Survey to reclaim Ganges bank

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Feb. 12: A special team of the Directorate of Land Records and Survey, Kolkata, is ascertaining the old left bank line of the Ganges in Malda district. The object of the survey is to recover land of West Bengal lost to Jharkhand through Ganga erosion. Such eroded tracts of land, which have surfaced on the western side of the river, is currently under the control of the Jharkhand government. The state government as well as the Malda district magistrate Mr CR Das took initiative to conduct the survey and then begin an “inter- government" dialogue to take possession of the land cut away from West Bengal by the Ganges erosion over the past few decades. “The present survey revealed that 48 moujas, nearly 100 square miles of area, have been eroded away and have surfaced on the western side, which is under the control of the Jharkhand government,” said the Malda district magistrate. Mr Das said: “We shall have to contest on the basis of the rights conferred by the Indian Constitution to get back the lost land that is under the control of the Jharkhand government.”With the mid stream of the Ganges accepted as the flexible boundary line between the states, the Jharkhand government has taken possession of those islands on the western side of the Ganges. "We want to establish a “fixed boundary line” between the two neighboring states ~ West Bengal and Jharkhand, based on the statutory provision of the Indian constitution,” Mr CR Das claimed. The local people have been demanding for long that the West Bengal government reclaim the land on the western side of the river. People residing on the island without basic amenities also want to come under the control of the West Bengal government. Politically, the CPI-M leaders, including the state's minister for land and land reforms Mr Abdur Rezzak Molla, had visited the area and attended a convention in Kaliachak II on the issue of settlement of the disputed land between the two states. The Malda administration was also forced to conceive the idea to recover the land now in Jhakhand when it failed to rehabilitate the thousands of families rendered homeless in Kaliachak II block due to land constraint.