A QUESTION OF AUTHORITY: The East Calcutta Wetlands, off the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. A Telegraph picture

For land sharks waiting to sink their teeth into the East Calcutta Wetlands, this is the most opportune moment to act.

For, it seems the 12,500-hectare watery sprawl, declared a no-development zone by Calcutta High Court, is beyond the realm of any regulatory body.

The state pollution control board has so far been the custodian of the wetlands, but with the setting up of the East Calcutta Wetlands Authority, which is yet to become functional, its mandate is being challenged.

Environment minister Mahanta Chatterjee admitted that the ?Authority is yet to be fully structured?, but stressed that ?anybody can lodge a complaint with his department or the pollution control board? with regard to any violation of land rules in the wetlands.

The minister?s optimism, however, did not find an echo in what board?s senior law officer Biswajit Mukherjee had to say: ?Some of our orders on the wetlands are under judicial scrutiny. It?s being debated whether the board has any supervisory role in the wetlands, following the creation of the Authority. Till the judiciary spells out its view, we are not taking any regulatory action and are referring all complaints to the East Calcutta Wetlands Authority.?

Bonani Kakkar, of PUBLIC, feels both the department and the board are shirking their responsibility. ?Earlier, if we were to lodge a complaint regarding the wetlands, we would approach the department or the board. The complaints were always recorded. But now, the whole thing has become confusing, with the involvement of multiple players, including the wetlands authority.?

Not surprisingly, the alleged violators, once strictured by the high court, are trying to make most of the confusion. Some of them ? mostly owners of stone-cutting and large motor garage-cum-repairing units ? have been arguing in court that the pollution control board has no say in wetlands matters.

The board had earlier asked the units to shift out, as they had come up in violation of a 1992 high court order that declared the wetlands as a Waste Recycling Region and debarred any development or construction activities there.

?How could it be that the board has no power in the wetlands?? asked Lt-Col. (retired) S.R. Banerjee, state director of WWF-India. ?If it can enforce orders within the CMDA or Asansol-Durgapur Development Authority area, why not in the wetlands??