Bangla Govt starts eight new bus routes for Kolkata & suburbs

On August 17, the State Government started eight more bus routes covering Kolkata and its suburbs. West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC) would be running the buses on these routes.

AC midi buses would be run on six routes and non-AC buses on two. Thirty-eight AC buses would run on the six routes and four non-AC on the other two.

The six AC routes are: AC 35 (Milk Colony-New Town Shapoorji Pallonji), AC 36 (New Town-Barasat), AC 38 (Chiria More-Ecospace Business Park), AC 30S (Ultadanga Station- New Town Shapoorji Pallonji), AC 2B (Rathtala-Ballygunge) and AC 30 (Lake Town-Howrah).

The two non-AC routes are MX 3 (Kolkata Station-Airport Gate No. 1) and S 14D (Salt Lake GD Terminus-Garia).

Source: Bartaman

Boost for Kolkata greenery: KMC gets sprayers to clean trees

On Friday , the Kolkata Municipa Corporation (KMC) launched four carbon-removing vehicles to clean the trees.

These vehicles, which are fitted with pumps, will be used to spray water on trees and roadside plants.

Debasish Kumar, the mayor in-council member overseeing the KMC parks department, credited Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for influencing the civic body in introducing these machines to protect and enhance greenery of the city.

“These ma chines will help carbon-soaked plants to produce more oxygen,” he added.

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who inaugurated the special service, narrated a story behind buying these machines.

“Once I visited a garden in the city and noticed that the garden had lost its greenery due to pollution. I decided to water the trees regularly and when I visited the place again after two weeks, I saw the garden had turned into lushy green place. I got an idea to introduce such machines for watering trees and plants to bring back their shine,” he said.

The civic body would invest Rs 2 crore to buy eight more machines in phases, the mayor added.

According to a KMC official, these vehicles will be on Kolkata streets everyday in the morning.The drivers have been assigned in contract basis.

 

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গাছের পাতা কার্বনমুক্ত করতে নতুন উদ্যোগ কলকাতা পুরসভার

গাছের পাতাকে সবুজ এবং কার্বনমুক্ত রাখতে শুক্রবার নতুন উদ্যোগ নিল কলকাতা পুরসভা।

পানীয় জলের গাড়িগুলিতেই জেনারেটর ও মোটর, পাইপ বসিয়ে পাতা ধোয়ার গাড়ির রূপ দেওয়া রয়েছে।

কলকাতা পুরসভার মেয়র পারিষদ দেবাশিস কুমার জানান, “মুখ্যমন্ত্রী মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়ের নির্দেশে কলকাতাকে স্বচ্ছ-সুন্দর ও সবুজ করে তোলার জন্য এটি আর একটি পদক্ষেপ”।

তিনি আরও বলেন, “এই পাম্পগুলো গাছের পাতাকে কার্বনমুক্ত করে সেগুলিকে আরও অক্সিজেন মুক্ত করতে সাহায্য করবে”।

শুক্রবার কার্বন রিমুভার পাতা পরিষ্কারের গাড়ির উদ্বোধন করলেন কলকাতা পুরসভার মেয়র শোভন চ্যাটার্জি।

মেয়র বলেন, “কলকাতার গাছগুলোর সবুজ রঙ ও উজ্জ্বলতা ফিরিয়ে আনার জন্য আমরা এই মাশিন চালু করার কথা ঠিক করি। এই মেশিন গুলোর জন্য বরাদ্দ করা হয়েছে ২ কোটি টাকা”।

WB Govt organises three-phased Chhatro-Yuva Utsav

The Youth Services Dept of the West Bengal Government is organising the Chhatro-Yuva Utsav like every year. Conceptualized by the West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee, the student-youth festival received tremendous impulse even from the remote areas of Jangalmahal.

Competitions and different cultural activities will be held at three levels: blocks and boroughs, district and state level.

The three phased festival that kicked off on December 10, 2015 will first be held at block/ municipality/ corporation/ notified area and borough level, till December 15, 2015.

From December 20-23, the competitions will be held at district level and from January 2-4, 2016, competitions will be held at state level.

‘Smart’ kiosks in Bidhannagar for citizens

In a ‘smart’ move, the Bidhannagar municipal corporation on Saturday opened a kiosk at the Mayor’s ward office in Salt Lake where residents will be able to contact him as well as the municipal commissioner through video-conferencing, submit building plans for sanction and pay their property taxes.

The civic authorities plan to introduce a smart card for all households of the township with in the next three months, using which residents will be able to know everything about municipal service and property taxes and pay the taxes through a common portal set up at the kiosk.

The next such smart kiosk will be opened at the City Centre mall and subsequently , at all the ward offices in Salt Lake.

As part of the initiative, the officials recently put up a 10 km canvas across the township, inviting residents to write or draw their suggestions to develop Salt Lake into a Smart City; it has been holding seminars for citizens and distributing feedback forms to homes, asking for their suggestions.

 

Image source: snipview.com

Elections are a festival of democracy: Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal Chief Minister today met the press at Nabanna. She took questions from the media on a range of topics:

On corporation election

Democracy has returned to Bengal after 34 years. The corporation election this year was the most peaceful in recent times. I extended thanks to all after corporation elections. Not just my party.

We do not want anyone to take law into their own hands. We want peaceful polls. I appeal to people to cast their votes freely tomorrow. I love people. It is my duty to work for them. It is my responsibility.

Administration will perform their duties as per law. Elections are a festival of democracy. People are God in democracy. No one has any right to insult people to satisfy their ego.

On smear campaign by media

Some media houses are spinning false stories to mislead people. They are trying to influence them. They must prove their allegations against Trinamool. They are trying to incite and provoke. They are spreading falsehoods.

Some people are using shortcut methods of appearing in media. What history of serving people do they have? One can get temporary publicity through shortcut methods. There will be no long term result out of that.

Results of municipal polls

Whatever the results will be, let us wait till EVMs are opened. Let us not speculate beforehand. I have full faith in people. They have the final say in a democracy.

We hope people will shower us with their blessings based on the work we have done in the last few years. Even in Bongaon and Krishnaganj we increased our margins.

Centre is taking away all our funds. Despite all odds we have performed well for the sake of people.

Problems faced by potato farmers

We have taken several initiatives for the potato farmers. We have written to Centre to waive their loans. Ours is the only government that meets every fortnight with the task force on agriculture to keep a check on prices. When potato prices were touching Rs 60 in other states, we sold them at Rs 14/kg.

Land acquisition

Land is an asset. Enough farmlands have been acquired. We must conserve land for agriculture for food security. We must support our farmers. They also have plans for their families. They have hopes and aspirations.

Sultan Ahmed raises Question on Revival of Sick PSUs

Sawal hai sick PSU. Deshbhar me 65 Public Sector Undertakings me 11 Bengal me ateh hai – Tyre Corporation, National Jute Manufacturing, Hindustan Cable, Burn Standard.

Desh ke awal PSUs me inka shumar kisi jamane me hota tha. Lekin aaj unke hazaro hazar workers bhukmari me unke din guzar rahe hai.

Is sarkar ne bahut hi swatchata and inamdari sath jo coal auction wagera ka kaam shuru kiya hai, kya is tarah ka parikalpana hai ane wale dino me yeh PSUs ko bhi auction ke zariye ho, yea FDI lakar ho – Foreign Direct Investment lakar ho inko revive karne hai kyuki yeh dekha ja raha hai hazaro hazar crore rupaiya salana kharch hote hai, tankhaye di jati hai, lekin kam kuch nehi ho rahe hai.

Kya sarkar ne koi parikalpana banaya hai, mai maniye mantri se puchna chahata hu.

 

Translation :

I would like raise a Question on Revival of Sick PSUs. In the Country there are about 65 public sector undertakings out of which 11 are in Bengal – Tyre Corporation, National Jute Manufacturing, Hindustan Cable, Burn Standard. At one point of time they were leading PSUs of the Country. But now, thousands of their workers are living in hunger and poverty.

This Government with a lot of transparency and honesty has undertaken projects like coal auction etc. Does it have any such plans in the near future to auction these PSUs or bring in FDI to revive these industries, as thousands of rupees are spent, but there is no outcome.

I would like to question the Minister what is the Government’s plan on this?