June 2015 – Page 4 – All India Trinamool Congress

Sabuj Sathi – Bengal Govt’s new scheme for students

Posted on June 22, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

During one of her district tours, a young boy had asked West Bengal Chief Mamata Banerjee: “I study in school; if girls can get bicycles for travelling to schools, why can’t boys?”

This had planted a seed in her head. The thought has at last led to a happy conclusion: ‘Sabuj Sathi’ – a project wherein all school-going children in West Bengal are going to be gifted bicycles by the State Government. The Finance Department has already sanctioned the money; the distribution via schools is going to start soon.

This beautiful name for the project came to the Chief Minister’s mind while on her way from Darjeeling to Bagdogra Airport. The rain-drenched sylvan mountains piqued her creativity; she began penning poems for children. Thus was born the name ‘Sabuj Sathi’ – ‘Sabuj’, the word for ‘green’ also implies ‘children’ in Bengali, and ‘sathi’ means ‘companion’, hence ‘Sabuj Sathi’ or ‘children’s companion.’ The Chief Minister has created the logo for the project as well. It consists of a young boy running, with two spinning bicycle wheels alongside his legs.

One of the landmark schemes of the Trinamool Congress Government, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been that of distributing bicycles to girl students, so that they can travel safely. Now distributing bicycles is going to be extended to all students, marking another high in the State Government’s constant efforts towards improving the state of education.

Abhishek Banerjee to begin district tours today in the run up to 21 July rally

Posted on June 22, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Trinamool Youth Congress President and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee will start visiting the districts from today campaigning for the participation of people across the State for the Shahid Divas rally on 21 July.

The Trinamool Youth Congress President will be holding rallies in different parts of South Bengal from Kolkata to Murshidabad.

Today, he will be holding a rally on the grounds of Basirhat College in North 24 Parganas, from 2 PM onwards.

On 24 June he will hold a rally at Ranaghat in Nadia and on June 26, he will hold another rally at Baharampur. He will be holding similar rallies at Bardhaman, Purulia, Kushmandi, Panshkura, Jainagar, Howrah and Kolkata.

Hospitals in Bengal to get 17000 beds more

Posted on June 22, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The West Bengal government will be adding 17,000 hospital beds this year to the existing 63,000 to boost delivery of health care facilities.

During 2015-16, we will add another 17,000 beds which will cost Rs 2,600 crore. Taking into account the private sector, total beds in the state is set to cross 1,20,000 by this year.

The total number of beds thus will increase to 80 thousand. 34 super multi-speciality hospitals have been planned in the state. Of this, one will come up in August this year and six more will be in place during 2016-17. The state is also focussing on improving the cancer care facility here. Improving the cancer care facility will cost another Rs.250 crore.

The government will be procuring linear accelerators in all government medical colleges which will be used for radiotherapy. The government has tied up with a Singaporean healthcare institute which will support and train the state government’s staff.

The outpatient footfalls in the state have been registered at 12 million a year. A number of diseases have been brought under control in the state and some of them will soon be eradicated. Diseases like Kala-azar, philaria and leprosy will soon be eradicated from West Bengal while dengue and malaria have been kept under control.

Rs 100 Cr for welfare of tea garden workers

Posted on June 20, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The Mamata Banerjee government will set up a Rs 100 crore corpus fund for the welfare of the 2.62 lakh tea plantation workers in 283 registered tea estates in Bengal.

Labour minister Moloy Ghatak tabled the West Bengal Tea Plantation Employees’ Welfare Fund Bill, 2015, which was passed in assembly on Thursday .

The minister pointed out that many tea estates not belonging to corporate houses or established tea families often violate provisions of the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, that provides for free housing, medical facilities, primary education, water supply , electricity and food grains to workers.

Smaller tea gardens deny these rights, saying they don’t have the money for it. This is why an inter-ministerial committee set up by the Centre and governments of Bengal and Assam recommended that the state share some of the statutory social security measures.

Accordingly , the government will sanction soft loans from the corpus fund to defaulting employers to help them discharge their statutory responsibilities. Children of workers will be given scholarships to study in technical institutes.The corpus may also be used to grant incentives to investors who come forward to take over sick or closed tea gardens.

Kalyani Analytics Hub raises industry hope

Posted on June 20, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The proposed analytics city in Kalyani is likely to attract investments of more than Rs 3,000 crore in next three years. In the first phase, being developed over 52 acres off Kalyani Expressway, the hub will accommodate academic, residential and commercial centers apart from real estate projects.

According to Kallol Dutta, the immediate past president of BCCI, the original plan is to set it up on 250 acres. In that case, the investment will go up to Rs 6,000 crore.

Holistic solution to consumers

While MNCs in the field of banking, insurance, retail, telecom and automotive industries have in-house data and analytics facilities, there is no analytic hub that can provide holistic solution to analytics consumers. While a number of small boutique analytics service providers have come up in the country, the state is looking at bringing the majors under one umbrella.

With research facilities being proposed inside the city, there are proposals to tie up with the education institutions. Apart from universities in the country, efforts are on to tie up with foreign universities. Apart from organizing road shows, chief minister Mamata Banerjee will showcase the project during her visit to London.

Data and analytics, which require strong science, puts India in an advantageous position with a ready talent pool. “We have a large talent pool in Bengal who work in other cities. The analytics city will have access to the talent pool available within the state,” Sen said.

Excerpted from a story that appeared on The Times of India on 20.06.2015

‘Biswa Bangla’ brand to be taken overseas

Posted on June 20, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday said the ‘Biswa Bangla’ brand, under which all handloom and handicraft products of the state are being sold, would soon be taken overseas.

Stores selling products under the brand would be opened in London and China and talks are on in this regard, Ms Banerjee said after inaugurating a ‘Biswa Bangla’ store at Bagdogra airport near here.

This is the fifth ‘Biswa Bangla’ store. The first four had been opened in Kolkata – at the NSC Bose International Airport, Dumdum Domestic Airport, Dakshinapan shopping complex and Biswa Bangla Haat at Rajarhat.

These stalls would revive handloom and handicrafts industries of the state and those involved in these industries would be benefited, Banerjee said.

“Biswa Bangla has achieved success. Foreign and international tourists are buying its products from the stall in Kolkata airport,” she said.

Products like dress materials and readymade garments in traditional Bengali handloom, household items, food and sweets, Darjeeling tea, handicrafts from various districts of the state other items are being sold in these stores.

Earlier, these items were sold by various organisations under different brand names. The Mamata Banerjee government has brought them under a single umbrella organisation and brand name, ‘Biswa Bangla’.

WB CM inaugurates Biswa Bangla store at Bagdogra Airport

Posted on June 19, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the outlet of the Biswa Bangla chain of stores at Bagdogra Airport today.

The government-run chain of stores is the brainchild of West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee and has been set up by the Micro and Small-scale Enterprises and Textiles Department to showcase all handicrafts, handloom and other traditional and famous products of the State.

For the first time, all exclusive products of Bengal, from sweets to muslin saris, have been made available under one umbrella. The marketing strategy is different from the familiar Manjusha or Tantuja stores.

Products

Sweets: Rosogolla, nolen gurersandesh, langcha and mihidana are the popular picks here.

This and that:

Darjeeling tea, apparel, amsotto and kasundi (both from Maldah), jute bags and brass and silver jewellery are available.
Jute bags with an ‘I love Bengal’ logo on them have been specially designed for the store.
Indigo-dyed saris are being produced by weavers in Nadia’s Phulia. The hand spun and hand-woven yarn is dyed in indigo and then woven into Jamdani saris.
Khadi shirts for men, silk kurtis for women, Kantha and Jamdani matka saris, and shawls are available at the store.
Special-edition CDs of Bengali folk music, Tagore, Nazrul and baul songs, and Mahsishasur Mardini have been produced for the store.

WB Govt eases trade license rules

Posted on June 19, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The West Bengal Government, on Wednesday, eased the rules to get a trade license in an effort to weed out procedural delays. From now on, people can get a provisional certificate for a year, pending all the regulatory approvals, immediately on application.

They will have a year to get the Permanent Enlistment Certificate, which will be valid for three years. At present, that licence is valid for only a year.

The Bill proposed by Urban Development Minister Mr Firhad Hakim in the State Assembly on Wednesday was supported by the opposition. Trade licence, an essential prerequisite to trade, own a shop or office premises, is granted by the municipal bodies for a fee of Rs 2,500. This licence has to be renewed every year for a fee.

According to the earlier procedure, a person had to formally apply to the municipal department and submit updated tax receipts, owner ship documents and consent letters or tenancy certificates for rented places along with the application. Professionals had to submit another set of documents to prove that their jobs were valid. This, however, was only one aspect.

For specific trades, a different set of regulatory approvals were also needed. To run a wine or liquour shop, it required an additional police and excise approval and for import-export units, separate approvals from customs, excise and appointing authorities were required. An applicant had to wait till all of these came through.

These things are long winding and take a lot of time -anything from three to six months. However, according to the amended laws, those under Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Howrah Municipal Corporation and other municipalities in the state, can log on to the web portal (or make a formal application over-the-counter) and pay the requisite fee.

If, prima facie, their documents are in order, it will immediately lead to the issuance of provisional certificates pending the statutory approvals. These certificates are valid for only a year and permanent certificates have to be obtained within that time.

“So no one has to wait. Multiple agencies have their own procedures for verification and this may take time. In the meantime, one can ply their trade with the provisional certificates,” the Urban Development Minister said.

Chinese tour operators to visit Bengal tourist spots for international promotion

Posted on June 19, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Around 20 tour operators from Kunming in China are coming to see the tourist spots of the West Bengal to promote tourism from that country to Bengal.

State Finance Minister Dr Amit Mitra recently led a delegation to participate in the third China South Asia Business Forum and Expo that was held from 11 to 13 June at Kunming to showcase Bengal as an investment-friendly state.

Dr Mitra said Chinese tourists go for bulk bookings. “We hope that the Chinese tour operators find the state a prospective tourist destination and inflow of Chinese tourists to Bengal increases,” he said. Moreover, there is a direct flight between Kolkata and Kunming and the journey takes just around two hours, he added.

This apart, the State Government has been allotted space in an industrial park in Kunming to showcase handicraft products from Bengal. It will be a permanent stall and it will help in making Bengal products available in Chinese markets.

Industrialists hopeful of CM’s London visit

Posted on June 19, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Industrialists in the state have pinned immense hope in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to London end of July which is aimed at inviting investment from industrialists of Europe.

On the invitation of British Prime Minister David Cameron, the West Bengal Chief Minister is leaving for London on July 27 along with a delegation of West Bengal Finance, Industries and Commerce Minister Dr Amit Mitra, senior government officials, industrialists – Sanjeev Goenka, Karan Paul to name a few – and three of her party MPs, Dev, Sugata Bose and Derek O’Brien.

“Winds of Change are blowing in West Bengal under the dynamic leadership of our Hon’ble Chief Minister. Her forthcoming visit to United Kingdom will prove to be a milestone in putting Bengal in International Radar. The visit of UK Prime Minister David Cameron in 2013, the first ever visit of any UK Prime Minister in Bengal itself raised the bars – the significance, Bengal now commands globally. Bengal which has a long historic association, relation and affinity with Britain will immensely benefit from this visit. There are many areas to embrace such as Infrastructural Development, Tourism, Education, River front beautification etc which can bring a radical change in Bengal. London known for its historic legacies is brimful of heritage buildings and edifices. The technology and knowhow adopted towards its restoration can be assimilated in maintenance of our Heritage Buildings. Modern London is also bustling with latest technological innovations and implementation which can pave the way for our infrastructural growth,” Sanjay Budhia, eminent industrialist of Kolkata, who is likely to accompany the Chief Minister said in a statement.

Echoed Harsh Neotia, another eminent industrialist, who is also going with the Chief Minister. ” The visit will play a big role in creating interest among foreign investors about West Bengal and the investment opportunities here,” Neotia told Echo of India. Prior to London, Mamata visited Singapore where she invited industrialists of that country to invest in West Bengal.