The controversy over the state environment department?s bill on the East Calcutta Wetlands is not restricted to the attempt to include certain plots, that were once a waterbody, within the settlement zone.

The bill has several other shortcomings, point out a host of government officials and environment experts.

The authority the bill seeks to create, for conservation and management of the wetlands, has been vested with powers to change the character or mode of use of the plots within the 12,500-hectare sprawl.

But experts feel the authority will not be able to exercise the powers unless the administrative control of the land and land reforms, urban development and the fishery departments over the area is withdrawn by altering the rule of business in the Assembly.

?Any attempt by the authority to enforce an order through other departments will end up creating more confusions,? said an official.

Experts also wondered how the bill could seek to empower the authority to ?exclude? any area from the wetlands, the map for which has long been approved by Calcutta High Court and the Ramsar Bureau.

Another point of contention is the move to grant ?immunity? to the authority and its officials from legal suits. The bill states that ?no suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against the authority or any member or employee? for any damage done in ?good faith?.

Environment activist Subhas Dutta fears that the combination of ?absolute power? vested with the authority and the ?immunity? would be disastrous for the wetlands.

The bill, officials said, does not recognise the salient feature of the wetlands that brought the Ramsar recognition ? use of waste water in agriculture and fishery.

?No matter how many authorities are set up, the wetlands will not survive if the traditional knowledge about the use of waste water is not preserved,? said environment expert Dhrubojyoti Ghosh, who has won international awards for his pioneering work on the East Calcutta Wetlands.

Also contested is a provision in the bill allowing one to fill up a waterbody, if he agrees to dig up another of the same dimension. ?A specialised wetland like what we have in east Calcutta cannot under any circumstance be filled up,? said environment activist Mohit Roy.

Experts also point out that the proposed wetland interpretation centre, to come up on 50 acres and with a functional area covering 2,500 acres, will actually harm the watery sprawl.