C40 World Mayors Summit applauds Bangla’s innovative Sabujshree Scheme

The Bangla Government has created another milestone with the Sabujshree Scheme, the latter having received an overwhelming response at the recently-held C40 World Mayors Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The mayor of Kolkata (also the State Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister) had gone to Copenhagen to accept the C40 Cities Bloomberg Philanthropies Award for the city’s environment-friendly electric public transportation project.

Sabujshree aims at planting a sapling with the birth of every child in the State. Under Sabujshree, a sapling is given to the mother of every child born in a government hospital anywhere in the State.

The saplings given to the mothers are usually of commercially viable trees like mahogany or sal. The parents are requested to nurture the tree like their own children. When the child becomes an adult, the parents are allowed to sell the tree and spend the money on the child’s education.

It is this aspect of the scheme that received widespread recognition at the conference. Mayors of several cities showed interest in how trees can become an asset to a family.

The scheme is the brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and was introduced in 2016.

Source: Millennium Post

 

Durga Pujo Carnival to highlight the best of Durga Pujo

The Durga Pujo Carnival today is all set to be the biggest held till date, with more than 25,000 people expected to be in attendance and several lakhs to connect digitally. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose brainchild this carnival is, will be the chief guest at the event to be held on Red Road.

‘Ranga Matir Bangla’ is the theme this year. The famous art form of terracotta, pottery and other items made out of burnt clay, of Bishnupur and other places in Bankura district will be highlighted at this year’s carnival.

More than 70 Pujo committees – those which are the best in Kolkata as well as in the districts, including those that won the Biswa Bangla Sharad Samman – will take part in the carnival.

The event is being held for the fourth consecutive time and will highlight Bangla’s traditional folk culture. The show has strengthened Bangla’s position in the world’s tourism map.

The programme will start at 4pm, led by the Kolkata Police’s Tornado unit – a motorcycle-borne squad of police personnel that performs stunts on the bikes. This will be followed by traditional dhunuchi dance and then chhau dance (indigenous to Purulia district), accompanied by dhaak rolls. After these, the main attraction of the carnival will take place – the parade of idols decked in all their finery on board trailers.

Last year, more than 2,500 foreign delegates and tourists had attended This year too several foreign delegates and members of the consular corps have been invited, according to a senior government official of the Information & Cultural Affairs Department, which is responsible for making the arrangements

Needless to say, security arrangements will also be tight. Watch towers, quick response teams of Kolkata Police, thousands of police personnel and personnel of the disaster management group will be on guard.

 

Didi starts inaugurating Durga Pujos

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee started inaugurating Durga Pujos of Kolkata from yesterday. She started with Hatibagan Sarbajanin, followed by Chaltabagan Lohapatty and Hindustan Club, the last one being in south Kolkata.

Since yesterday was the start of Debipaksha, she did not light lamps during the inaugurations but instead placed flowers at the foot of the Goddess in an innovative approach this year.

Every year after becoming chief minister, Mamata Banerjee has made it a point to inaugurate Durga Pujos across the city. The requests for her to do so from pujo committees are never-ending, and she tries her best to launch as many pujos as possible.

 

Didi to launch Jago Bangla festive edition today

Didi will launch the festival edition of Jago Bangla today. She will launch the magazine in the presence of several prominent personalities in the cultural field.

Like every year, this year’s edition too has the main article written by Mamata Banerjee. The other articles are authored by prominent Trinamool politicians and writers.

It will be available both online, on the Trinamool Congress website, as well as in print form.

Song album Mati by Mamata Banerjee to be released before Durga Pujo

A collection of Bengali songs written and composed by Mamata Banerjee, titled Mati, is slated to be released before Durga Pujo. This is the first time that a collection of songs, written and composed by Mamata Banerjee, will be released. All the seven songs in the CD have been sung by star singers.

The songs are ‘Pahar kande sabuj kande’, ‘Mati aamar moner foshol’, ‘Akash tumi bristi dile’, ‘Mago tomar bhalobasae’, ‘Iki uki buki hamba hamba ho’, ‘De dol dol’ and ‘Chhilo ekta chhotto meye’.

Mamata Banerjee has always been drawn towards the concept of ‘mati’ or Mother Earth and has written several poems on conservation of earth and nature. She has also declared July 12 as Save Water, Save Life Day.

Source: Millennium Post

 

State Govt training homestay owners

In an effort to make homestays more popular, the Bangla Government recently organised a two-day training session in Darjeeling for owners of homestays.

The State Tourism Minister inaugurated the training. He announced that such training sessions would henceforth be held two to three times a year. He also asked the homestays to register with the State Government so that they were able to get all the facilities provided by the State.

Representatives of 287 homestays from Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts participated in the training. Among the issues tackled during the training were adequate supply of drinking water, cleanliness, environment-friendly facilities (creating a plastic-free environment, etc), adequate power supply, stable Wi-Fi facilities in the rooms, transportation facilities for tourists and others.

Centre must not divest profit-making PSUs, merge banks: Didi

The Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress organised a meeting of its members at the Netaji Indoor Stadium today. Trinamool Congress Chairperson Mamata Banerjee addressed the attending members.

Highlights of her speech:

Sometimes we have to come together to fight. We many not always get the results we want, but we have to try anyway.

In 2012, 6 Trinamool ministers had left the Manmohan Singh Government in protest against its decision to implement 100% FDI in retail because we believe the cause of the people is more important than holding on to ministries.

Plans are being made to close down Bengal Chemicals; 42 PSUs are being divested; banks are being amalgamated and their headquarters moved elsewhere. Due to this, many bank workers would lose their jobs. Nobody is sure these days of the state of their jobs and of the value of money in the future.

The post offices have no work other than distributing letters about the Central Government’s achievements. Their work is getting reduced.

Even after demonetisation, bank officials worked their hearts out. So what happened to all the money collected? Nobody knows.

After making the banks do its bidding, is this how the Central Government will treat them? The whole banking sector is in a mess.

The armed forces are the best means for protecting the country. Instead of protecting, they are being used to threaten people. People are in the dark about many things. The Centre also wants to privatise the ordnance factories.

Coal is the pride of Bangla; if Coal India is divested 100 per cent, electricity production will be hit hard.

We fear that the Indian Railways, the largest public sector undertaking in the world, will be fully privatised in the coming days.

A conspiracy is being hatched to divest a profitable company like Air India.

It is the duty of the Government to be beside the people in times of hardship. Nobody is paying heed to the people’s problems nowadays.

The television and print media, which have the power to take up the issues being faced by the people, have become deaf and dumb; they are just parroting the Centre’s instructions.

The Centre is trying to incite the people and spreading hatred, just to improve its TRP. And those who love the people are constantly working for their benefits.

SAIL, Hindustan Paper, Chittaranjan Locomotives, Life Insurance Corporation, Haldia Port, Kolkata Port, BSNL are all being planned to be privatised. Things are in a terrible mess.

People have lost their right to speak. That’s why there is a need for them to come together to speak up. Social media platforms should be used to mount protests. People need to think differently in order to launch protests because there is great value in it.

Democracy is our asset. There is democracy in Bangla but many States are suffering for the lack of it.

You saw from the Jadavpur University incident what their attitude is. You cannot use force to keep people in the dark forever.

The people of Asansol and Durgapur voted wholesale for the BJP, yet now the Centre is planning to privatise Chittaranjan Locomotives, ECL, BSNL.

On the part of the State Government, we merged only those companies which were running at a loss. We didn’t take away people’s jobs.

Politics and love for the people of the country are not one and the same in most cases now. One should work for the people once elected, whatever their political affiliations.

Continue your fight the way you are doing it. The hunger strike has been going on for 25 days. There are ordnance factories and banks in other States too but the people are afraid to protest.

Since others are not protesting, it is the people of Bangla who will speak up for the people. Bangla will show the way.

If our fight helps people in other States, we will be happy because we want to progress taking everyone along.

There are three protest programmes before Durga Pujo. I am creating a core group that will coordinate all the protests and meetings, and will also take up the issues in Parliament. The members are Subrata Bakshi, Dola Sen, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Saugata Roy, Derek O’Brien, Subrata Mukherjee, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, Partha Chatterjee, Pradip da, Malay Ghatak and Purnendu Bose.

She announced the following protest programmes:

Sep 26: Protest meeting in front of Gun & Shell Factory, Cossipore
Sep 27: Protest meeting in front of Coal India headquarters at 1pm
Oct 18: Protest march from Sealdah to Fairlie Place via Esplanade from 1.30pm
48-hour dharna in New Delhi
Post-Oct 18: Protest meetings in Chennai, Mumbai, Bihar and other places across the country

NRC is nothing to be afraid of; it won’t happen, assures Didi

I am requesting you to enlist your names in the electoral rolls so that you are able to vote. There will be no NRC anywhere.

Some people are wrongly bringing a communal angle to NRC, and saying that it is meant to divide Hindus and Muslims. Yet despite that the NRC in Assam has excluded 13 lakh Hindus.

Do not fear NRC. Some TV channels are spreading false news. Don’t watch those channels.

There will be a protest against in the NRC in those places where people have died in fear of it.

We have to fight this battle together. My Pujo greetings to all.

 

Biswa Bangla Sharad Samman 2019 registrations now open

Like every year, the state government will award the best Puja committees across the state for their performance in several segments this year. Puja committees outside Bengal – in India and abroad – will also be honoured.

On Tuesday, Minister of State (MoS) for the Information and Cultural Affairs and Tourism department announced that Puja committees can register for the competition till September 26. He stated that the number of Puja committees winning awards may increase in 2019. He also informed that this year, the Durga Puja Carnival will take place at Red Road on October 11, while the winners will be announced soon after the Puja.

The entry form for Biswa Bangla Sharad Samman will be available from the Kolkata Information Centre. Puja committees across the city can apply online as well. Puja committees in the districts will have to collect the application form from the office of the District Information and Cultural officer and Sub-Divisional Information and Cultural officer. Bengalis across the country and abroad will also participate in the competition like previous years and their applications will be received online.

Water meters to prevent wastage

To prevent wastage of water, Kolkata Municipal Corporation has decided to instal water meters inside homes and on pipes. The project has been started on a pilot basis.

Six wards in Borough I have been selected for the pilot. About 7,500 water meters have been installed. For each home, there is a meter inside the home and another on the main pipe which is supplying the home.

Through the meters, officials would have a clear idea of how much water is being used by each household and accordingly find out ways to reduce the usage. The meters would also help officials know if there is a crack through which water is spilling out.

According to KMC officials, the ideal usage of piped water per person per day should be 150 litres (l) but 450 to 550 l is being used. So obviously there is a need for conservation of water.

Singur Dibas: Celebrating the victory of farmers

September 14 is celebrated as Singur Dibas in Bangla. On this day in 2016, Mamata Banerjee had handed over land deeds (parcha) and compensation cheques to farmers in Singur.

The reason for the celebrations was the passing of the historic verdict by the Supreme Court on the preceding August 31, when it declared that the land acquired in Singur by the erstwhile Left Front Government was illegal and unconstitutional.

Around 9,117 land deeds were handed over in 2016. About 800 compensation cheques were handed over by the Chief Minister and her Cabinet colleagues to those farmers who had to unwillingly part with their land.

Check dams have been constructed and tube-wells set up for irrigation in Singur. Soil testing was done and fertilisers for making the land fertile and cultivable made available for the farmers.