The chief secretary on Friday convened a meeting at Writers’ Buildings to discuss the preservation of East Calcutta Wetlands. Several experts took part in the meeting.

“There are problems with the expression of interest issued for selecting an agency to prepare a management action plan for the wetlands. We will soon issue a fresh advertisement,” chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb reportedly said at the outset. He promised that such meetings would continue.

Environment secretary M.L. Meena and state Pollution Control Board member secretary Debal Roy and technical officer Nitai Kundu attended the meeting.

“I pointed out some problem areas, such as the provision for filling up the wetlands in the East Calcutta Wetlands Act,” said environmental activist Subhas Dutta, who also attended the meeting.

Researcher Dhrubojyoti Ghosh emphasised the need for understanding among government agencies and the role of the common man. Banani Kakkar, of NGO PUBLIC, highlighted the violations by government departments within the protected area.

Issues like conservation of traditional practices, biodiversity, awareness generation, illegal housing, encroachment and eco-tourism were discussed in the meeting.

Dutta said the chief secretary had acknowledged the need for the wetlands to be demarcated from the surrounding areas and a resource centre to conserve documents, studies and researches about the area. “Deb felt eco-tourism in the wetlands, if any, should be of low key. He assured us that the draft masterplan for wetlands management will be shown to experts before it is finalised,” summed up Dutta.