The Statesman 21 Feb 2004
Tirthankar Mitra in Kolkata
Feb. 20. — While the Left Front government is all set to downsize the workforce in the loss-making state PSUs, its mode of welcoming foreign capital has been described as “being no different” from such policies of the Union government. The rap on the knuckles has been administered in a draft resolution of the trade wing of the CPI, a Front partner.
The document launches successive attacks on the Front government, often aiming for its proudest slogan “champion of the proletariat”. The state government’s repeated statements against militant trade unionism have led to sharp reactions among the labour force though strikes are on the decline and lockouts on the rise, it states.
The measures taken by the state vis-a-vis closed and sick industries appear to be similar to those of the Centre, it said. The condition of jobless workers in the tea and jute industries is terrible.
The workers’ interests, rights and social security are being endangered by the way entrepreneurs are flouting labour laws and agreements. Yet the government is not taking any action against them. The state has decided to stop recruitment in different sectors and instead employ people on a contractual basis and with lower wages, a practice which has also been adopted by private owners who have “intensified the attack on workers”. The state labour department was also at the receiving end of CPI flak.
Intent on ousting the LF government, the BJP-led NDA government is advocating liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. “The LF government is against these policies, but is forced to take some steps which cannot be differentiated from the Union government’s policies. This happens to be the dialectical complexity of the situation,” it said.
The Statesman 10.09.2005
Realtors thrive on land of sick units
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, Sept. 9. — Is the increasing real estate business on the land of closed and sick mills in and around Kolkata replacing factories and mills inevitable?
The recent meeting of the CPI-M central committee concluded politically correct that new industries should nest on the old’s abandoned home and Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government would facilitate the replacement by unlocking the unused and surplus land of closed and sick units. But a survey by Nagarik Mancha, an industry research group, has found that most of the closed mills’ land in and around the city has been grabbed by the private promoters, with the tacit support of the politicians and government officials.
The state industry minister, Mr Nirupam Sen, admitted that most of these land deals were illegal. But he said that it was necessary as there was a huge demand for residential complexes. Virtually condoning this trend, he said that old-styled factories would not come up on the land of the closed units because of new environmental stipulations and changing global industrial scenario.
“Traditional industries like leather and foundry will not return to the city as we have been shifting them to fringe areas. The real estate boom is the result of current economic trend. The promoters are thriving on the huge demand for houses. The government is trying to intervene in the market and increase supplies by facilitating organised efforts to develop residential complexes and townships. People will have to cough up less money to buy a flat,” Mr Sen reasoned.
Notwithstanding the debate over agriculture v/s industrialization in the wake of Salim Group’s proposals, shrinking of industrial land is alarming. According to the Mancha convenor, Mr Naba Dutta, the Subhas Pahari committee, set up by late Benoy Choudhury during his tenure in Land and Land Reforms department, estimated that there are around 1.36 lakh acres of land belonging to 317 closed and sick units in the state including some jute mills. Later, the figure came down in a Webcon study commissioned by the Industry department. The industry minister put the figure at 40-42000 acres. However, hardly any of these plots is under government control as the owners have not declared its closures to avoid the vesting of the urban land, he said.
“Our survey found that residential buildings, markets and shopping malls have either come up or are in the pipeline on the land of some 80-85 closed and sick units in Kolkata and suburbs alone. Officially, many of these units have not been declared closed and workers are still getting Rs 500 from the government.
The Statesman 20 August 2006
Once there was a jheel...
Kolkata’s ‘tallest’ towers, fast nearing completion, have been in the thick of controversy for flouting environmental norms. Mohit Ray has been watching the battle between the realtors and the green lobby from the ringside
IN the beginning there was a well-known industry called Jay Engineering of Usha Group which manufactured the famous Usha fans and sewing machines on Prince Anwar Shah Road, in south Kolkata. On its backyard was Bikramgarh Jheel, one of the large waterbodies in the southern suburb of Kolkata, shown in the latest map (2001) of the city published by National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation.
Like many industries in Bengal, Jay Engineering was closed down and so came the real estate people to grab the prime land. And the city came to know through a series of colourful huge hoardings that the industrial plot is now being reborn as the tallest venture in eastern India — a 35-storied housing complex, named South City. As you approach the southern part of the city you cannot miss the sight of two of the proposed four sky-high towers. These are the towers of violation, as they continue to flout environmental norms.
South City Projects is promoted by some of the big names in real estate in the state. It boasts of 31.14 acres of mini-township featuring three 35-storey and one 28-storey residential towers. It is supposedly the highest building in eastern India. On the cards are an enormous shopping mall, a sprawling club, a school, a central green area and landscaping, including beautiful waterbodies. It is the biggest real-estate project Kolkata has ever seen.
In 1995 celebrity lawyer MC Mehta filed a case in the Supreme Court of India to remove polluting industries from Delhi. While the small industries suffered, the bigger ones were happy to move out. The idea was to sell land in prime areas of the city for the price of gold.
The Supreme Court, however, ordered that if the industry covered more than 5 hectares, only 35 per cent of the land could be sold, while the rest would have to be given to the city authority for developing green belts. As Delhi got rid of the polluting industries, Delhites were gifted with more green areas.
When more than 12 hectares of Jay Engineering factory land was being transferred to a new real estate developer, the citizens of this densely-populated southern suburb expected to get a green park measuring 8 hectares out of the industrial land as it had happened in Delhi. But no, the southern suburb would, in fact, get a huge concrete jungle, not a single square metre of land would be given for public use. So the corporation, state government and realtors joined hands to violate the spirit of Supreme Court’s direction. And this tradition of violation continued, with the help of the state.
Grab the waterbody
Then came the turn of Bikramgarh Jheel to face this juggernaut of violation. In a densely-populated area, the presence of such a large waterbody was a unique phenomenon. In the absence of any plan for conservation, this sprawling wetland was slowly turning into a dirty, polluted place. This wetland still attracts a lot of different species — birds, small animals, varied insects – enriching the biodiversity.
There have been different initiatives by environmental groups and local organisations and representatives to renovate this vast waterbody [see box.page 10]. Even as the initiatives to conserve Bikramgarh Jheel were being taken, South City Projects was being outlined and the idea was to grab a part of this waterbody as a part of it.
South City was given official consent by West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) on November 2003. And by mid-2005 South City had filled up a part of the waterbody and started construction there. Local people felt helpless. There were complaints from different quarters. Then on 2 January 2006, Vasundhara, an environmentalists’ group, complained with detailed report and photographs to the West Bengal governor, chief minister and a number of government departments, including WBPCB, about South City’s encroachment on Bikramgarh Jheel.
Breaking norms
WBPCB has conducted three hearings on 24 January, 17 February and 29 March of 2006 in the presence of the representatives of South City Projects and Vasundhara, the complaining NGO. In the beginning South City had happily revealed that it had got permission for filling up 1.31 acres of waterbody from WBPCB, in lieu of creating 1.41 acres of a new waterbody. Later they stated that the waterbody had not been filled up.
WBPCB sent a team of engineers on 8 March 2006 to check the existence of 1.31 acres of waterbody. The team categorically concluded that no such waterbody existed. Also the South City authorities failed to show them any specific location where the proposed 1.41-acre waterbody would come up. The report noted, “The filling up operation of the Jheel towards the waterside was in progress”.
During the hearing on 29 March, representatives of the Fisheries Department, Govt of West Bengal, informed that they have sent two notices to South City Projects for filling up of the waterbody. In the same meeting, representative of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) stated that their map of Bikramgarh Jheel, based on aerial photography, clearly shows encroachment of 10830.5 square meter (160 cottahs) of Bikramgarh Jheel by South City Projects. KMC also wondered how WBPCB at all could give permission to fill up a part of a waterbody. Though three government organisations — WBPCB, Fisheries Department and KMC — confirmed filling up of the waterbody, construction work on the filled-up area was speeded up to pre-empt any investigation. The Inland Fisheries Act, which prohibit even filling up of 5 cottah (330 sq.m) of waterbody, was ignored when it came to filling up 160 cottahs of Bikramgarh Jheel.
WBPCB has complained to Calcutta High Court that the whole work of South City Projects is illegal. According to Environmental Impact Assessment Notification under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, a clearance is needed from the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, which they have not yet done. But who cares for environmental laws if you are on the right side of the ruling party?
Committees galore
After these hearings, WBPCB formed an independent committee consisting of Prof PN Roy (ex-pro VC, Calcutta University), Prof Arunava Majumder (ex-head, All India Institute of Public Health and Hygiene), Manab Sengupta (secretary, faculty of science and technology, Calcutta University) and Biswajit Mukherjee (senior law officer, WBPCB). It held a hearing of all parties on 11 April 2006. The committee visited the site and examined all relevant papers. On 18 May the committee came up with a bold report though surprisingly forgot to mention the roles of environmental and community organisations in the struggle. The committee recommended that, the entire work of South City Projects should be closed, and Tower III and IV should be demolished. Construction work of Tower III and IV has encroached on the waterbody and also been developed by filling it up.
Two IAS officers, Asim Burman (ex-secy, Dept of Environment), Shyamal Sarkar (ex-member secretary, WBPCB) and two chief engineers of WBPCB were held responsible for giving permission to fill up the waterbody. Bikramgarh Jheel should be restored to its previous state.
The committee annexed 30 photographs to show how the flouting of environmental norms has been sustained. The report was simply ignored by all executing authorities including WBPCB.
The West Bengal chief secretary formed another committee, probably to greenwash the developers’ lobby. The committee has representations from the Department of Environment, Department of Fisheries and KMC. After a period of prolonged silence the committee has admitted the obvious, — that South City Projects has filled up Bikramgarh Jheel illegally — and is probably now busy finding a new escape route for the developers.
Environment, anyone?
People who govern Kolkata are interested in protecting its environment only on select occasions. There are instances when the judiciary, West Bengal government and the KMC and even some “environmental” organisations became unusually active to destroy the homes of several thousands of poor people to save the environment of Rabindra Sarobar. The homes of the poor along the canals of Kolkata were bulldozed to beautify the city.
What then prevents the illegal construction of South City from being demolished? As long as Kolkata’s concerned people organise nature shows in city auditoriums but never work actively towards saving the environment from the rich and powerful, bringing down the towers of violation would remain an absurd dream.
Fast filling up
5 June 2002 – Local clubs and Vasundhara organise World Environment Day and start a campaign for saving Bikramgarh Jheel (BJ)
25 March 2003 – KMC takes over BJ for restoration
27 July 2003 – A workshop by Vasundhara and Centre for Urban Economic Studies, Calcutta University and Udayan club for wise renovation of BJ
7 November 2003 – South City Projects gets clearance to start work
16 February 2005 – Deputy director of fisheries notify filling up of the waterbody
2 January 2006 – Vasundhara sends a report and a set of photographs about filling up of BJ to different government departments.
24 January & 17 February 2006 – WBPCB conducts hearings on the issue
8 March 2005 – WBPCB engineers visit the site and report about filling up of the waterbody
29 March 2005 – Fisheries department and KMC inform about the filling up of BJ in the hearing
5 April 2006 – An independent committee headed by PN Roy is constituted by WBPCB
11 April 2006 – Committee meets environmental organisations
18 May 2006 – Committee submits report recommending stopping of all work in South City and restoration of BJ
July 2006 – Chief secretary forms another committee
August 2006 – This committee also finds illegal filling up of BJ
At present – South City continues construction and other work. Inspired by South City and the government’s silence, other small-scale encroachers are filling up BJ fast.
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