Rayati plot owner alleges illegal construction
Kolkata: Allegations of rampant illegal constructions on the East Kolkata Wetland (EKW) have again come to surface as yet another rayati owner of a plot has complained to the police and the District Magistrate of South 24-Parganas about an alleged nexus between Panchayat leaders and real estate promoters leading to such constructions on the ecologically-fragile Ramsar site.
The rayati owner of plot 301 in EKW has written to the officer in-charge of the Kolkata Leather Complex Police Station, and has also marked other government officials, alleging that unauthorised and illegal concrete structures are coming up on the wetland area, forcefully changing the
character of the land.
The plot concerned comes under the Bamanghata Panchayat and Bhangar II Block. It is located at Hatgacha Mouza. He alleged that the husband of the Panchayat Pradhan and the local Panchayat leaders are hand in gloves with the brokers in this illegal construction business.
It was alleged that more than 10 houses have come up without any no objection certificate from any government agencies or clearance from the East Kolkata Wetland Management Authority (EKMA).
The plot owner further alleged that the construction work is being done regularly in the wee hours of the night and presently, even in the broad daylight.
Requesting anonymity, the complainant told Millennium Post that the entire area is an undivided 15 acres plot. He alleged that several land owners, including him, own about three acres of land in the undivided 15 acres plot and for the last couple of months illegal constructions are being m
ade there.
The complainant said that the encroachment and the illegal constructions are raising severe concern regarding their right title and possession.
Additionally, he alleged people are also being scammed since lakhs of rupees are being taken from them for the sale of these illegal houses.
“The modus operandi of the scam involves illegal land trading by creating multiple chain deeds on the same land within the same link of buyers/sellers, taking undue advance. The lands are being sold more than the prescribed righteous share,” the complainant said.
