Author: AITC

The State Forest Department will set up azoo at the deer park Mrigadaba inGarchumuk, Howrah to attract more tourists. The Central Zoo Authority of Indiahas already approved the plan for setting up a zoo at Garchumuk and the UnionEnvironment department has also given the clearance certificate.

Former Union Minister of State for Tourismand Trinamool MP, Mr Sultan Ahmed, had taken the initiative for developing theinfrastructure of the tourist spot and he had also worked hard for the Centralfund.

Mr Binay Krishna Barman, the State ForestMinister said they will develop the entire park and a new zoo will be set up. “Wehave laid the foundation stone for a deer shelter and more projects will betaken up for developing this spot as a zoo,” he said.

Tortoise, crocodile, porcupine and peacockwill be there in the first phase to attract tourists. A treatment centre forthe animals will also be set up. Senior officials of the land and land reformsdepartment and from the forest department visited the spot to inspect the landfor setting up the animal treatment centre. If more funds are available, ananimal hospital could also be set up there. The existing deer park ismaintained by the zilla parishad.

Garchumuk is located at the confluence ofthe river Hooghly and an irrigation canal emanating from the river Damodar. Thespot offering a spectacular view of the river Hooghly is gradually emerging asa popular tourist destination especially. The prime attraction of Garchumuk isthe beautiful barrage called Atanna Gate, where 58 lock gates have been built.

The State Forest Minister recently visitedGadiara and Garchumuk.

With a sharp rise in cyber crime cases, thestate government has decided to set up dedicated cyber police stations in fivepolice commissionerates to crack cyber crime cases. At present, the state`sonly cyber police station functions under the Detective Department branch ofKolkata Police at Lalbazar.

As cyber crime is fast-growing and newtrends are emerging every day, there is an urgent need to set up a separatepolice station to handle cyber crimes exclusively. The move is aimed at helpingpeople from across the state lodge complaints at the respective policecommissionerates instead of travelling to Kolkata for the task.  

The cyber police stations will come up atthe five police commissionerates of Howrah, Salt Lake, Barrackpore, Asansol andSiliguri. To begin with, no new posts are being created for the proposed fivecyber police stations. A section of the existing officers at thecommissionerates will be given additional charge of the cyber police stations.

According to the National Crime RecordsBureau 2012, cyber crime cases have increased by 355.8 per cent in Bengal withKolkata ranking fourth among the metropolitan cities. In the past, cyber crimewas committed mainly by individuals or small groups. But now organisations areworking in tandem with criminal minded technologists to commit cyber crimes.

Majority of the cyber crime cases lodgedwith Kolkata Police relate to hacking and damage or loss of computer. But,recently there has been a rise in cases like harassing women on socialnetworking sites and sending objectionable messages or pictures. Complaints ofonline lottery fraud and phishing are also on the rise. There is a need to setup a dedicated police station to exclusively handle complaints related to cybercrimes.

The State Government is taking theinitiative to form Consumer Assistance Bureaus. As a Pilot Project, ten suchBureaus will be formed at different places across the state. In the future,every district will have the same facility. Initially, the Assistance Bureauswill be set up at the office of the Assistant Director of the Consumer ProtectionDepartment.

The initial offices will be set up at Khidderpore, Muraripukur, Baguihati and Noapara in Kolkata and at Bidhannagar, Durgapur, Siliguri, Islampur and Kankinara.

Ten NGOs have been asked to do the necessary work and have beenprovided with the infrastructure and other facilities. The department will holdmeetings with these NGOs every three months to monitor the work done.

The last three years had seen radicalchanges in different sectors of the society. Powered by the initiatives takenup by the Trinamool led West Bengal Government a major portion the consumersector is now aware of their rights. This has led to steady flow of complaintsat the state`s Consumer Protection Courts and the cases are being solved arealso at par with the complaints made.

With the intervention of the state, theDistrict and the State consumer forum sorted out 5579 and 2536 casesrespectively.

The West Bengal Highway DevelopmentCorporation is coming up with GIS Mapping of all the State Highways. All suchmaps will be available on the Website of the Corporation after Durga Puja. Thisunique system is available in only one other state in the country. Not even theNational Highways Authority could provide such a system.  A mobile app is also being developed toprovide the information to all users.

From tourists to industrialists, thissystem will be handy for anyone. 

The information that a user can get from themaps:

• The start and end points of Highways, alongwith dimensions
• Condition of the road and the exactlocation of a damage, if any
• Number of bridges on the road
• The last date of maintenance work
• Number of roads connecting two places andthe shortest available route
• Traffic situation on the road
• Details of Petrol pumps, banks, Hotels, ATMs,restaurants, hospitals etc. on the highway

The State Government under TrinamoolCongress has always shown the intention to think ahead of time and set anexample for the country. The current GIS mapping system is just another exampleof proper planning and a vision for the future.

Kolkata will soonbecome a garbage vat free city. Steps are being taken to abolish the openvats throughout the city and put in the service of solid waste compactors. Thisyear KMC will set up 78 compactor stations. 39 new mobile compactors are alsobeing bought by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). 

16 portable compactorsand 5 prime movers had been purchased by KEIP under ADB scheme. The locationsthat are using the new facilities are Lake Kalibari, Ballygunge Circular Road,Gobinda Addy Road, Charu Market and Tallah Park. Seven new Compactors willstart servicing from June 2014. KMC would introduce the movablecompactor system in areas like Majerhat, DN Mitra Square, SN Park andBengal Chemical area.

On December 21, 2012the Kolkata Municipal Corporation introduced its first scientific solid wastecompactor station and modern portable compactors at Kalighat Park.

Advantages ofcompactor station and portable compactor:

• Restriction ofaccessibility of birds, animals and rain water
• Transport more garbagedue to compaction system
• Odourlesstransportation from compactor station to Dhapa dumping ground
• Stoppage of ragpicking
• No spilling of garbageduring transportation.
• No seepage of waterduring transportation due to water tight sysyem
• Eradication of openvat
• Facilitates night transportationof solid waste etc

Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee on Wednesdayreviewed the progress of work by various departments at an administrativemeeting held at Town Hall. Senior state officials of the rank joint secretaryand above were present along with ministers during the stock-taking session.The Chief Minister, however, wasn`t critical of anybody because no work beyondthe routine was done for the last two months because of the Lok Sabha polls.

The Chief Minister stuck to theadministrative calendar released on January 2 to track the progress in the fiscalyear 2013-14. What transpired was that state finances have improved primarilydue to a rise in own revenue generation. The Finance, IT, Panchayat and RuralDevelopment, Irrigation, Municipal Affairs, Consumer Affairs and Sports were`outstanding` in their performances.

“So far I have reviewed the progress ofwork and performance of various departments with the ministers and seniorofficials in 54 meetings in last three years. While we acquired top position inmany projects, performance of some projects also requires a boost for fasterimplementation,” the Chief Minister said.

Speaking about the performance of hergovernment, she said that the issues of various departments were discussed onthe basis of the administrative calendar. “We reviewed the performance of eachand every project,” she said after meeting ministers and secretaries anddistrict magistrates.

The Chief Minister laid much emphasis ontourism, a priority area for the government. She expects the department toexplore new ideas and tap into latent potential.

Expressing happiness with the progress ofwork at the grassroots level, she said, “In our discussion we came to theconclusion that there should not be any communication gap.” She termed thereview meeting “positive and constructive”.

Ms. Banerjee has been holding suchadministrative meetings every six months; this is a sign of the revived workculture in the State.

On June 2, the Chief Minister said shewould hold a similar review meeting at Uttarkanya, the branch secretariat in NorthBengal, to speed up development programmes in the districts under itsjurisdiction. She would also hold a meeting with senior police officials.

Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee willhold an administrative meeting at Uttarkanya, the North Bengal Branch Secretariat, on June 2. The Branch Secretariat was inaugurated earlier this year and already a Cabinet meeting has been held there.

North Bengal Development officials atUttarkanya have received a message to this effect. Ms. Banerjee will fly to Bagdogra and hold the meetingat Uttarkanya.

The Chief Minister is expected to make someimportant announcements regarding the development of North Bengal. She will hold meetings with the district officials of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar.

Ms. Banerjee may announce developmentalplans for this region and thank people in the three LS segments for herpolitical victory.

West Bengal has jumped from the 7th spot tothe 4th spot in the terms of industries that have started production in thisperiod. More than 100 odd applications have been submitted to the IndustryDepartment in the last 5 months with expression of interest to set up large andmedium industries in the state.

Twelve large and medium industries havejoined the development bandwagon of West Bengal between January and March 2014 andstarted their operations in the State. The total investment received by West Bengal is around Rs 2126 crores.

Last year 44 industries had started productionin their factories in West Bengal. The total investment receivced had been Rs2482 crores. In just six months, 2014 has surpassed the record of the previousfive years.

The new Industrial policy and the effectivework culture of the State Industrial agencies, the end of red tape-ism and theable leadership of the Chief Minister and the Industry Minister are the factorsthat led to the flood of investments converging on the state.

Some of the importantindustries that have started production are:

S.No.	Company	Place	Product
1	Aditya Birla Nuvo	Hooghly	Flax Yarn
2	Dinman Polypacks	Bardhaman	Oven Polysacks
3	Jacks Plast Products	Kolkata	Industrial Accessories
4	Sai Saphonates	Medinipur	Industrial Acid
5	Murlidhar Ratanlal Exports	Bardhaman	Jute bags
6	Exodus Knitwear	Bankura	Knitted Farix

Source of the data: January – March 2014, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Union Ministry of Commerce

To give more impetus to the ensuingdevelopmental work in Bengal, the State Cabinet has been reshuffled by ChiefMinister Ms. Mamata Banerjee. The ministers will take charge of their new departments very soon.

Partha Chatterje, the Minister for LegislativeAffairs, will now be in charge of Education (Primary, School and Higher Education).

The Minister for Finance and Commerce &Industry, Dr Amit Mitra, has been allotted the charge of Information &Technology portfolio.

Bratya Basu will now take charge of theTourism Department.

Dr Shashi Panja will now take additional chargeof the Social Welfare Department.

Krishendu Narayan Chowdhury will take overas the Minister for Food Processing and Horticulture.

Sabitri Mitra and Subrata Saha arecurrently Ministers without any portfolio.