Kolkata’s Bikramgarh locals question jheel neglect despite funds – Times of India

KOLKATA: Residents of Bikramgarh near Jadavpur have questioned why the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has not been able to rejuvenate the Bikramgarh jheel or prevent its encroachment despite the chief minister Mamata Banerjee personally instructing that it be done and sanctioning Rs 7.8 crore for the jheel restoration project.
Only a small portion of the amount has been spent in piling saal logs along the water edge and removing a portion of the water hyacinth that has since covered the lake again. Locals said that while several parks and water bodies across the city have been beautified in the past eight years, the 14-acre Bikramgarh jheel continues to be gobbled up and remains a picture of neglect.
Former borough X chairman and now a councillor, Tapan Dasgupta, who had actively supported the local movement to save the jheel said he was waiting for the revival of the civic package to restore the jheel. “The funds are there. All that is required is some initiative,” he said.
Already, 40% of the jheel that is the second largest water body in south Kolkata has vanished. “The lake was the pride of the neighbourhood and a favourite pit stop for migratory birds in winter. Now, it is a picture of neglect with land sharks eyeing the rest of the water body,” said Bikramgarh resident Ashok Das. Local promoters were attempting to reclaim an adjoining marshy plot that KMC had taken over in 2003, he added.
Bengali band Bhumi’s lead singer Soumitra Ray, who has been a Bikramgarh resident for 25 years, said landfilling had carried on over the years with homes and businesses extending into the lake. A plot that had emerged from filling up a section of the water body housed three garages when Ray arrived in the locality in 1997 now has 33 garages.
“I had spoken to the CM Mamata Banerjee and then mayor Sovon Chatterjee on the need to revitalise Bikramgarh jheel. The CM had asked Chatterjee to get it done immediately. She had even virtually inaugurated the Bikramgarh jheel in 2015. Thereafter, Chatterjee had visited the jheel and laid out elaborate plans to rejuvenate and beautify it. But thereafter, not much has happened. There have been sporadic attempts to do something but nothing substantial,” said Ray.
KMC sources said borough X had initiated restoration of Bikramgarh jheel in January 2020, but work had come to a halt due to the pandemic outbreak. Though life has returned to normal since and KMC has revived all the pending projects, there has been no attempt to take up the work in Bikramgarh jheel. According to a KMC environment department source, the reason for the delay was a mystery.
“When the restoration project was launched in 2020 under the supervision of borough X officials, there was no dearth of funds. Now it is not known where the funds have gone,” said a KMC environment department official. However, according to a borough X official, the borough had received no instruction from the civic headquarters to resume the project. “We know for sure that once such a project gets stuck, the budget for the project shoots up. So, we shouldn’t wait any longer,” said the borough X civic official.