Threat calls hound ‘clean’ councillors

kolkata: the murder of dum dum municipality chairman sailen das has drawn attention to the rampant practice of illegally filling up water bodies for construction. the worst-affected municipalities are dum dum, south dum dum, rajarhat-gopalpur, barasat and madhyamgram. several councillors in north 24-parganas have complained of getting threat calls when they refused to succumb to promoters intent on getting building plans sanctioned on water bodies.tapas chatterjee, chairman of rajarhat-gopalpur municipality, has complained of receiving threat calls for opposing pond filling. a councillor said that anyone wishing to encroach on a water body approached the local clubs and promised to take building material from them. this is done to pre-empt local resistance. the local leaders, irrespective of their political hues, are 'cajoled' into a deal. after getting the building plans passed from the municipalities, allegedly in exchange of "monetary favours", construction starts. however, the process is not always smooth and may lead to violence. though filling up of waterbodies above five cottahs in area is illegal, several cases have been reported from the rajarhat-gopalpur municipality. documents show that in the past three years, the municipality has sanctioned plans for about 167 highrises. two tanks in ward no. 8 and one in ward no. 21 are being filled up. complaints have also come from teghoria. sources in south dum dum municipality said that they had received several complaints of pond-filling. a cpm councillor informed that several ponds on r.n. guha road had already been filled up by promoters. there are reports of filling of a pond near auro cinema. in madhyamgram, police sources said that several feuds had taken place among local youths over mediating in land deals. the vice-chairman of the municipality refused to discuss the issue. but local residents said that the problem was acute along badu road.