Author: AITC

Trinamool MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy todayspoke in Rajya Sabha on the working of the Home Ministry. During his speech hehighlighted the alarming rise in crimes against people belonging to ScheduledCaste and Scheduled Tribes. He also spoke at length on the rising number ofcrimes against women.

Mr Roy said that rape is a social menaceand no political party can be blamed for it. The previous Govt had enacted astringent law and against rapes after Nirbhaya case, he said, but that has notprevented rapes from happening. He appealed to the home minister to implementlaws more strictly.

“Girls are not safe at homes. Kids are notsafe in schools. Women are not safe in courts. How will we answer the public?”lamented Mr Roy.

He also highlighted the pro-active stepstaken by the West Bengal govt to curb the crimes against women. He cited thedata of National Crime Records Bureau, the number of rapes reported in Bengalas per the proportion of population is lower than 10 other States, he said. “We have formed new commissionerates. We haverecruited women constables. We are trying to combat the situation. This shouldbe followed across all States,” added Mr Roy.

The Parliamentarian also warned thegovernment of the rising incidents of communal incidents in India. He alsotalked at length about the left wing extremist violence. He cited theJangalmahal model followed by West Bengal Government that has brought peace inthe region.

“Mamata Banerjee knows that only force isnot sufficient. She won the hearts of people in Jangalmahal with development. Iam happy to say that peace prevails in Jangalmahal. We have also announcedextra funds for providing amnesty to Maoists who surrender,” Mr Roy said.

Mr Roy demanded funds for 'Safe City'project in Kolkata. He asked the Centre to form a task force for cattlemovement in border areas. He also asked the government not to charge any levyfor deployment of security forces for combating left wing extremism. He alsosaid that the Indian government should not unilaterally remove existing centralforces without consulting the State government.

Mr Roy also touched upon the issues oftapping of phones of politicians by foreign and national agencies. He alsoasked the Government about the preparedness to combat terrorist attacks, inlight of the recent news about D-Company operations.

“Iam truly surprised that he was not even aware before making this comment thatthe area through which he was driving was strictly for residential andcommercial development and therefore could not have had any industrial plantsvisible to him.

Itindicates that Mr Ratan Tata is ill-informed and confused about the area he isdriving through from the Netaji International Airport to the city of Kolkata, afterso many years of exposure to Kolkata.

Iwould like to ask Mr. Tata how many industrial complexes does he see whiledriving from Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai to his home orhis office?! 

Aperson of his stature, may I humbly state, should have been much more carefulbefore making such a casual and utterly wrong observation. Such unnecessarycomments tend to undermine the huge developmental activity underway  in the great State of Bengal.”

The West Bengal Cabinet on Tuesday cleareda proposal to offer financial help of up to Rs 1 lakh to unemployed persons agedbetween 20 and 45 to buy “small vehicles”. The move may encourage people to buytaxis and small buses.

The GatiDhara scheme was outlined by the Finance Minister in the budget inFebruary. The Cabinet on Tuesday announced that families with a monthly incomeof Rs 25,000 or less would qualify for financial support under the scheme.

“The transport department will interviewapplicants and draw up a list of eligible candidates. The labour departmentwould provide the money but the scheme would be implemented by the transportdepartment,” said Transport Minister Mr Madan Mitra. “The resolution has beencleared and will come into effect immediately.”

The project was initially aimed at thoseplanning to buy no-refusal taxis, luxury taxis or small goods vehicles. Now thescheme would extend to small buses with low-seating capacity.  The final list of vehicles will be drawn upsoon.

The move was aimed at youths in Jangalmahal,who were finding it difficult to pool money to buy goods vehicles. During herrecent trips to Bankura and Purulia, Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee hadexpressed keenness to help youths in the Maoist-hit districts eke out a living.This would be of great help to those planning to buy Matadors or small eight to12-seater buses.

The image used is a representative one.

The Mamata Banerjee led West Bengalgovernment has come up with a policy for the urban development department. Thepolicy includes increasing the floor area ratio (FAR) for all kinds ofbuildings in the state, including old buildings that are occupied by tenants.Also under the new policy, township projects, logistic hubs, terminal hubs andother transport projects will be entitled to relaxation under Sec 14Y of theLand Reforms Act.

The state cabinet on Tuesday officiallyapproved the policy. “There was no policy for the urban development departmentso far. We held 30 meetings over the last year and discussed with a widesection of experts, like members of CREDAI (Confederation of Real EstateDevelopers' Associations of India), before finalizing the policy. We will takefurther inputs from stakeholders to give a final shape to the policy,” said StateFinance Minister Amit Mitra, who, along with Urban Development Minister FirhadHakim, was in the group of ministers to come up with the policy .

The government will issue a notification onthe policy in a few days. “The small municipalities will be allowed a year andthe municipal corporations about six months to follow and implement thepolicy,” Hakim said.

Stating some of the salient points of the policy,Dr Mitra said there has been a 31% increase in urban population from 2001 to2011. “Keeping this in mind, an additional 10% FAR will be allowed for allgreen buildings,” Dr Mitra said. The municipal affairs department will approvethe FAR.

Image courtesy: The Times of India

Most importantly, an additional 100% FARwill be allowed for buildings that are more than 50 years old and have beenpartly or fully occupied by tenants. The buildings will be identified asdangerous buildings by the municipal affairs department and if the tenants sodemand, they will be provided with 100% FAR after construction of a newbuilding. According to the policy, 15% additional FAR will be allowed for masshousing, hospital, IT building and mega commercial complexes. Adequate civicinfrastructure will be provided in these areas.

In another major point, for houses locatedwithin 500 m on both sides of a Metro corridor, an FAR of 15% will beallowed if the road is 15-24 m wide. The FAR will be 20% if the road is morethan 24 m wide. Already, some amendments have been made in the New Town Kolkata(Building) Rules to increase the maximum permissible FAR for developers inspecific areas of Rajarhat New Town.

If a plot is located within 250 m of theproposed Metro route in the central business district (CBD) of New Town,developers can build a house with an FAR of 6 on payment of fees. Also, forplots located beyond 250 m from the proposed Metro alignment, the FAR for allplots except for residential ones shall remain 3.50 for CBD and 2.25 forsub-CBD areas.

Also, for the benefit of youths who want toset up non-hazardous office in houses, 45% of FAR will be allowed for thispurpose.

Other important features of the policy arerevised valuation for housing complexes that have community halls andplaygrounds and a new depreciation rate for all old buildings. The rate willvary for buildings based on how old they are, from 0 to 5 years old, from 6 to40 years old and for buildings above 40 years. Those who will buy these oldbuildings will have to pay lower stamp duty.

More than 75 lakh people of the State have been benefited bythe fair price medicine shops set up on the initiative of the West Bengal ChiefMinister Ms Mamata Banerjee. 

It has been estimated that during the last one andhalf years, since the opening of the 35 fair price medicine shops in GovernmentHospitals, the medicine buyers have received at total discount of Rs 205.51crore.

It has been found that the total number of the buyers (tillJuly 31, 2014) who have availed discounts from the fair price medicine shops is75,42,490. The buyers are availing discounts up to 55% to 68%. The fair price medicineshops, till July 31, 2014, have done business worth Rs 336.9 crore.

Incidentally, the first of such shops was inaugurated by theWest Bengal Chief Minister at the SSKM Hospital in 2012. The shops which sellmedicines only by generic names have now become an example nationally.

The figures of buyers have increased to a great extent sinceApril 2014. Here is a list:

Month (2014)	Price of medicines sold (crore)	Number of Buyers (Lakh)	Total discount availed (crore)
April	22.35	4.56	14.08
May	23.58	4.64	14.09
June	23.68	4.65	14.63
July	25.86	4.85	15.72

Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee today spoke inthe Lok Sabha on the Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2014. During his speechhe said there are enough laws in India and what is needed is strictimplementation and execution.

Mr Banerjee said that the SEBI Act of 1992was old and inadequate to fight with chit funds. He said that sufficientprovisions were not there in the Act to take action against malpractices and toreturn money to poor investors.

Chit funds have mushroomed in India. In ourState, they thrived since 1984, he said. He requested the Govt to consider makinga provision for returning money to poor investors under the new law. He citedthe example of a committee formed by Calcutta HC to return money to the dupedinvestors of Sanchayita scam.

He also demanded that a standard needs tobe set for the Chairman of the SEBI. It should act for public interest &should not have political agenda. “Handing over cases to CBI is a fashiontoday. But in most cases it has not completed trial even today,” he added. Hesuggested that an advocate with 6 years experience and with exp in criminaltrial should be made a prosecutor.

Mr Banerjee added that West Bengal Govt hadenacted an Act akin to this Amendment. But due to error in communication, thatAct did not get President's assent. He urged the Centre not to repeat themistake of UPA Govt.

Click here for the full transcript of his speech.

The Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises of the West Bengal Government has taken up an innovativeplan to further boost the MSME sector in the State. Around five hundredofficers of this department will be given a target to groom at least ten entrepreneurseach by March 2015. The officers are now being trained at IIM Calcutta for thispurpose.

The designated officers will also help the entrepreneursin getting bank loans to set up their businesses. The State government isorganising a conclave titled SYNERGY to promote the usefulness and facilitiesof MSME industries at different districts in the state.

The State's thrust of MSME sector had receiveda boost since the new government took over in 2011. At the moment, West Bengalholds the first position among States in the MSME sector. 35000 units have comeup in the last three years thus creating employment for 3.2 lakh people. In thecurrent month, investment proposals to the tune of Rs 5 thousand crore havebeen received by the state.

The Safe Savings Scheme of the StateGovernment is turning out to be a successful one. The people of the State now feelsafe with their savings in this government scheme. The scheme offers 9%interest per annum which is at par with rates any bank would offer.

The State Government is also making a filmto promote this scheme, to be directed by Haranath Chakraborty with KolkataSheriff Ranjit Mullick playing the lead.

During the year 2013-14, the total amountof savings under this scheme has risen to Rs 25,448 crore. During 2014-15 Aprilto June, the total amounts of savings have been Rs 7681 crore compared to Rs5860 crore during the same period in 2013-14.

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এ রাজ্যে কেন্দ্রের স্বল্প সঞ্চয় প্রকল্প এতটাই ঘুরে দাঁড়িয়েছে যে, প্রতি মাসে লক্ষ্যমাত্রা পেরিয়ে যাচ্ছে। রাজ্যের অর্থ দপ্তরের কাছে নিঃসন্দেহে সুখবর। কারণ, স্বল্প সঞ্চয় প্রকল্পে মোট যত অর্থ জমা পড়ে, তার পুরোটাই বার্ষিক ৯ শতাংশ সুদে রাজ্য সরকার ঋণ নিতে পারে। বাজারে বন্ড বেচে ঋণ নেওয়ার ক্ষেত্রে সুদের হার যেকোনো সময় বেড়ে যাওয়ার আশঙ্কা থাকলেও এ ক্ষেত্রে তা নেই। তাই সল্প সঞ্চয় প্রকল্প থেকে ঋণ নেওয়া রাজ্যের পক্ষে সব সময়ই নিরাপদ।

কেন্দ্রের স্বল্পসঞ্চয় প্রকল্প এমন অভাবনীয় সাড়া পাচ্ছে দেখে রাজ্য সরকারও তাদের প্রকল্প ঢেলে সাজছে। সেফ সেভিং স্কিম নামে অই প্রকল্পের দায়িত্বপ্রাপ্ত রাজ্য পরিকাঠামো উন্নয়ন ও বিত্ত নিগমের চেয়ারম্যান অভিরূপ সরকার সোমবার জানান, প্রকল্পটি প্রচারের জন্য একটি ছবি তৈরি করা হয়েছে। হরনাথ চক্রবর্তীর তৈরী সেই ছবিতে আছেন বিশিষ্ট অভিনেতা তথা কলকাতার শেরিফ রঞ্জিত মল্লিক। আর কিছু পরিকল্পনা কিছুদিনের মধ্যেই ঘোষণা করা হবে।

রাজ্যের স্বল্প সঞ্চয় অধিকর্তা মোবাশ্বের আলি বৈদ্য বলেন, “পোস্ট অফিসে স্বল্প সঞ্চয় প্রকল্পগুলিতে লগ্নির পরিমান বাড়ছে। এই অঙ্ক আরও বাড়াতে আমরা বাড়ি বাড়ি গিয়ে প্রচার করার সিধ্যান্ত নিয়েছি। পাশাপাশি, গ্রামাঞ্চলে আরও বেশি সংখ্যায় মহিলা এজেন্ট নিয়োগের বিষয়টিও আমেদের পরিকল্পনায় রয়েছে।”

২০১১–১২–র এপ্রিল থেকে জুন, এই তিন মাসে রাজ্যে মোট স্বল্প সঞ্চয়ের পরিমাণ ছিল ৫৯৫৩ কোটি টাকা। ২০১৩–১৪ অর্থ বছরের প্রথম তিন মাসে স্বল্প সঞ্চয় প্রকল্পগুলিতে লগ্নির পরিমাণ তেমন একটা বাড়েনি। তবে গত বছরের জুলাই থেকে অবস্থার পরিবর্তন হয়।