Union ministers may be approached on islands

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Dec. 28: In response to the proposal of the Sabhadhipati, Malda Zilla Parishad, Mr Goutam Chakraborty, the land and land reforms minister, Mr. Abdur Rezzak Molla, today approached political leaders to conduct a mass convention of all the political parties in Malda, inviting Union ministers, Mr P R Das Munshi and Mr Pranab Mukherjee to bring back islands of West Bengal which is under the control of Jharkhand due to erosion of the Ganges. Addressing at a government programme, Mr Goutam Chakraborty approached Mr Molla to take an initiative to bring back lands, which were wiped out of West Bengal and are presently under the control of the Jharkhand government. Mr Chakraborty pointed out that the Malda people had lost their homestead lands and agricultural lands due to erosion, but they were not in a position to take possession legally due to resistance from people in Jharkhand with the help of the police. The land and land reforms minister, M Abdur Rezzak Molla said: “ We had taken several attempts by writing letters from our end. The chief minister, Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, took initiative and wrote to the Central government, following a note of the state parliamentary minister, Mr Sailen Sarkar. But nothing has been done”. The Malda district magistrate has got an invitation letter from his counter part district magistrate from Jharkhand to settle the matter and he told him that they would accept their proposal. “Why the Malda district magistrate would go to Jharkhand? The matter can be settled when two Union ministers are there and we are supporting their government," Mr Rezzak Molla said. “It would be better to call a mass political convention where the two Union ministers, Mr P R Das Munshi and Mr Pranab Mukherjee,” he added. “We will claim our area, nearly 100 sq km area ( 42 moujas ), from Jharkhand government based on the boundary line fixed in 1950”, the land and land reforms minister said.