June 22: The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation has received over 100 complaints about illegal construction and filling up of water bodies in the past few months, mayor Sabyasachi Dutta said today.
"We have lodged 66 FIRs with various police stations. We have surveyed the areas in question... several water bodies are being filled up to make way for multi-storeyed buildings," he said. "Most of the complaints are from wards 35, 36, 2 and 3. We have notified all the departments. The environment department is taking requisite action."
Wards 2 and 3 are in Rajarhat, while 35 and 36 are bheri areas in Sukantanagar, Nalban and Nicco Park, adjoining the East Calcutta Wetlands.
A corporation letter, dated May 19, to the environment department asks it to stop the filling up of a water body in Sukantanagar bordering the ecologically sensitive East Calcutta Wetlands that was declared a Ramsar site in 2002.
The areas bordering Salt Lake, like Khasmahal and Chhainabi, that are part of the East Calcutta Wetlands are seeing rapid illegal construction that poses a threat to the ecological balance, an official said.
Construction activities are barred in the East Calcutta Wetlands that act as the city's kidneys and treat sewage naturally. The wetlands, used for pisciculture, have a complex ecological balance as they support several hundred varieties of flora and fauna, he said.
Last month, the civic body filed cases against at least five buildings in Ward 35, an official said.
The Trinamul councillor of the ward, Jaydev Naskar, recently wrote to the civic body asking it to revoke the cases. Naskar claimed in the letter that the buildings under scanner were built 35 years ago.
"The civic body should investigate the matter before filing cases against innocent residents of my ward," Naskar told Metro .
Mayor Dutta, however, said Naskar's claims were baseless. "They cannot be 35 years old as Sukantanagar came up 33 years ago. Moreover, new constructions are happening in the area. We won't allow any illegal construction or filling up of any water body in the corporation area," he said.
