kolkata set up in two corners of salt lake duttabad and mahisbathan had started off on same footing with similar demography three decades ago but over the years while mahisbathan has witnessed large scale developments in the form of highrises car showrooms shopping malls and departmental stores replacing slums and shanties duttabad which is right next to em bypass has continued to remain as a dingy slum and is still the townships biggest provider of domestic helps rickshaw pullers and auto driversintrospecting the reasons behind the sharp contrast in developmental patterns of the two zones town planners residents and civic officials blame a decadeold civic rule unavailability of land deeds for many residents in duttabad and proximity of mahisbathan to developing zones in new town and sector v as two prime factorsat duttabad refugees from bangladesh had come and settled here since independence but never bothered to get deeds for plots as a result technically a majority of people here are illegal dwellers said a bidhannagar civic officialhe added it was because of this reason that there was largescale protests during relocation of residents in the area during metro construction and is also one of the major reasons that it doesnt attract much of real estate value even though it is strategically located right next to bypass stretching from ultadanga to salt lake stadium housing more than 20000 people in slums and shanties one of our main aims is to sort out this land deed issue so that residents of duttabad can get the deeds for their land said outgoing councillor of ward 38 nirmal dutta whose wife alo dutta is contesting as a trinamool candidate from the ward this timemahisbathan home to some 24000odd people is however a picture in stark contrast with large housing projects like panache ideal aquaview and merlin 5th avenue setting up multistoreyed complexes off the wetland areathe residents living in these areas share contrasting opinions while bikash mondal a resident of duttabad said his life hasnt changed in 20 years as his wife works as a domestic help in salt lake and he pulls a rickshaw like his parents did anita maity who runs a stationary shop in mahisbathan said her sales have increased manifold in the last few yearsbidhannagar mla and fire services minister sujit bose said a comprehensive development plan was already in place for bidhannagar along with the added areas