Survey of river islands on stretch of Ganga in Malda to be held soon
MALDA: A survey will be conducted on the river islands on the stretch of the Ganga River falling through Malda to include them in Bengal.
For the last two decades some of the islands, having a population of over two lakhs were delimited owing to the change of the course of the river and were included in Jharkhand. An initiative has been taken up at the state level to include them in Bengal.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had expressed concern over this issue in an administrative meeting on May 4, at the Malda College Auditorium. A total of 26 such islands are there on the River Ganga at pre-sent with a population of over 2.5 lakh.
Sabina Yasmin, minister of State for Irrigation, said:
“The islands will be surveyed soon as the chief sec-retary asked the district magistrate to make a report on it. The state government will take up the mat-ter with the Jharkhand government.”
Nitin Singhania, District Magistrate, Malda, said: “The course of the River Ganga has changed over decades. A fresh survey will be done of the islands. This report will be sent to the Jharkhand government also so that they include the mouzas on these islands once delimited. The next step will be taken at the state level.
Hopefully, these islands will be included in Bengal very soon.”
According to a recent order by the Jharkhand government, no resident of these islands will get gov-ernment benefits until they produce testimonials of the year 1932.
These residents are mainly
those victims who have lost their lands due to the erosion of the river banks.
These people do not have the required papers dating back to 1932, the time when such islands were totally absent or were not benefitting Jharkhand in any way.