Author: AITC

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee inaugurated fifty one new bank branches in 35 blocks of 14 districts, through a remote-control switch, for the panchayats where banks do not exist. The Canara Bank has associated itself with the West Bengal Government in this venture. 

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee promised that the general public will soon be able to avail the service of Fair Price Diagnostic Centers and other much-needed facilities in Government hospitals. Keeping tally to the promise, Dialysis Units on PPP models are being installed in phases in state-run hospitals. Earlier renal failure patients had to wait days for dialysis as only three government hospitals were equipped with the facility.

More than one lakh patients in the state need dialysis at regular intervals. The nephrology unit at SSKM Hospital, the biggest unit, has 15 machines, R G Kar Medical College and Hospital has six and NRS Medical College and Hospital has four. With another 19 dialysis beds in district hospitals, the number of 44 such machines was small to cater to the number of patients. Though private hospitals have around 400 dialysis machines, few can afford them.

The health department took up the project of setting up these PPP model centres to solve the problem. At present eight such centres have become operational, including Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital. Beliaghata ID Hospital and M R Bangur Hospital. Ten machines have been installed in each of these hospitals and they have become operational. In all, 34 hospitals will have dialysis centres. The idea was to ensure that patients would not have to move beyond 10-15km for dialysis facilities.

I saw that there has been a lot of talk on some television channelsabout a personal letter I had sent to the chief minister. Let me admit in thebeginning itself – yes, I am sympathetic to her. In that context, I had writtenher a letter, addressed only to her, where I had asked her to 'ensure that sheperforms her political duties properly.' 

My question is, was that the onlywords I had written in the letter? Secondly, it was a personal letter. So howdid it reach the media? The person gave the letter out has breached my trust,as I had never told that person to hand the letter over to the media. Seeingall this, I think it would have been better to listen to Joy (Joy Goswami). I'm becoming tooemotional these days.

Anyway, I think age is catching up with my memory. I don't rememberfully, but as far as I do, I had written to her something like 'you should goon following your political duties properly; stay well, don't get tensed up,' amongother things. Actually what led me to write this letter is the fact that I hadseen her a few days back on television, when she did not look her usual bubbly self. It lookedlike she had a lot on her mind. I am saying this from 90 years of experience.

Hence, I had written this letter out of sympathy for her. I am sure ifMamata's mother had been alive, she would have become concerned in the sameway. Otherwise, I haven't lost my mind that I would be thinking that I have thecapacity to instruct a chief minister on her duties. I strongly feel that thelong years she has put into serving the people, makes her much more capablethan myself to understand her political duties.

What I want to say to the media is that whatever I have written in that letteris far above politics. Those were purely personal thoughts and bring out that wonderfulrelationship that we have. I always respect such relationships. Those who breachedmy privacy by disclosing the contents of the letter to the media did anunthinkable crime. Should I think that the person is working as a broker forsome opposing political parties? I do not know why this feeling is coming to mymind.

I feel that that all the journalists in Kolkata are younger to me. Ihave love as well as respect for them. What I would say to them is that there aresome private moments in everybody's lives. Do not destroy them. That will leadto a loss of trust. I have been a practitioner of activist journalism for many years,from which experience I have acquired the independent ethical sense ofjournalism. So if I had felt that the letter needed to be given to the media, Iwould have done so myself.

Let me end this in a direct manner. I have full confidence in Mamata. Forthe last 34 years West Bengal was pushed to the brink of anarchy. Mamata becamethe chief minister through her own calibre and honesty. I believe she will besuccessful. What I hear from rural Bengal is that Mamata is implementing thegovernment projects with honesty.

I believe, if there was some other party that had come to power insteadof Mamata's, it would also have been under much stress. I believe that beforethis government came into being three and a half years earlier, there had been hugeamounts of problems, accumulated during a period of 34 years. It is not an easytask to solve them. In those 34 years, that government had turned this state intohell.

Riding high on its successful investors'meet in Mumbai a fortnight ago, Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation(HIDCO) on Monday pitched for the New Town Financial Hub in Chennai.

Thumbs up from banks

It showcased the benefits of the clusterapproach of banking and financial activities in Chennai, considered the bastionof various non-banking finance corporations (NBFCs) and at least threeprominent government-run banks.

Canara Bank is already mulling setting upits cash-processing centre for the east at the financial hub. The bankexecutive director has decided to visit the New Town hub to expedite thematter.

Cluster banking is important. It allows forvarious economies of scale for various financial activities like banking,insurance, mutual funds, offshore banking, investments and debt, among others.Come to the new address of money at New Town.

Leaving no stones unturned

A team of HIDCO has left no stone unturnedto promote the hub.

Replying to investors' queries at the meetit was made clear that Bengal has changed. The government is there to ensurecommercial viability. Canara Bank has already done a recee at the plot. IndianOverseas Bank and reinsurance giant United India Assurance (UIA) has givenin-principle approval to consider our proposal.

Shriram Capital has already taken a plotworth Rs 2.5 crore on lease at the hub to set up their new headquarters forShriram Credit.

Land is no issue

HIDCO has proposed to give a 38-acre landand a big plug-n-play unit on lease to the representatives of as many as 25NBFCs, banks, mutual funds and foreign banks.

Kolkata Police may soon avail the serviceof a second drone – an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Encouraged by itsefficacy in aerial survey during major calamities, large gatherings andfestivities like Durga Puja, Kolkata Police is acquiring one more drone,probably before Durga Puja.

The drone was earlier pressed into serviceduring a pre-election rally at the Maidan and public rallies at differentplaces in the city. But its maximum usage was during Durga Puja last year.

Asaviour during disasters

This unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) helpedassess the extent of the fire and helped the fire brigade personnel anddisaster management group (DMG) personnel to work out a strategy to fight theinferno and rescue those trapped in the building.

On a couple of occasions, the drone chasedsuspected cars at night till they were intercepted by police personnel bycreating a blockade on the road. The second drone the city police are trying toacquire would be of greater efficiency, with greater image capturing abilityand longer flying capacity. The present drone can fly for more than an hour ona single charge.

Technologicalprogress

The drone, which remains in the custody ofthe Special Task Force (STF), is handled by a group of trained personnel whocan control its flight and keep capturing the moving images. The first dronewas purchased for Rs 40 lakh from the modernization fund granted by the Centre.The second drone will also be purchased with the same fund.

Apart from the drone, the city police arealso acquiring backpack satellite link-up devices for live telecast of alaw-and-order situation. During any untoward incident, the cameraman would alsoaccompany the force to the place of occurrence and record the entire incident.Later, the footage can be used during its legal proceedings.

Image: This is a representative photo of a drone

The CSTC added 46 new buses to its fleettoday, on the day of Viswakarma Puja. Of these, 17 are AC buses. The statetransport undertakings (STUs) have also signed an annual maintenance contractwith bus manufacturers.

The CSTC had a fleet strength of 130 buses.Eventually, 632 new buses will be added to the existing fleet. Thehigh-capacity new buses can carry a bigger number of passengers. The increasingfrequency of buses on a particular route has brought back the renewed faith ofcommuters.

Details of new buses:

The Garia-Karunamoyee S14 route currentlyhas three buses. The number will go up to six. This once-defunct route wasrevived and is now being further strengthened. 

Similarly, the old route 10 hasbeen revived as S10 with the reintroduction of buses. Four buses will ply onthis route.

The number of buses on the S3AThakurpukur-Sealdah route will jump to six. The S4 (Parnashree-SLD Gate nearNicco Park) route will get 8 buses, up from 4.

The fleet size of AC 24 (Patuli-Howrah),AC-47 (Kudghat-Unitech) and AC-41 (Santragachi-Ecospace in New Town) will risefrom 3 to 5.

The S44 (Eco Park-Nabanna) fleet will go upfrom 2 to 4, while on the S45 (Sakuntala Park-Kolkata railway station) route,AC buses were substituted by non-AC ones.

The AC9 (Jadavpur-Karunamoyee) and AC9A(Golf Green-Dakshineswar) routes will get four and five buses respectively.

On the AC12 route (Howrah-Sapoorji nearSDF), the number of buses will be increased to 7. On the AC1 (Jadavpur-Howrah)route, the number of buses will go up to 5.

On the AC37A route (Garia-Airport), 7 buseswill ply a day.

Four buses will ply on the S10A(Howrah-Ballygunge) and S22 (Kasba-Shibrampore) routes each while 3 buses willply on the S12E (Howrah-New Town) route.