If the results of the recently concluded panchayat elections are anything to go by, the issue of conversion of farmland into industrial plots will continue to make or mar political fortunes in the state in the years to come. Strangely enough, brick kilns are destroying vast quantity of fertile soil every year in North 24-Parganas even as people of Singur and Nandigram have showed their avid dislike for those who tried to grab their land. This is no allegation hurled by a environmental activist but a revelation made by Mr Biswajit Mukherjee, principal law officer, state environment department. His lament has been come out in cold print in the latest issue of Sambad Nagarik Mancha, monthly bulletin of city-based Nagarik Mancha, a voluntary social action forum of labour, industrial sickness and environment. Elaborating on this colossal loss of fertile soil Mr Mukherjee said: "There are at least 1,500 brick kilns at sites that were fertile agricultural lands and each produces more than one million bricks.' "Each brick requires 5 kg of soil and a simple arithmetic calculation puts the conservative estimate of loss of top soil to the tune of 150 million multiplied by 5 kilograms', he said. No resistance has come up till date as unlike the land grabbers of Singur and Nandigram, representatives of brick kiln owners are "politely asking the peasants to let the former's men to scrape some top soil form their land in exchange of hard cash'. The land loses fertility for a few years. Mr Mukherjee lamented disappearance of the lush green agricultural fields between Nilgunge of Barrackpore and Champadali crossing of Barasat in the North 24-Parganas. Their absence brings nostalgic memories to those who used to commute through the 16 kilometre route in the early 70s, as they have been replaced by "rows of mounds for brick kilns which emit coils of black smoke from chimneys into the blue sky, the article stated. Beneath those poisonous gas-spewing chimneys workers coming from Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand are toiling to make bricks. But they are actually "cremating the soil' the article Prantar Jure Mrittikar Mrityu ~ Anucharit Satya (death of soil over fields ~ an unspoken truth) stated