KMC starts GIS mapping of ponds within its jurisdiction
KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is conducting Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping of all the ponds within its jurisdiction while it is also identifying lands which were previously water-bodies.
The civic body presently is working on a war footing to protect ponds in the city, which are fast filling up for real estate development purposes in the wake of a population burst in the city.
A KMC official said that the civic body has launched a full scale inspection according to strict instructions by Mayor Firhad Hakim.“We will digitise all the data pertaining to the number of existing ponds within all 144 wards of the civic body. The GIS mapping also involves allocating specific code numbers to each of the ponds. This will help us in keeping proper records of these water bodies and take action in case one of these ponds are found filled up.”
The official said that the present survey also involves identifying those water bodies which have been now filled up but were previously listed as ponds in the records of KMC.
Recently, Mayor Firhad Hakim lashed out at the officials of the Assessment department, warning them against laxity in work concerning updation of assessment reports of ponds within the civic body area.
It became apparent that there are ponds which are yet to find place in the list of the civic body and are being silently filled up for construction purposes.
The Member Mayor-in-Council of the Environment department of KMC, Swapan Samaddar, has stated clearly that KMC does not give sanctions for construction by filling up ponds and the same has been conveyed to all real estate developers. The Millennium Post recently reported that the KMC website still continues to show the number of ponds for only 141 wards, out of total 144 wards. The official said that once the GIS mapping and digital records are ready, the entire data will be uploaded onto the KMC website so that citizens can log in to keep track of water bodies in their wards.
