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The State Information Technology and Electronics (IT&E) Department recently held a seminar at Webel Bhavan in Salt Lake to carve out plans for the expansion of the electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) sector in Bangla through the establishment of electronics and hardware parks at numerous locations.

This seminar was held to initiate the decision on electronics and hardware parks taken by the department, as part of the State’s IT policy, last year. The policy intends to transform Bangla into a knowledge-driven, technologically-empowered welfare society.

The State has also made elaborate plans for increasing employment opportunities and promoting the State as a preferred investment destination via the IT sector.

The seminar was chaired by the additional chief secretary of the IT&E Department and was attended by representatives from several electronics manufacturing industry bodies and associations and companies like KOTRA (South Korea), Elma Electronic (Switzerland), Compass, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) and others.

Two IT development parks have already been set up in Naihati and Falta with the aim to promote the electronics manufacturing industry, while two more are coming up in Sonarpur and Kalyani.

Source: Millennium Post

In order to simplify the registration process and reduce the long queues of patients at government hospitals, the State Health Department has launched online ticket booking for patients visiting outpatient departments (OPDs) of the medical college hospitals in Kolkata.

This system has already been introduced at the SSKM Hospital and would soon be replicated at the other medical colleges. Tickets can be booked seven days prior to the date of visit.

The process of booking an OPD online is simple. A patient who want to consult a doctor in a particular hospital department needs to visit the Health Department website (hyperlink www.wbhealth.gov.in) and continue into the ‘OPD Ticket Booking’ section under ‘E-Governance’, or go directly to the page, Online Ticket Booking System.

There, the patient has to register using a mobile phone number, then enter the one-time password (OTP) sent to that number, followed by details like hospital, name, age, address, etc. Patient must also provide their ration card number in order to complete the OPD booking.

On successfully completing the process, a ticket is generated whose printed copy must be carried while visiting the hospital.

Source: Millennium Post

Named after Mother Teresa, the Mother’s Wax Museum was inaugurated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the Kolkata International Film Festival held in November 2014.

The museum is located in New Town on the north-eastern fringes of Kolkata. This establishment attracts a lot of tourists and visitors while there has been a craze for taking selfies with the wax figurines much like the very well-known Madame Tussaud’s in London.

Since its inception in 2014, the museum has received around 8 lakh visitors. The footfall crossed the 8 lakh mark on February 25.

Another major attraction of the museum is 3D selfies. The Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) had introduced this cutting edge technology by which a person’s face and head is scanned 360 degrees and a golf-ball sized 3D sculpture is printed by a 3D printer. The finished sculpture comes at a price of Rs 2,000 (including courier charges).

The museum is divided into several sections which include wax statues of famous personalities across the globe in the field of sports, entertainment, science, literature etc. The museum also houses wax figurines of fantasy characters and has a ‘horror’ section as well.

One can pre book tickets online if they are planning a visit to the museum; the details of which can be found here: http://motherswaxmuseum.in/about-us/

Source: Millennium Post

The Jal Dharo Jal Bharo Scheme, launched by the State Panchayat and Rural Development Department is playing a major role in Bangla, having created 2.62 lakh tanks till date. In the financial year 2018-19, 29,135 tanks have been dug up and renovated.

Jal Dharo Jal Bharo was officially taken up in 2011, the year Trinamool Congress took charge of the State Government. It has been a major boon for the State’s rural population.

The main aim of the project is water conservation. Several tanks, ponds, reservoirs and canals have been constructed under this project.

A major bonus of the project is the providing of employment. Those who are engaged in the digging of canals are getting jobs under the 100-Days Work Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)).

The tanks and waterbodies are used for fish and animal farming, and irrigation. So far, 74,606 hectares of land have been brought under irrigation across the State, with the help of 2,305 minor irrigation projects.

Vast areas of Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram and Paschim Medinipur districts have been brought under irrigation as a result of this scheme. There, 25,319 hectares of land have been brought under irrigation with the help of 786 minor irrigation projects.

In these districts, proper water utilisation has facilitated the augmentation of paddy cultivation and the planting of several fruit orchards.

Source: Millennium Post

The State Government has started a school information management system, in the form of a web portal called Banglar Shiksha. It was inaugurated on February 26 by the State Education Minister.

Under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the education system in the State has made a lot of progress at all levels – school, college and university.

Along with the portal were launched three apps – Teachers/Students app (for classroom management), m-PARIDARSHAN app (for monitoring and supervision of schools) and e-HRMS app (for storing personal data of teachers including their salary) – and a programme called Mid-Day Meal Inspection (for monitoring of mid-day meals).

By accessing the portal, one can get information related to school curriculum (e-textbooks and training materials for teachers), students (attendance and examination results), teachers (academic data) and other staff, and get the links to school websites.

Another new feature being introduced through the portal is unique ID codes for students, which will be valid for their entire school lives. This system will help the school administrations track student-related details.

Further, the portal has links to certain other websites too: for Mid-Day Meal Scheme, integrated online salary management system (i-OSMS), pension, Sabooj Sathi Scheme, scholarships and the Central scheme, Samagra Shiksha.

From the portal, students will also be able to download their identity cards, report cards, character certificates and transfer certificates.

The head teacher of a school will have the right to grant access to areas of the portal to teachers, students, staff and guardians, according to need.

The government is training the head teachers of schools in different districts in managing the system.

Thus this portal on the State school education sector will make monitoring easy on every front.

The website also has a section called ‘Important Events’ which lists the achievements of students from government schools in different competitions.

 

In a bid to promote usage of trams, an inherent part of Kolkata’s heritage, the State Transport Department recently launched two air-conditioned (AC) trams. Earlier, the department had built two AC trams for joyride – Charoibeti and Rupashi Bangla.

The routes for these new trams would be worked out soon, and the fare structure would also be different, said an official of the Transport Department.

Both the new ones are single-coach trams, with each having a seating capacity of 32. They have been built at the Nonapukur tram depot. Each of these is fitted with a 5.5 tonne AC, LED light bulbs and fans. The windows have curtains.

The trams have pneumatic doors that can be operated from the motorman’s (as the drivers are called) cabin. With a nod to tradition, the system of the conductor ringing a bell is still there.

The Bangla Government has taken a new initiative towards the betterment of citizen-centric services – automated mutation.

Now, land records will get automatically updated online without the need to file any mutation application, provided no objections are received within 30 days of the sale of the plot.

There is no need for visiting the block land and land reforms office (BL&LRO) to file an application or for a hearing.

Hearing at the BL&LRO will only be needed if other conditions for record correction (ie., change of title) are not fulfilled or any objection is received.

Even the hearing notice can be accessed online, by visiting the website, Banglar Bhumi (hyperlink http://www.banglarbhumi.gov.in/BanglarBhumi/Home.action)

A few conditions for the facility of automated mutation to be available:

Not available for those lands which are not transferable (as per provisions of law)
Available only for mouzas where the final publication has already been completed
Available for lands where the transfer of land is not done on the basis of the holding number

The whole process is under the jurisdiction of the State Land & Land Reforms and Refugee Relief & Rehabilitation Department.

Fish production is a profession intimately connected with the rural population of the State. In going with this fact, the Panchayats and Rural Development Department has decided to lend a helping hand in fish production, and thus complement the remarkable efforts of the Fisheries Department.

For this, the department has decided to takes series of measures, which would be implemented gradually. Included are aspects related to both fish cultivation and infrastructural developments to increase fish production.

The primary measures are as follows:

• Creating a category of experts called ‘Meen Mitras’, who would act as representatives of the government in advising fish cultivators on all aspects of their profession
• Building eco-hatcheries for production of hatchlings
• Supplying solar dryers to self-help groups involved in fish drying (dry fish is both consumed domestically and exported)
• Supplying ice machines to these groups for making ice used in preserving fish
• Helping in building small cold storage rooms
• Supplying mopeds with insulated boxes on subsidy, for supplying fish to markets
• Creating literature in Bengali and other languages for educating people of modern methods of fish cultivation, and distributing the books as well

Source: Ei Samay

The State Transport Department recently launched three wooden vessels, four steel vessels and 40 mechanised boats under the Jaldhara Scheme. All the vessels and boats have been built following the standard operating procedure for passenger safety as notified under the scheme.

In certain places like the Sundarbans, Dulduli, Kalinagar and others, water transportation is a major mode of conveyance, and hence the steel and wooden vessels would be of big use. Each steel vessel has a carrying capacity of 200 and each wooden vessel, 100 people.

Country boats used in different parts of Bangla as ferries can be highly unsafe; accidents have occurred in the past. The mechanised boats will prevent such mishaps.

Recently a new digital ticketing system for vessels was introduced at three ghats in Kolkata – Howrah, Shipping and Fairlie – which see the largest daily footfall.

Source: Millennium Post