By seeking to impose severe penalties on promoters and their agents for filling up ponds to build housing complexes, the Left Front government in West Bengal only suceeds in indicting itself. Much of the ecological imbalance as a result of illegal conversion of water bodies into urban structures has taken place in the last 20 years. The menance is particularly rampant in in north and south 24-parganas with the active connivance of Left leaders. (editorial)