Bypass: A part of a sprawling water body off EM Bypass, in a neighbourhood called Metropolitan Cooperative, has been filled up illegally, according to a complaint lodged with Pragati Maidan police station.
Residents of the area said the water body - called Ukiler Bheri, in Ward 57 of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation - was being filled up over several months.
In his complaint sent to the officer-in-charge of Pragati Maidan police station on Thursday, environment activist Subhas Datta said: "After receiving a public complaint from the local people about illegal filling up of 'Ukiler Bheri', situated at Metropolitan area within your P.S., the undersigned had made a visit there yesterday at around 5pm and have observed that a sizeable portion of the said bheri, adjacent to holding no 134B, Sector B and 152B Canal South Road, within Metropolitan Housing Co-Operative Society Ltd area has been filled up."
Datta pleaded for an inquiry and steps against the landfill, which he pointed out was not permissible under the West Bengal Inland Fisheries Act 1984.
Environment minister and mayor Sovan Chatterjee has repeatedly promised not to allow any illegal landfill anywhere in the state. The fisheries act mandates that no water body can be filled up without the permission of the fisheries department. Such permission is given if the reason for the fill-up is found to be valid and the people involved in the project create a "compensatory" water body.
In Calcutta, the fisheries department has delegated the authority to give the permission to the civic body. "We have not given any permission to fill up Ukiler Bheri. We will conduct an inquiry and take appropriate steps," said Subrata Seal, director-general (environment), CMC.
"We have received the complaint and will step up night patrolling," the officer-in-charge of Pragati Maidan police station said.
According to residents, the landfill starts around midnight and continues till around 3am.
Metro visited the site and found that around 6,000sq ft of the water body has been filled up with fly ash and mud.
Residents said the landfill gathered pace three months ago, after associates of local Trinamul Congress councillor Jiban Saha won the elections in Metropolitan Cooperative.
Saha denied involvement in the filling up of the water body. "I am not aware of any landfill and have not received any complaint," he Saha.
"The buzz is four plots of four cottahs each will be carved out of the water body," a resident said.
This newspaper accessed the master plan of Metropolitan Cooperative and found that there is no provision of any plot beyond the existing addresses.
