Author: AITC

With a view to studying tourism potentials in North Bengal, representatives of different foreign countries will be touring the region from 18 October, prompting the tourism sector here to feel that the tour would be a huge boost to the industry in the region. This will help bring more foreign tourists to the region, which has already carved a niche in the tourism map.

Tourism board members of eight countries will visit different spots from 18 to 21 October. State Tourism`s representatives, along with tour operators, will showcase them the tourism potentials in North Bengal.

The representatives from Germany, Australia, two teams from Italy, Malyasia, Indonesia, the Netharlands and Russia will visit the Jaldapara National Park, Gorumara National Park, Lava, Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Mirik. Those countries are also among the 40 countries, including France, China and Japan that will attend a three-day Third International Tourism Mart beginning 13 May in Shillong in Meghalaya. Forty countries and nine Indian states  – eight in the Northeast and West Bengal, will participate in the event. Fifteen tour operators from north Bengal will take part in the Mart and the Chou dance of Purulia would be performed there. Home stay tourism concept would be highlighted there.

Secretary General of Trinamool Congress, Dr Partha Chatterjee addressed the press on Monday. He criticised the Opposition for fishing in troubled waters. He said that there is a conspiracy to link Trinamool with any incident that happens.

Here is what he said:

• The Opposition is trying to fish introubled waters. They are disturbing the peace in the State.  The Opposition will not be successful in theirmotive. West Bengal is progressing under the leadership of Ms Mamata Banerjee.

• Thereis a conspiracy going on to link Trinamool with any incident that takes place. BJPand CPIM are now singing the same tune.

• CPI(M) leaders should not speak about lovefor the country. Have they forgotten about Nandigram-Singur?

• Itis the duty of the Centre to protect the borders of the nation. It has failedmiserably in doing so and now wants to put the blame on Trinamool.

• Trinamool Chairperson Ms Mamata Banerjeewill chair a meeting with all the party MPs, MLAs, elected representatives,district leaders and leaders of various party cells on October 17. Strategy forcountering the smear campaign by Opposition will be discussed in the meeting.

Terming terrorism asthe “biggest threat” to democracy, India today said it was the worstsufferer of the scourge and the ongoing Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assemblyhere should highlight the challenges posed by it.

“Terrorism is thebiggest threat to democracy andIndia has been its worst sufferer…. after the 9/11 attacks on the TwinTowers, the US government gavea worldwide call for a war against terrorism and the entire world was convincedabout it. The IPU should therefore highlight this issue which is a globalscourge,” Trinamool Congress leader and MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said at the 131st IPU Assembly in Geneva.

He was speaking at theIPU's general assembly which was taking up the process of electing the nextpresident of the global body, for which parliamentary leaders of Bangladesh,Indonesia, Australia and the Maldives are in the race.

In his intervention, Mr Bandyopadhyay, who is part of the Indian parliamentary delegation led by Lok Sabha Speaker, pointed outthat the threat of terror to democracy had not been raised by the speakers andhence should be highlighted.

Responding to hisspeech, all the four presidential candidates said they agreed withBandyopadhyay's contention and were committed to do everything to preserve andprotect the democratic traditions and systems worldwide, Mr Bandyopadhyay said.

A tragic incident occurred in Taraikhana of Coochbehardistrict today when an innocent 20 year old boy was killed in firing by BSF.

This is not the first time that civilians have lost theirlives due to BSF firing. Yesterday, a 45 year old woman, Umron Bibi was alsokilled by the BSF. The incident occurred at Sukrur Kuthi Gram Panchayat,Dinhata-II Block (under Dinhata P.S.).

The loss of innocent civilian lives due to BSF firing isextremely unfortunate and tragic. We do not wish to point fingers or indulge inmudslinging.

In a democracy, people are the ultimate judges. We wantedto bring these incidents to the public domain so that people can exercise theirwisdom.

After maintaining status quo for more thanfour decades, the transport department has finally rationalized routes of busesplying in the city and its periphery. The route rationalization is based on theinterview of 100,000 passengers and data collected from all sources.

The state government had last rationalizedbus routes in 1970.

Changein travel patterns

According to a study conducted by thedepartment, the travel pattern of commuters in Kolkata has undergone changesdue to expansion of urban sprawl, development of new activity centres, quantumjump in private mode of transport and growth of infrastructure. Earlier,intra-city travel used to be primarily north-south bound. But now, there areequally or more east-west, south-east and north-east movements.

Focuson STUs

Though government buses form only a part ofthe city bus transit system, the state government is trying to optimize thestate transport undertakings' (STU) contribution. The transport department is,therefore, making a serious effort to multiply the fleet strength of the STUs,particularly that of the Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC), whichwill, from now, command Kolkata and its adjacent areas exclusively. Nearly1,000 buses will be added to the existing fleet in Kolkata.

Doingaway with overlapping routes

While conducting the study, the departmenthas particularly focused on the overlapping routes of the STUs, which leads tounnecessary competition. To avoid any overlap, Howrah will now be primarilycatered by Calcutta Tram Company (CTC), Kolkata and North 24-Parganas will beunder CSTC and West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation (WBSTC) will serveSouth 24-Parganas.

Image courtesy: The Times of India

In Kolkata, three overlapped routes of CTCand WBSTC would be taken up by CSTC. Also, new routes have been introduced inthe city.

CSTC has already started operating in three AC routes:

• Santragachhi-Ecospace, 
• Airport-Garia, Thakurpukur-Santragachhi 
• KolkataStation-New Town

CSTC also runs non-AC buses along 

• Kolkata-Kalyani, 
• Sarsuna-Tata Cancer Hospital, 
• New Garia-Dakshineswar,
• Haridevpur-Sealdah, 
• LakeTown-Howrah, 
• Belgharia-Ruby , 
• Ultadanga-Krishnagore.

The Nager bazar-Howrah and Tegharia-Howrah routes have been reintroduced.

Newroutes on the anvil

Among new 19 routes to be introduced areBarrackpore-Alipore, Park Circus-Furfura Sharif, Boral-Rajabazar, Thakurpukur-Santragachhiand Shalimar station-Ruby Park. The government will press 400 new buses intoservice for these routes.

All North Bengal-bound buses from Kolkatawould exclusively be operated by NBSTC. Other STUs would withdraw theirservices along these routes. Inter-district routes within the north Bengaldistricts and Murshidabad would also be operated by NBSTC.

Moreover, all Durgapur, Asansol, Burdwan,Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia and West Medinipur bound services would beexclusively operated by SBSTC.

NBSTC and SBSTC would enter into a mutualagreement to operate in inter-district routes.

The report was first published in The Times of India on October 11, 2014.

The state consumer affairs department hasdecided to organise a four-day fair beginning from 24 November to createawareness about consumer rights and consumer protection act

The fair by organising seminars, symposia,quiz and various discussion will give legal advice and suggestions to consumershow they can get redressal from traders if they are deceived. The fair will beheld at Netaji Indoor Stadium.

A complaint cell will be opened at the fairwhere consumers can lodge complaint against the traders, multinationalcompanies, insurance, chit funds and real estate developers if consumers aredeceived by them. The fair will give ideas what precautionary measuresconsumers need to take before purchasing any product. 

Consumers at the fair will be advised tolodge complaints immediately with the consumer affairs department against foodadulteration and misleading advertisements.

Consumer affairs minister Mr Sadhan Pandeywill inaugurate the fair along with other senior officials of the department.

“Lastyear thousands of people had attended the fair. Many consumers who weredeceived by traders and big companies had sought ideas from the officials ofthe department and we resolved their problem free of cost,” said Mr Pandey.

Various cultural events, including songs,drama, chhau dance and folk songswill be held at the fair.

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee attended a Bijoya Sammelani function organised by the police at Town Hall. The 90-minute programme was attended by spiritual leaders from all religions, a large number of ministers, bureaucrats, industrialists and celebrities.

The event was attended by Muslim religious leaders, Sikh religious leaders from Gurdwara Sant Kutiya, monks from Ramakrishna Sarada Mission and leaders from other religious communities. The occasion was a testimony of the spirit of communal harmony in the State.

At the programme, the Kolkata Police Commissioner congratulated the police for smoothly managing the festive season of Durga Puja and Eid, without any untoward incident. The programme ended with musical performances by noted artistes as well as Kolkata Police personnel.

West Bengal Government is going to improve the infrastructure of seed farms. Most of the seed farms used to lack manpower and other infrastructure including tools.

Experts are being appointed to improve the quality of the seeds and increase their production.

It requires two or three years to develop the seed farms and development process would be started under the supervision of senior agricultural officials of the district. Around 195 seed firms are in West Bengal which supplies seeds to farmers but most of the firms lack manpower.

A large number of employees of the seed firms took retirement but vacancies were not filled up. The state government is planning to fill up those vacancies with the contract labourers. The State Agriculture department is trying to produce more varieties of seeds as farmers would not require buying seeds from outside states including Punjab. There are a large number of lands, which are not being used for seed production and agriculture department will grow seeds in those fields.

The State Agriculture Minister Mr Purnendu Bose visited Junglemahal districts recently to see the advance preparation of sowing kharif crops and he has asked the agriculture officers for arranging to produce several seeds especially potato seeds in the government farm houses for Junglemahal areas.