After 16 years, the state has assumed control of a large waterbody yesterday, which till now was under the control of a CPM governed fisheries cooperative in Howrah. The waterbody, stretching about 24.67 acres, is located within the extent of 160 acres of the Uluberia Industrial Park of West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBIIDC) in Howrah.

It was leased out for a period of five years by the authority in favour of Murza Matsyajibi Samabay Samiti – – a fishermen’s cooperative of Kashmul in Uluberia here to encourage optimal utilization of the vast tank within the industrial complex enabling eco-system through adoption of pisciculture and uplifting the fishermen at large.

“The lease tenure though had ended, the samiti neither vacated nor they allowed WBIIDC to take back the possession since 2007,” said Sekhar Roy, executive engineer of the Uluberia Industrial Park. He added, “We even failed to realize lease money worth Rs 15 lakh for 16 years.” The samiti, however, continued harvesting money through fishery from the waterbody.

After a prolonged legal battle, in which Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, a senior advocate, fought for the samiti at the Calcutta High Court, the Bench of senior Judges Debangshu Basak and Md Shabbir Rashidi on 15 December directed the state government to mobilize forces to secure possession in WBIIDC’s favour by 19 December.

The court observed: “The ground of the lease period admittedly stood expired by efflux of time and WBIIDC didn’t grant an extension and there subsists a direction by the Single Judge to vacate the water body.” The Howrah district administration arranged possession of the waterbody in WBIIDC’s favour.

The BDO, Uluberia-1, Mohammed Riajul Haq, said, “The samiti also extended cooperation and no strong resistance was felt on the surface.” The secretary of the samiti said, “We had contended that, since our’s was a cooperative of fishermen, extension of the lease period should be considered favourably till a fresh auction, which however was turned down by the court.”

The OSD (law), WBIIDC, Kazi A H Siddiqui, said, “They were given a substantial time of nine months since March, still they pleaded for more time, which actually had no legal room to accommodate.