Kolkata, March 6 -- The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has directed its borough executive engineers (Civil) to mandatorily put all the waterbodies restored by the civic body in their respective jurisdiction under pisciculture.
A circular issued by the municipal commissioner read that under West Bengal Inland Fisheries Act 1984, the legal owner is liable to maintain/ conserve the water body to its original shape, size and area. However, if the waterbody is being filled up or kept in ill-maintained condition resulting in destruction of fisheries, then KMC can take control of its management for restoration. For restoration, the cost incurred by KMC can either be recovered from the owner in terms of Bengal Public Demands Recovery Act 1993, or through the revenue generated from pisciculture.
The communication further stated that normally, municipal funds are not to be used for restoration of waterbodies as the KMC has other obligations but it is also responsible for conservation of its water areas. It was decided that promotion of fisheries is required to keep any waterbody in good condition as well as to prevent the recurring restoration/cleaning cost of that particular waterbody using municipal funds.
All the borough executive engineers (Civil) were directed to mandatorily put all the waterbodies restored/cleaned by the KMC under their respective jurisdiction under pisciculture against deposition of annual lease rent, as per the guideline of Fisheries department, for generation of revenue which will be utilised in future for conservation/preservation of water areas.
The decision was approved by Mayor Firhad Hakim. In an article published on February 25, Millennium Post reported that KMC has geo-tagged more than 8000 waterbodies in the city using satellite surveys coupled with ground verification.
Further, the civic body took management and control of 310 water bodies and efforts are on to promote pisciculture in these.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.