Fisheries minister Chandranath Sinha has become a crusader of sorts – in his endeavour to protect wetlands. The minister has started a “save wetlands, save water bodies” campaign for which posters have been put up all over the city, to make “the ordinary citizen aware of the importance of wetlands and water-bodies”. Sinha is trying to frame a fresh policy on saving wetlands with other government departments and adopt “an integrated approach” for it. The move comes at a time city mayor and environment minister Sovan Chatterjee has, much to the dismay of green activists, has aired his resolve to use wetlands for development projects. The fisheries minister, too, is perplexed at the stance; he wants a discussion with Chatterjee on taking his “save water-body” campaign to a bigger platform with his help. “I don’t know what he (the mayor) has said, but it’s impossible to use wetlands for development projects. On the contrary, it’s the government’s job to protect them. Our campaign is part of the fisheries departments’ mandate for conservation of fisheries,” he added. Knowing the limitations of his “small” department and the “grave” issue of protecting the slowly disappearing waterbodies, he tells TOI about the co-ordination, between “bigger” departments like environment, municipal affairs, panchayat and rural development and urban development, that is the need-of-the-hour. The fisheries department is about to disburse letters to all these departments so that the state government can address the matter in a more pragmatic way. “I know there are laws like the West Bengal Inland Fisheries Act, 1984, and to penalize any one illegally filling water-bodies (3 years’ imprisonment and Rs 5 lakh fined). But the government must make sure the laws are used. For this, I want to call ministers and officials of all these departments for a meeting, where the environment minister (Chatterjee) will take a crucial role.” The fisheries department plans to rope in the panchayat and rural affairs department to take its campaign to the block level. “BDOs (block development officers) will be told to start the campaign immediately and continue it for at least two months at a stretch. The campaign can begin again – after a break,” the minister added. He said, “Ahead of the bigger meeting with the four departments, it would be proper to hold a one-and-one discussion with the mayor, since he now helms a department as crucial as environment.” With the help of the other four departments, the fisheries minister wants to formulate effective ways of implementing the East Kolkata Wetland (Conservation and Management) Act, 2006, the West Bengal Town and Country Planning Act, 1979 and the West Bengal Municipal Building Rules. The minister said, “It’s only when we save the water-bodies and the wetlands that we can save fish and increase its cultivation. Officials in the department revealed that over the past many months, several complaints against illegal filling of water-bodies have reached the minister, propelling him to take a holistic measure now.
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