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

 

9 new spots identified by State Heritage Commission

The State Heritage Department has identified nine new heritage spots across the State. This is a big step towards preserving the rich heritage of Bangla that is centuries old, and in turn promoting tourism.

The nine are:

* Shivshakti Annapurna Temple, Barrackpore
* Brahmamoyee Kali Mata Temple, Hooghly district
* Stuart Saheb’s (indigo planter’s) bungalow (nilkuthi), Barrackpore
* St Bartholomew’s Cathedral, Barrackpore
* Krishna Bhabini Nari Siksha Mandir, Chandannagar (school)
* Prabartak Sangha headquarters, Chandannagar
* Nandalal Bhar’s house, Chandannagar
* Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery, Bhawanipore, Kolkata
* Deb Sahitya Kutir’s headquarters, College Street, Kolkata

Special measures would be taken to maintain these and make them more popular among tourists, both domestic and international.

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.

Tourism festival to be held in North Bengal this winter

For the first time, the State Government will organise a tourism festival this winter in North Bengal. It will showcase the local traditions, cultures as well as offbeat destinations.The project was approved recently by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The details of the festival were outlined by the Tourism Minister. The festival will be held every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from November 15 to December 21.

The first edition will be held at the offbeat destinations of Meteli, Gajoldoba (Jalpaiguri district) Rajabhatkhawa (Alipurduar district), Sitong (Darjeeling district), Pedong (Kalimpong district) and Talidighi (Dakshin Dinajpur district).

The festival will lay stress on low-cost homestays, resorts, Swiss tents as well as local art products, cultural performances, jungle safaris and travelling to various locations (at Jayanti Forest, Chilapata, Buxa Fort, etc.), bird-watching, adventure sports, activities around bonfires at campsites and of course, gastronomical experiences. The venues will host blog writers, tourism experts and celebrities during the course of the festival.

Importantly, the festival will be an eco-friendly, plastic-free event. Medical support and ambulances will also be present at the venues. Pick-ups from and drops to the local airport and railway stations will be available. Token memorabilia will also be given to the tourists.

Each venue we will have accommodation for around 125 guests, of whom 25 will be accommodated in tents and the remaining 100 in home stays, on twin-sharing basis. Guests will be charged Rs 1,250 per person per day.

The State Government has allotted a budget of around Rs 2 crores. Booking for the festival can be made online through the WBTDC website and the official portals of the districts.

State Govt to tap several avenues of tourism aggressively

The Bangla Government is focussed on tapping the tourism potential of the State in the travel and tourism market. The 35th Annual Convention of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) was recently held in Kolkata where efforts to this end were made.

Since the city has changed significantly in the last 10 years, the Government plans to showcase the new face of Kolkata as a ‘hub city’. This would in turn generate interest in tourism all over the State.

The State Tourism Department is also planning to have a new slogan, ‘Ocean to the Sky’ in order to promote the diversity of Bangla.

Bangla offers a number of tourism circuits, and the State Government is at present trying to actively push heritage tourism by involving private tour operators.

The south-western part of the State provides a nice circuit for wilderness and adventure tourism via rivers, hills and forests. The Dooars also provides a great opportunity for tourism. The entire stretch from Kolkata to Durgapur-Asansol provides excellent opportunities for business and recreational trips.

For the promotion of cultural tourism, the Tourism Department plans to promote and encourage several festivals celebrated in Bangla including Durga Puja in October, followed by Kali Puja (Diwali), the Kolkata International Film festival in November, the Kolkata Christmas Carnival in December and the Sangeet Mela in January.

The tourism department is also planning to organise a River Festival in January for which an MoU has been signed with the British Council and the UK Government.

Apart from these, the Department is also focussed on promoting the State’s cuisines in a huge way.

Regarding cruise tourism, which is growing for the past five to six years, the Tourism Department plans to take on two more vessels, adding to the already existing four, along with two houseboat-type vessels which can be used for meetings. Besides in Kolkata, houseboats would also be floated on water bodies in Mukutmanipur and Chandannagar.

Kolkata Police ensuring security of the elderly during Durga Pujo

As part of Pronam, Kolkata Police’s initiative for senior citizens, special instructions are being issued to the elderly so that they can keep themselves safe during the period of Durga Pujo.

While the people are involved in revelry, miscreants can take the opportunity to attempt to steal from houses. Elderly people are especially vulnerable, and hence certain measures are being taken.

Last year, the police had distributed leaflets across the city to make people aware. To make the exercise more effective this time, police personnel have started interacting directly with senior citizens to make them aware of the issues.

Among the instructions being given are –

* Not to keep too much money or costly jewellery at home
* Keep any valuables in bank lockers
* Keep house properly locked if going out, and even otherwise, especially at night
* Inform local police station when going out of the city

Like last year, this year too Kolkata Police would be organising trips to local puja pandals for the members of the initiative, Pronam. Additionally this time, the trips would also include those who are not members of Pronam.

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.

 

Achievements of Youth Services and Sports Dept

On the occasion of International Day of University Sport, let us take a look at the primary achievements of Bangla’s Youth Services and Sports Department over the last eight years, when Trinamool Congress has been in power.

* Bengal Football Academy (Khardah)

* Bengal Archery Academy (Jhargram)

* Bengal Tennis Academy (Salt Lake)

* 27 youth hostels (with facility for online booking)

* 15 youth hostels under construction

* Multi-gyms in 3,565 schools and colleges

* 684 mini indoor games complexes

* Development of 398 playgrounds

* Financial aid provided to 25,425 clubs and other organisations

* During the regime of this Government, 20 mountaineers have successfully climbed Mount Everest

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.

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.