Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Jun 07, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Jun 07, 2004 |
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Industry & Economy
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Environment Bengal to tap foreign funds for wetlands Our Bureau
Kolkata , June 6 THE West Bengal Government is planning to tap foreign funds for conservation and improvement of the East Kolkata Wetlands, declared as a Ramsar site, the State Environment Secretary, Mr A. K. Barman, said. He said that currently there were 12,741 hectares of land under this eco-system on the eastern fringes of the city. Of this, 60 per cent was wetland with the remaining being agricultural land and settlements. "We have definite plans of improving this site and will approach foreign funding agencies after preparing a detailed project report," Mr Barman said while delivering the welcome address at the World Environment Day celebrations at the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB). He said that discussions were already held with the Union Environment Secretary in this respect. The official said that while the project to handle bio-medical waste generated by the hospitals in Kolkata and Howrah had now taken off with 27,000 out of the total 30,000 beds (in the hospitals in these two cities) participating in the scheme, plans were afoot to set up similar facilities in Kalyani and Burdwan. "This will take care of 80 per cent of the medical waste generation in the State although we still have to think something about north Bengal," he said. The State Environment Minister, Mr Manabendra Mukherjee, said that the West Bengal Government, which was the first to go in for satellite imaging for protecting wetlands, was planning to introduce new legislation to preserve wetlands. The West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said that preserving the wetlands was one of the biggest challenges before his Government even as developers had launched a desperate bid to grab these lands in the name of development. "We need stringent legislation to plug the loopholes of the present system," he remarked. The Chief Minister released two books on the occasion.
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