The Assembly standing committee on environment will recommend reinsertion of dag numbers 771 to 775 in Dhapa Manpur mouza within the wetlands map annexed with East Calcutta Wetlands Bill, 2005. The committee is expected to submit its report on Friday.

The bill was referred to the standing committee immediately after being tabled during the last session of the Assembly, following a widespread controversy over the issue.

?We have recommended re-listing of the dag numbers on the wetlands map,? said panel chairman Mursalin Mollah.

The plots bearing the dag numbers figured on the original map of 12,500-hectare wetlands ? the one recognised by Calcutta High Court and the Ramsar Bureau ? but were included within the ?settlement zone? in the bill. In a surprising coincidence, two huge real estate projects were planned on the plots with approval from the local panchayat.

Acting on a complaint by the state pollution control board, the high court had ordered scrapping of the projects, overruling the developers? claim that the plots were not within the wetlands. The court had assigned the task of implementing the order to senior law officer of the board Biswajit Mukherjee. The case is now pending in the Supreme Court.

Land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah had protested the move to exclude the dag numbers from the wetlands. The urban development and fisheries departments, too, are not happy with the bill, as it vests all power of managing the wetlands with the environment department.

The state is also under pressure from the Centre on the issue. Following a complaint by the green watchdog WWF?India, the additional secretary in the Union ministry of environment has written to the chief secretary, seeking the ?the boundary status? of the Ramsar-listed site.

?We are yet to receive a reply,? said Siddhartha Kaul, director (wetlands).