Author: AITC

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee will be the first Chief Minister of the State to trek to Sandakphu, the highest peak of the State, at over 12,000 feet.

The Chief Minister, who was on a three day visit to Darjeeling district, has expressed her desire to trek to Sandakphu. After attending a programme of the Lepcha Development Board at Kalimpong, the Chief Minister trekked to Deolo hills, which was about 6 km away from the spot. The trek took around one and half hours. 

It is expected that the Chief Minister will take up the Sandakphu trek in October, when she will be visiting the Hills on the day of Dashami. The tripto Sandakphu is a 26 km trek which starts at Maneybhanjan.

During the Singur Movement, Ms Mamata Banerjee had taken up a 26 day fast at Dharmatala, so hardship is nothing new to the firebrand leader who is now the Chief Minister of the state. It may be expected that after the Chef Minister's trek, more and more people will be interested to take this trip , bringing more popularity to the tourism sector in North Bengal.

The West Bengal Urban Development Departmenthas decided to increase the number of wards in 26 municipalities across thestate for better management, in light of the growing population.

After the approval from the Governor, the Stategovernment has published notification in this regard.

Municipal elections in 2015 will be heldfor the increased number of wards.

Listof Municipalities where wards will be increased:

Katwa – Existing 19 to be increased to 20

Raniganj – Existing 21 to be increased to 23

Jamuria – Existing 22 to be increased to 24

Suri – Existing 18 to be increased to 19

Rampurhat– Existing 17 to be increased to 18

Bolpur– Existing 19 to be increased to 20

Bankura – Existing 23 to be increased to 24

Kanthi – Existing 18 to be increased to 21

Arambagh – Existing 18 to be increased to 19

Garulia – Existing 20 to be increased to 21

Bidhannagar – Existing 25 to be increased to 31

UttarDumdum – Existing 30 to be increased to 34

Basirhat – Existing 22 to be increased to 23

Barasat – Existing 30 to be increased to 35

Ashoknagar-Kalyangarh– Existing 22 to be increased to 23

Kalyani– Existing 19 to be increased to 21

Ranaghat – Existing 19 to be increased to 20

Taherpur– Existing 13 to be increased to 16

Kandi – Existing 17 to be increased to 18

Jangipur – Existing 20 to be increased to 21

Dhulian – Existing 19 to be increased to 21

Englishbazar – Existing 25 to be increased to 29

OldMaldah – Existing 17 to be increased to 20

Dinhata – Existing 15 to be increased to 16

Purulia– Existing 22 to be increased to 23

On September 1, 2014 an election campaignrally was held at Bowbazar in support of Trinamool candidate Ms Nayana Bandyopadhyayfor the by-election in Chowringhee Assembly Constituency. The meetingconstituted four wards – 48, 49, 50 and 51 – of the KMC area.

Nayana Bandyopadhyay with Sonali Guha

TMCis the de-facto Opposition party in LS: Sudip Bandyopadhyay

The Trinamool leader of the party in LokSabha and senior MP, Mr Sudip Bandopadhyay, stressed on the important role theparty is playing in the Parliament. He said that Trinamool Congress is actingas the de-facto Opposition party, raising all issues in the House though the Oppositionparty with largest number of MPs is the INC.

Sudip Bandyopadhyay addressing the meeting

Bengalmoving ahead in education sector: Partha Chatterjee

Party Secretary General Mr PathaChatterjee, who is the state Education Minister, informed the gathered massabout the development the state made in education sector. Number ofuniversities, colleges and schools has increased manifold after Trinamoolgovernment took over, he said.

Whatever the Left leaders are planning orsaying is confined within the four corners of their office; they do not havethe guts to come out on the streets, the party Secretary General said.

Nayana Bandyopadhyay addressing the meeting

Mr Chatterjee appealed to the gathered massto go out and vote in large numbers on September 13 in favour of Ms Nayana Bandyopadhyay.He stressed that everybody should go out and vote to drive out communal forcesfrom the state.

Seniorparty leaders make vote appeal

Senior party leaders Mr Aroop Biswas, MsSonali Guha, Mr Tapas Roy and Dr Sashi Panja appealed to the people to casttheir vote in favour of Ms Nayana Bandyopadhyay by pressing button number 2 onSeptember 13, 2014.

In spite of torrential rain, the crowd ofaround 5000 people sat through the whole rally, taking guidance from the seniorleaders.

Nayana Bandyopadhyay reaches out to people

The state government has awarded the topten showrooms of Tantuja, a West Bengal government enterprise, with the highestturnover for earning profits, Small and Medium Enterprise Minister Mr Swapan Debnathsaid.

The top 10 showrooms are located atShyambazar, Uttarpara, Dhakuria, Lindsay Street, Tantuja Bhavan, Civic Centre,Malda, Shyamnagar, Jalpaiguri, Guwahati and Burdwan.  Shyambazar showroom earned Rs 2.48 crore andUttarpara earned Rs 1.74 crore.

He said Tantuja has earned profit to thetune of Rs 8547.48 lakh in 2013-14, while in 2012-13 its profit was Rs 7674.01lakh. “We encouraged the showroom employees for outstanding sales and handedthe mementoes to the showroom managers today,” he said.

Tantuja was a loss-making organisationduring the Left Front tenure.

“Tantuja earned profit of Rs 5330.27 lakhduring 2010-11 and it made profit of Rs 7518.16 lakhs in 2011-12,” said MrDebnath.  Mr Debnath also asked all themanagers of the Tantuja showrooms to attend a meeting for planning to augmentthe revenue through increasing the sale during the Pujas.

Small and medium enterprise (MSME)department also will organise Tant Fair in several districts from 1September.  Several co-operativeorgansiations, self-help groups will participate in those fairs. “It will helpto make direct interaction between buyers and sellers,” he said. A new showroomhas been opened at Serampore.

West Bengal Government widened the reach ofits Durga Puja awards. It would give prizes to organisers in other countriesand states. This year, the government is going to reach out to new areas. Itwill give 10 awards, to be known as BiswaBangla Sharad Samman, to the organisers of pujas abroad. Ten more awardswill be given to Puja organisers in Indian cities outside Bengal. The traditionof giving awards to Puja organisers in Kolkata and West Bengal districts underdifferent categories will continue.

The government has been giving awards toPuja organisers in Kolkata and the districts since coming to power in 2011. Theawards include cash prizes of amounts between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh. The newset of awards would include a memento and a cash prize.

Puja organisers from other states andabroad would have to send video clips through web platforms. The awardcategories are yet to be decided. Fine-tuning of the method will be done soonand it will be uploaded on the department website.

The judges for the new awards are yet to beappointed. The team of judges that rank pujas in the city and the districtsinclude government officials, celebrities, artists and environment experts.

The awards for pujas in Kolkata and thedistricts will be declared on Sashthi.The prizes for the pujas abroad and in other states will be declared later.

A major accident was successfully avertedby the timely response of the West Bengal Fire Service Department and thescanning done by the newly acquired drone of the Kolkata Police that circlesthe skies of central Kolkata.

Fire engulfed the 15th and the 16th floorof the iconic Chatterjee International Building on Jawaharlal Nehru Road. TheFire Department and Police personnel rushed to the spot and rescued four peoplewho were trapped inside the building. The fire was brought under control inless than 3 hours. The newly acquired hydraulic cranes were also effectivelyused by the Fire Department officials to douse the fire.

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms MamataBanerjee, who is currently in Kalimpong, was monitoring thesituation since morning. She spoke to the Mayor of Kolkata, who was at the spotand asked him to take necessary steps. She congratulated senior minister of the statecabinet, Mr Aroop Biswas, Minister for Disaster Management, Mr Javed Ahmed Khan,the Mayor of Kolkata, Mr Shovan Chatterjee and the Kolkata Police Commissioner forsuccessfully averting a major disaster.

Mr Javed Ahmed Khan, who was at the spotsince morning, said, “The fire is under control and we have rescued fourpeople, who were trapped in the building, with the help of hydraulic ladder.They had breathing problems because of the smoke. We have sent them to thehospital.”

Public-sector insurance giant New IndiaAssurance (NIA) and re-insurance giant General Insurance Corporation (GIC) ofIndia have evinced interest in setting up offices at the financial hub at NewTown, Kolkata. Public-sector lenders such as Central Bank of India, Jammu &Kashmir Bank and Dena Bank are also weighing options to take part in theproposed financial cluster.

State Bank of India, which has already setup east India's first e-bank there, has also shown interest to buy more land atthe financial hub to establish its training centre.

Investors'meet in Mumbai

A top-level team, led by state urban developmentand municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim and chairman of West Bengal HousingInfrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) Debashis Sen is in Mumbai tohard-sell the New Town financial hub. Prior to the investors' meet atBandra-Kurla Complex which houses India's only international financial cluster,the HIDCO team along with IL&FS officials, met top honchos of insurancecompanies and banks.

At one such meet, NIA CMD G Srinivasanindicated at shifting its zonal operations from Kolkata's central businessdistrict to the New Town finance hub. The public-sector general insurer willput forward the issue of buying a plot in its board meet. GIC CMD Ashok KumarRoy has also taken interest in building its re-insurance facility at theproposed second cluster of the finance hub, which has 23 plots on offer.

“There is a great prospect in re-insurancesegment. If Bengal takes an initiative in this regard, we'll be happy to join.A joint workshop has been planned between GIC and HIDCO in the second week ofOctober to take this idea forward,” Roy reportedly told HIDCO officials.

WBGovt reaches out to investors

On the state government reaching out toinvestors, Firhad Hakim said: “This is a confidence-building exercise. It givesa feel-good factor. Answering directly to the prospective investors has somefuture impact. We hope to see it soon at New Town.”

Hakim and Sen will meet chairman of LifeInsurance Corporation of India on Wednesday. A meeting with the HDFC Bankchairman is also on the cards.

Replying to queries at the investors meet,which was organized by HIDCO in association with The Economic Times andtransaction partner IL&FS, Firhad Hakim said: “You come and feel thedifference. There is no problem of availability of land in Bengal.”

Fasttrack clearance

He assured investors of fast single-windowclearance for all the deals. Showing a 10-minute presentation on the prospectsof the “financial gateway to east India”, Mr Sen said: “A 38-acre land andplug-n-play units are ready. We have got representatives of as many as 23insurance firms, mutual funds and foreign banks at the meet today.”

Lettersof intent

In April last year, HIDCO receivedapplications from Union Bank of India, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and twoprivate financial institutions for space at the international financial hub inNew Town. In the first phase, six financial and banking institutes hadsubmitted applications of which UBI, UCO Bank, NIC, West Bengal FinancialCorporation and West Bengal Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation(WBIDFC) were selected. Allahabad Bank and SBI had already taken land near thehub.

West Bengal has been the highest producerof cut flowers, of over 250 crore pieces, in the domestic market and recordedthe highest compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 597 per cent duringfive-year period of 2007-08 and 2011-12, ASSOCHAM noted in a study. This hashappened despite shrinkage in area under floriculture in the State.

West Bengal was also at the top in terms ofshare of flower production (about 34 per cent) in the country's total output of740 crore pieces in 2011-12, the industry body said.

West Bengal ranked eighth in terms ofproduction of loose flowers. The State produces about 64,000 tonne looseflowers clocking a CAGR of over seven per cent during the aforesaid period. Thecountry's loose flower production is growing at a CAGR of over 17 per cent asIndia produces over 16.5 lakh tonne annually.

The area under flower production in theState, however, shrunk from about 27,000 hectares in 2007-08 to about 24,000hectares in 2011-12, a study prepared by the ASSOCHAM Economic Research Bureau(AERB) found.

ASSOCHAM said that about two lakh peoplewere estimated to be involved in cut flower production in the State, blessedwith diverse agro-climatic conditions.