UDAIPUR, April 11 (TIWN): After TRIPURAINFOWAY.com's April 8 news published regarding the illegal filling up of a huge lake in ShantiPally area ( Ward no 12 of Udaipur Municipal Council ) SDM Udaipur Subhasish Bandopadhyay today came to the spot and immediately stopped this illegal filling cancelling the order issued from DM Gomati's Office in 2015. This lake is being illegally filled up by a group of land mafias led by one Bhupal Majumder( known to be a close aid of minister Ratan Bhowmik) of Chhanban and Arindam (Rana) Lodh of east bank of Jagannath Dighi. Speaking to TIWN SDM Udaipur Subhasish Bandopadhyaya said ," Today I issued stay order to the permission given in 2015 and now onwards no one can fill up the lake until further order. "

SDM further said that when Smt Manika Das  was the the Udaipur Municipality Chairperson, clearance was given from municipality (under pressure from DM office and CPI-M Land mafia) for filling up the land. 

But now Subrata Deb, the present Chairperson complained that the filling up should be cancelled as this may cause serious damage to lives and properties of the area if any incident of fire accident breaks out . As such the current illegal filling has been cancelled by the SDM .

TRIPURAINFOWAY.com April 8 News Impact 

http://tripurainfoway.com/news-details/TN/51649/dm-gomati-s-close-link-with-political-masters-leading-lake-city-udaipur-to-its-catastrophe-udaipur-municipal-council-a-mute-spectator.html

This Monday morning a group of women went to the SDM Udaipur's office protesting against the illegal filling of the lake owned by Amulya Das, a heavy weight CPI-M member as well as a former Panchayat Samiti member . After the protest SDM Udaipur came to the spot and after verification instructed the owners of the vehicles to stop such illegal filling and even cancelled the order issued to the owner.

 It is learnt that the order was issued to fill up only the banks ( 8ft each bank) but taking advantage of the political influence of Amulya Das the mafias led by Bhupal Majumder and Arindam Lodh more than 88ft of the lake has been already filled up ( on the east , west and south bank) and this is nothing but a violation of the rules specifically stated in the Tripura Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act 1960 that clearly states ," Permission to divert may be refused by the competent authority only on the ground that the diversion is likely to cause public nuisances or it is not in the interest of general public or that the holder is unable or unwilling to comply with the conditions imposed under sub-section 3 ."

 The Act also says," Conditions may be imposed on diversion for the following objects and no others , namely, in order to secure that public health , safety and convenience, and in the cases of land which is to be used as building sites in order to secure in addition that the dimensions , arrangement and accessibility of the are adequate for the health and convenience of the occupiers or are suitable to the locality. "

   According to DM Gomati Office sources it is learnt that the owners of the land might have got the information that administration may take action on Monday. As such on Saturday  and Sunday the filling of the land continued upto late 2am. As a result of the continuous movement of heavy loaded vehicles for the said purpose the main road stretching from NH44 to Jagannath Chowmahani has been badly damaged leading to huge financial loss to state PWD as this road has been reconstructed only in the month of February.

    Now on behalf of the people living in this area TRIPURAINFOWAY would put the following questions before the Gomati District  administration as well as to Udaipur Municipal Council :-

1) Under whose pressure or vested interest Udaipur Municipal Council gave clearance for filling the lake ?

2) Why didn't DM Gomati as being the Chairman of the District Level Diversion Committee make any verification through officials before issuing the permission ?

3) Why did not DM Gomati Sonal Goel respond to the enquiry report submitted by the then DCM Sabyasachi Singha and Pritam Sarkar, who recommended that permission should not be given for diversion in this case as it is not in the interest of general public ?

4) Why did the district administration remain silent almost for the last eight to nine days though Udaipur Municipal Council's current Chairman too sent his objection to DM Gomati regarding the said filling ?

5) Will DM Gomati now order the owner Amulya Das to remove the sand filled from that part of the portion of the land for which permission was not accorded ?

6) How can such an illegal filling be continued in an area which is merely within 2km away from DM Gomati's office ?

     This morning it is learnt from a highly placed DM Office source that now under pressure from all corners DM Gomati will send a team of officials to the spot for official enquiry. But will DM Gomati ensure the people of this locality protection from the threats of the land mafias who have been seen to prevent the local people to come near the lake ?

At the same time it is alleged that two most influential leaders of Gomati District are directly or indirectly involved in this corruption. People of the complained that an MLA's( ruling party) relative has already purchased 10 gandas of land ( filled portion ) on the east-south corner of the lake . At the same time they also complained that a minister of CM Manik Sarkar's cabinet too has purchased 4 gandas of land on the western bank of this lake ( adjacent to the Kali Temple). Now the people expect that as the diversion has violated the Tripura Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act 1960, the sand from the soil of the illegal portion must be removed. However, whether DM Gomati will rise upto to the occasion and public demand is a million dollar question.