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 Police wants to introduce more modern policing methods. Towards that end, it has planned to completely re-do its website as well as remodel its social media approach.
The website is being completely overhauled. The various district police administrations as well as the State’s railway police administrations will be linked to the website. All information will be updated, including important cases solved and the list of most wanted criminals.
As for social media (Facebook and Twitter especially), the plan is to regularly post updates regarding various activities and fight fake news actively. The latter is becoming increasingly important in the field of cyber-policing.
The idea is also to examine the ways Kolkata Police has successfully built up a large following on its social media accounts and implement certain relevant ideas.
Source: Ei Samay
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.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written a strong letter to the Union Commerce & Industry Ministry regarding the Central Government’s decision to sell off Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a company with a long and illustrious history.
Though it was not doing well for some time, in the last few years it has turned around quite a bit. The company earned profits during the 2016-17 fiscal, which almost doubled during the 2017-18 fiscal (an increase of 97.5 per cent). In this state of things, what is needed is more help from the Centre rather than selling it off.
Hence, the Chief Minister has written in the letter that the decision to sell it off should be immediately taken back. She has also written that the Bengal Government would provide all manner of help to build Bengal Chemicals up into a Maharatna company.
The company also has units in Mumbai and Kanpur. The Centre had previously too tried to sell the company. It was mainly Mamata Banerjee’s efforts which prevented that from happening.
Another point raised by the Chief Minister in her letter is the fact that the Kolkata High Court is yet to decide on the case filed by the workers and unions of the company against the Centre’s decision to sell it off.
Then, the company is engaged in manufacturing fair-priced essential goods for the common people. Hence, it can never be termed a ‘low-priority enterprise’, as the Centre has signified it.
Mamata Banerjee in her letter has also written about the illustrious history of the company and its crucial role in the movement for Indian-made goods during the colonial period.
All in all, the Chief Minister, through coherent arguments, has clearly indicated in the letter that it is an absolutely wrong decision to sell off Bengal Chemicals, as it is a profitable company now.
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)
Café Ekante, the popular restaurant at Eco Park in New Town, will organise a host of programmes to celebrate World Cup football in a befitting manner. The programmes will be inaugurated today, when the World Cup begins in Russia.
The restaurant, named by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been decorated with flags of the participating countries, lights and jerseys to create an apt ambience. There will be a mini goalpost and the guests who can score two goals will get discount on food.
The guests will have mouth-watering dishes that are specialties of the countries that are participating on that day. For example, on the day when England will face its opponent, there will be fish and chips. Similarly, there will be special dishes from Brazil, Argentina, France and Germany.
The guests will be given coupons where they can write the name of the team that they think will lift the World Cup. If their prediction comes true, they will get a 20 per cent discount on their bill, within one month from the day of the final.
A giant screen will be put up at Café Ekante during the semi-finals and final. Another giant screen will be put up at New Town Business Club during those days, to help the members enjoy football. The Business Club too, like the restaurant, will be decorated with jerseys, lights and photos of the heroes of the World Cup.
Café Ekante has become a very popular restaurant in a very short time for its quality and variety of food, and ambience. And Kolkata has always been the ‘Football Capital of India’. The passion for the game in the city is well-known, both in India and in many places outside. These two aspects combined is expected to make the festivities at Café Ekante a big hit.
Source: Millennium Post
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.
