Comrades part of racket in filling up wetlands

belghoria: chief minister buddhadeb bhattacharjee may fret and fume, but his instructions not to fill up wetlands are being flouted with impunity here. the lakes and ponds of this area are filled up, interestingly among other things, with effluents being generated by kamarhati municipality. subhas mukherjee, the north 24-parganas district committee member of the cpm, said that about 140 wetlands in the municipal area alone have so far been filled up during the last ten years or so.mukherjee is reportedly fighting a bitter battle inside the party against his comrades involved in the process of filling and handing over water bodies to promoters. dewandighi, a 10-bigha pond in ward number 20, nandannagar- basakpara lake in ward number 20, the vast wetland behind jatindas nagar girl's high school, the one adjoining aikatan club, the sprawling wetland bordering khudiram pally, subhas pally and new colony in ward 31 have all been converted into dumping grounds. waste from the municipality and other local industries have nowhere else to be dumped except in the lakes and ponds. moreover, organised resistance have taken care of nay protest by the locals. the 'boys' or members of the clubs, that have come up near the ponds, accompanied by the goons of the promoters, put all protest to sleep. kamarhati municipality chairman gobinda ganguly said that there is a lack of proper machinery to prevent such crime. according to the locals, the promoters are so confident of their political clout that they sell off the ponds even before the filling is complete. the partially filled pond lying on the border of ward 35 and north dum dum municipality is currently selling at rs 80,000 per cottah. in ward 31, about five bighas of the 10-bigha wetland of nandannagar balur char was filled with flyash. also, the municipality itself is keen on filling a pond in ward 35 to set up a children's park. the nanadannagar-basakpara lake was being used for years by the locals for pisciculture. strangely the municipality allowed the drains to carry the waste into the pond, leading to pollution and making the lives of residents miserable. immediately, the promoters launched a campaign saying pond-filling was the only solution. cpm insiders said that filling up of wetlands with the covert and often overt help from a section of the party would be discussed at the forthcoming zonal and district unit conferences of the party. will that solve the problem? certainly not, said the locals.