Kolkata: Few days after Howrah’s Belgachia dumping area cave-in, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was learnt to have enquired about the issue from the chief secretary and other department heads of her government and took stock of the situation.
Banerjee also reviewed the matter and she has also spoken to the Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister asking him to address the issue within two days.
After Howrah’s Belgachia dumping area cave-in, the eastern bench of the National Green Tribunal had asked the Howrah Municipal Corporation to file a status report on the matter by May 23. It has also directed environment activist and Howrah resident Subhas Datta, who has been on this case for three decades, to submit an affidavit with documents in this connection.
After the Belgachia incident, roads suffered cracks and about a hundred houses collapsed due to land subsidence as the region – spread over 100 acres – could not withstand the pressure of unscientifically heaped garbage for over the last seven decades.
Hakim had visited the Howrah site four days after the landslide and assured the state will build shelters for displaced families. Dumping was stopped at the landfill Howrah’s tonnes of daily waste were redirected to Dhapa
and Baidyabati.