The Assembly standing committee on environment will meet on Monday to finalise its stand on the East Calcutta Wetlands (Conservation & Maintenance) Bill, which was referred to it on Thursday, immediately after being tabled in the House.

?Copies of the bill have been circulated among the members and I have requested them to come prepared on Monday, so we can reach a consensus,? Mursalin Mollah, chairman of the 13-member panel, said on Friday.

The environment department bill is being opposed by a number of government departments.

Land and lands reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah has alleged that certain plots in the Dhapa Manpur mouza, which were once a waterbody, have been included within the ?settlement? zone to legalise two ?unauthorised real estate projects?.

The fisheries department has raised its voice against the bill for being excluded from the authority that will be responsible for the conservation of the wetlands.

?We do not have much role in the wetlands authority, as proposed in the bill,? said fisheries minister Kiranmoy Nanda. ?The bill does not recognise the fact that the wetlands got Ramsar recognition mainly because of the sewage-fed fisheries there,? said a department official.

The same is the complaint of the urban development department, which has reportedly conveyed its grievances to the chief secretary.

?Why was the CMDA not taken into confidence?? asked an official of the department.

?The agency now controls a major part of the 12,500-hectare sprawl. It had prepared a land-use plan for the area in the late nineties and played a key role in a panel formed to protect the wetlands,? the official added.

The government is also facing flak from the Centre on the issue. An official said the Union environment ministry is drafting a letter, which will seek clarifications from the chief secretary on the attempt to change the character of the Ramsar site.