Erosion shadow on Malda map

Manas R Bannerjee

MALDA, Oct. 13: The Malda district magistrate, Mr Chittaranjan Das, is planning to make a fresh map of the district highlighting the plight of erosion victims on the left and right banks of the Ganges, at the national level. The proposed map with a fresh alignment would point out the eroded areas since 1950 with view to claiming areas eroded away by the Ganges only to emerge on the right bank that has gone under the control of Bihar and then Jharkhand subsequently. “ The 1950 alignment would help us draw a border line between the two states and claim land from the Jharkhand government on its basis”, the district magistrate, said. According to him, the 1950 alignment would be treated as the borderline between the two states, not the mid stream of the Ganges as is treated now.Locals as well as political organisations including the CPI-ML (Liberation) have long been demanding back the areas of West Bengal that are now under the control of the Jharkhand government and where thousands of Malda people live as forced Jharkhand residents without basic amenities. The state land and land reforms minister, Mr Razzak Mollah, recently took an initiative to recover these areas. He also held several meetings with the people and local peoples’ representatives on the issue. Mr Mollah had also urged all political parties to launch a joint movement to resolve the problems of char areas located in the mid Ganges.The erosion victims and char landowners are, however, confused about the sections the Land and Land Reforms Act that would have a role to play in the exercise. “They do not need to worry about the Act,” assured Mr Biswanath Ghosh, the CPI-M MLA from Kaliachak. Owing to erosion, the width of the Ganges, touching the areas of Manikchak, English Bazaar and Kaliachak II has expanded over 10 km, but the width of it is still close to 2.5 km near the Farkakka Barrage. An optimistic district magistrate has also urged the leaders of all parties to adopt a political decision for recovering the lost land of the Bengal. “ We can easily demarcate and locate the land records,” he said.