenders in case waterbodies are filled, since we don't know who it belongs to. The CMC has only provided us with the numbers," said fisheries minister Kiranmoy Nanda on Thursday.

"We are unable to drag offenders to court since we don't know who to file a case against. As a result, the conviction rate is low," said the minister.

He alleged that though the land reforms and environment departments have laws for the protection of waterbodies, the departments were not cooperating with the fisheries department.

According to state government officers, of the total number of waterbodies filled in the state, the majority lie in the CMC area.

"In the northern parts of the city, a large number of waterbodies were filled up in Barrackpore, Sodepur, Panihati, Baranagar and Dum Dum, whereas in south, the menace continues in the Behala, Garden Reach, Jadavpur and New Garia belts," a state government officer said.

To regulate the use of waterbodies, the government is fine tuning a Waterbodies Bill, which will be tabled in the current Assembly session.

A comprehensive new West Bengal Waterbodies Act will be enacted by the environment department, which will supplement the rules governing the use and change of waterbodies.

Principal secretaries of the fisheries, environment, land and land reforms and planning and development departments discussed the bill at a meeting chaired by chief secretary Ashok Gupta.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050617/asp/calcutta/story_4877493.asp

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