The Siliguri Municipal Corporation on Saturday cleared encroachment from one of its plots at the southern end of the city which falls under Jalpaiguri district.
Sources said the civic body owns 15 acres at Putimari under Fulbari-II panchayat of Jalpaiguri district. Back in 2005, when the Left was in power, it planned to use the plot as an alternative dumping ground. As residents protested, the project was shelved. The land stayed vacant.
“Recently, we came to know that the land has been encroached upon and a boundary wall built on a part of the plot. Today (Saturday), our men went to the spot along with a police team and cleared the encroachment,” said an administrative official.
The local land mafia had encroached upon the plot, officials alleged.
Mayor Gautam Deb, who had earlier been the chairman of the board of administrators at the SMC, was the first to take an initiative to clear encroachments of plots owned by the civic body.
“We will not allow encroachment of government land. We have planned to take up certain projects on such plots. In Putimari, we will mark the plot and construct a boundary wall around it,” Deb said on Saturday.
Sources in the SMC said the civic body would plant trees on the plot to develop a Miyawaki forest — a specific type of cultivation invented by a Japanese botanist where saplings are planted close so that they grow rapidly.
The mayor also held a meeting with engineers and architects of the city at the SMC about certain proposed projects.
BSF arrest
Troops of the 152nd battalion of the Border Security Force (BSF) at Natwartola border outpost in North Dinajpur on Friday night nabbed Shafiqul Islam, 26, of Thakurgaon in Bangladesh, when he was trying to enter India “illegally”, BSF sources said. He was handed over to Goalpokhar police.
‘Illegal’ call centre
The special operations group and the detective department of Siliguri Metropolitan Police raided a building in Punjabipara of Siliguri on Saturday and busted an allegedly illegal call centre. Six young women and three young men, allegedly involved in illegal financial transactions, were detained, police sources said.