The Bengal Government publication, West Bengal, has published a special supplement (February-May 2018), titled Development at its Best Wins the Panchayat.
The issue focuses on the development in various sectors in Bengal that have been brought about by the Trinamool Congress Government.
The supplement has been brought out in both English and Bengali.
The English version of the book can be accessed by clicking here.
The State Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister has announced the setting up of a first-of-its-kind autism township project in Bengal.
At the press conference, he also said investment proposals worth Rs 39,000 crore have come in the urban development and infrastructure sector during the just-concluded Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS).
According to the minister, the autism township will not only be the first such in India but in the entire world. There will be a hospital, a residential complex, a school, a day-care centre, a conference hall and training facilities, all pertaining to autism, under one roof.
The township will come up on 50 acres in Shirakole on Diamond Harbour Road, near Usthi in the South 24 Parganas district. It will be constructed by a private company at an investment of Rs 600 crore, and will be ready within four years.
The joint managing managing director of the company has said that it is also planning to set up a college which will churn out qualified professionals working in the area of autism.
Source: Millennium Post
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written a strong letter to the Union Ministry of Steel against the Central Government’s decision to shift the headquarters of Hindustan Steelworks Limited, a profitable PSU, from Kolkata to New Delhi.
Not just that, there are also plan to lay off a large number of workers, including many permanent ones. Naturally, they are very worried and the people’s Chief Minister has not held back at expressing her deep discontent at this decision.
The issue was earlier raised by Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha too but no satisfactory answer came from the Central Government. The Labour Commissioner had also hauled up the management of the company for the decision of laying off workers, but the management has not responded.
Not just writing a letter, the Chief Minister has instructed her party’s MPs to again raise the issue in Parliament.
Children have been an area of special focus for the Trinamool Congress Government. Under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bengal has been among the best performers in terms of infant mortality rate, and under-5 mortality rate, and in institutional delivery too.
The State Government has a comprehensive maternal leave structure. However, the importance of fathers during the phase of the birth of a child and during the period following that has been recognised too by the Government.
Following the initiative of Mamata Banerjee, the Bengal Government has shown the way to other States by instituting paternity-cum-child care leave in 2016. A cumulative period of 30 days is granted for the purpose for all State Government employees, Panchayat & other Local Bodies, Boards, sponsored/non-Govt aided Schools and Colleges, State-aided Universities & Companies, Corporations, Undertakings, etc.
The image is representative (Source)
The Bengal Government is planning to impart skill training to 2.5 lakh unemployed rural youths in the state to enable them earn livelihood without migrating to cities, the Self-Help Group and Self-Employment Minister has said.
He said the training programme by the concerned department would be conducted with an integrated approach, combining with various State welfare schemes to skill the youths across 10,000 villages.
At the end of the training, the department will provide them assistance in the form of resources like building hatcheries and goat farms, greenhouses (where they can start horticulture or cultivation of herbs), etc.
The department has identified 10,000 villages from 1,030 gram panchayats across the State. Initially, 25 youths from each of these villages will be given training. So, a total of 2.5 lakh youths will be skilled.
Source: Business Standard
The State Finance Department’s e-pension system, a revolutionary project which has also been nominated for the Skoch Award, has so far ensured initiation of pension of more than 6,000 retired employees, without delay of a single day after retirement.
Now even school teachers, employees of panchayat and civic bodies will be a part of this system too. With this initiative, an employee now receives his or her Pension Payment Order (PPO) through email, 15 days ahead of retirement.
With the introduction of the e-pension system, an employee just needs to scan all documents and upload it through a portal, the link of which is available on the website of the Finance Department . An application number gets generated as soon as the employee uploads the same. Using the application number, the employee can even track which particular stage his or her application is passing through.
The concerned officials take minimum time in clearing the files and at least 15 days before retirement, the employee gets an email with directions to go to the concerned treasury to provide details of the pension account where it will get deposited.
Source: Millennium Post
The Bengal Government has started using GPS and GIS to create real-time interactive maps of the Sundarbans region. These technologies would help keep a ‘smart’ eye on the entire biosphere – forest cover, land use, illegal activities, etc.
Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based radio navigation system that provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver while geographic information system (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyse, manage and present spatial or geographic data. GIS accuracy depends upon source data, and it is here that the accuracy of GPS comes into use.
The surveillance system implemented by the Forest Department uses GPS to capture the data and GIS tools (softwares) to analyse that data. The information being collected, which will be on a continuous basis, is helping the Government to keep track of detailed data on forest cover (number and types of trees, their exact locations, even information on trees cut down) and human habitation, nature of an area, locations of coves and bays, etc. Importantly too, all data would be updated on a real-time basis.
The Forest Department officials are using these data along with the existing ground maps to create a comprehensive database of the region. This method of data compilation would eventually be used to cover the whole of Bengal.
The Sundarbans forest in Bengal comprises of the Matla, Raidighi, Ramganga, Namkhana, Bakkhali and Bhagabatpur forest ranges. The mangrove cover comprises of 77,243 hectares and the wildlife sanctuary, 60,000 hectares. Eco-tourism is permitted on an area comprising of a little more than 27,000 hectares.
The data is also being made available for use by other departments. According to the Chief Conservator of Forests, Bengal, who is overseeing the whole project, the data would be a big help for departments like Tourism and Land and Land Reforms.
Bengal Chief Minister has once again raised the issue of Central deprivation alleging the BJP Government has held back its rightful Rs 10,000 crore earmarked for development.
In the recent weeks the Chief Minister has shot off at least three letters to the Centre demanding clearance of her State’s dues amounting to about Rs 9,959 crore under 16 heads.
According to officials in the State Finance Department the Centre is yet to clear Rs 609 crore — due on account of good performance. Besides, the State has also demanded its due of Rs 3830 crore on account of Sarva Shiksha Aviyan and Rs 790 crore under Mid Day Meal scheme.
Besides there are a number of other schemes under which the State has been deprived of its lawful grants from the Centre, sources said. Accordingly huge amount of money is due under Urban Renewal Mission, National Urban Employment Scheme, Swacchh Bharat and other programmes.
“This is a blatant denial of State rights. The people of Bengal are being deprived. We are not begging for funds. We are only demanding our dues. The Centre will have to keep in mind that the people of the States pay taxes and out of those taxes the States get their dues for development of their people,” the Chief Minister has said wondering whether Bengal is being deprived because of its political preference.
The State Forest Department is going to impose strict restrictions on the usage of plastic material in the parks that are owned by the department. The Forest Minister announced this decision during a programme organised on the occasion of World Environment Day at Central Park in Salt Lake, Kolkata.
Visitors will not be allowed to enter parks with any plastic items or bags. The step has been taken to protect the environment of the parks. Besides throwing away packets inside parks, it is also often seen that people dump plastic bags and other items in the waterbodies inside the parks, which in turn cause damage to the animals and plants in the water.
The Forest Department would also urge the stalls situated near the parks not to sell items in plastic packets to the people.
Extensive awareness campaigns would also be carried out by the department against the use of plastic items, which disrupt the ecological balance. Through these campaigns, the ill-effects of plastic items would be explained.
The State Government is already doing a lot to reduce the harm caused by plastics. It has taken steps to reduce pollution caused by plastics and polythene bags by cleaning drains and water bodies at regular intervals.
Source: Millennium Post
Bengal is leading the country in eradicating the instances of child labour. Over the last three years, only in Bengal has there been an appreciative decrease in crimes related to child labour. This fact came out in a report presented by the concerned Union Minister in Parliament on March 27.
The State-wise list of the number of crimes concerned with child labour from 2014 to 2016 was presented, according to which, during this period, the law has been moved against only 42 people in Bengal.
Significantly too, during the above-mentioned period, there have been 1,131 operations in the State to rescue children illegally engaged in labour.
