Month: January 2019

Trinamool Youth Congress President and MP Abhishek Banerjee today addressed a public meeting at Falakata in Alipurduar district, ahead of the mega rally at Brigade Parade Grounds on January 19.

He said, “This Brigade rally is significant and different from the previous one held in 2014. Several national leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav, Stalin, Shatrughan Sinha, Farooq Abdullah and others will attend the rally to strengthen Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s political fight to show the exit door to the BJP and establish a secular government at the Centre.”

He added that Trinamool is the only party which has not bowed down before the intimidation tactics of the BJP. Mamata Banerjee has not surrendered before the BJP, Abhishek maintained.

“In 2016, Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Madarihat. He made a slew of promises for the workers of tea gardens. But those remain unfulfilled. It is Mamata Banerjee who declared Alipurduar a separate district. She constructed new roads, instituted schemes from birth to death. She has fulfilled all the promises she made to the people,” the youth leader said.

Abhishek also referred to the drubbing BJP received in the recently-concluded Vidhan Sabha elections in five States. He said, while the BJP claims to be the flag-bearer of Hinduism, they lost the elections in three States with 92 per cent Hindu population. He added that the work done by the Bangla Government for Hindus was unmatched. The State Government works for all communities, without discrimination.

Abhishek said, “They indulge in the politics of religion, we practice the politics of action. We give jobs, they organise riots. We provide food, they cater to caste. We provide clothes, they distribute arms. We create employment, they politicise deaths. This is the difference between Trinamool and BJP.

Through several catchy slogans like ‘Dak diyechen Mamata, Brigade Chalo janata” he called upon everyone to attend the mega rally on January 19 at Brigade grounds.

The State Government has decided to extend some of the basic services of public sector banks (PSB) to the cooperative banks of Bangla. This was announced by the Cooperation Minister recently while addressing a seminar in Bardhaman.

He said that this upgrading of services would be extended to cooperative banks in a step-by-step manner. As the first step, 2,631 cooperative societies have been selected.

These cooperative societies would get customer service points, or CSPs. Among the facilities to be provided at the CSPs would be net banking, online money transfer through RTGS method (which implies instant money transfer) and ATMs. Once the CSPs become active, customers would also be able to avail SMS alert facility.

All these facilities for faster and simplified banking would strengthen the rural economy of the State.

Source: Aajkaal

To control the amount of water being used in fields by farmers in order to prevent wastage, the State Government is distributing a type of sprinkler called raingun sprinkler for free. Only the GST amount of Rs 4,050 has to be paid by the farmers. The cost of these sprinklers is Rs 31,000.

These sprinklers are in the shape of guns, hence the name raingun. These are used in the tea gardens of north Bengal for a long time. Golf courses also employ these systems.

Using these, a lot of water can be saved. The amount of water, drawn using submersible pumps, which can be cultivate 40 to 50 bighas, the same amount of water, by the usage of rainguns, can be used to cultivate 100 bighas.

The reason is that a substantial amount of the water spread on to fields which is drawn by pumps is not really required. This extra water which collects in the fields simply evaporates, and is this thus wasted, or, in worse cases, leads to the birth of harmful organisms like harmful fungi and bacteria.

The overdrawing of water is also lowering the height of the water table to dangerous levels in many places across the State.

Thus rainguns would provide several benefits: more cultivation with less water, hence, lower cost of cultivation; less pressure on the water table, hence, availability of more water during dry seasons.

Source: Ei Samay

The State Government is giving tourists another gift – a direct road connection between Kolkata and the popular island of Bakkhali, located in the Sundarbans delta in South 24 Parganas district.

Till now, tourists have had to cross the Hatania-Doania River aboard a vessel; now a bridge is being built so that vehicles can directly reach Bakkhali, and the town of Fraserganj on the same island, another popular spot.

The part of the bridge over the river is 340 m in length; combined with the approach roads on both sides, the total length of the bridge comes to 3.4 km.

Source: Sangbad Pratidin

Bangla Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today announced that the retirement age of college and university professors will be increased. The CM made this announcement at the convocation of University of Calcutta (CU).

She said that the retirement age of professors will be increased from 62 to 65 while that of Vice-Chancellors and pro-Vice Chancellors will be increased to 70.

The CM also announced that a Chair each will be instituted in the name of Mahatma Gandhi and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar at CU. She said on January 10, she will lay the foundation stone of Kanyashree University at Nadia.

On the occasion, the CM also criticised the lack of courtesy displayed at some educational institutions. Referring to the incident when the convocation of Presidency University had to be held at Raj Bhavan, the CM said, “This is shocking”.

The World Bank has praised the panchayat system in Bangla and has held it up as a model for other States to follow.

The success of the panchayat system is also a result of the extended financial aid programme of the World Bank, called Institutional Strengthening of gram Panchayats Programme (ISGPP). It started in the State on July 1, 2016.

As part of this programme, the World Bank would be spending a total of Rs 1,350 crore for all the panchayats together. The money has to be spent in full by 2022.

However, to the State Government’s credit, 49.4 per cent, or almost half, of the target had been achieved in two years, according to a Central Government report. Hence, the total target would be achieved much before the original deadline.

According to officials of the Panchayats Department, a recent tripartite meeting was held recently in New Delhi, where representatives from the Central Government, the World Bank and various State Governments took part. It was at this meeting that the World Bank told the Central Government that Bangla was the model that the rest of the States need to follow.

Source: Ei Samay

As per a recent decision, which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called revolutionary, the process of granting of mutation of a property has been made online. As a result, mutation certificates would be issued within 48 hours.

A recent cabinet meeting (December 24) headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made the decision, which is another major step in the State Government’s gradual easing of property-related rules and transactions.

In all property transactions, mutation, or transfer of title, is a mandatory process, in which the buyer transfers the ownership title of the property he just bought.

The Chief Minister said that around 12 lakh people in Bangla get their properties mutated every year, and hence the making online of the system is a big scope for common people to get their work done with ease. The process of online mutation will also help in keeping the character of the land unchanged.

The new process of getting mutation done online consists of the following basic steps:

• Applicant to log in and register his/her name and other details
• Documents to be uploaded
• Mutation fees to be paid through bank
• Land & Land Reforms Dept will get the information online and verify the uploaded documents
• Mutation certificate to be issued within 48 hours

It may be mentioned that through the Records of Rights system introduced by the Trinamool Congress Government, land records in all 341 blocks of the State have been digitised.

Source: The Times of India

One of Bangla’s best government hospitals, Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) got even better with the addition of a renovated facility – a state-of-the-art labour room. It was inaugurated towards the end of December.

The labour room, located in the Eden Building, has been given a new shape along the lines of what is found in the best hospitals in the country. On an average, 14,000 babies every year are born here.

As many as 14 tables have been put inside the labour room and a 12-bed observation ward has also been thrown open. Three latest stepdown beds have been put in place.

A seven-bed High-Dependency Unit (HDU) has also been installed, which will be extremely handy for the gynaecology department. Many new machines have been installed at the department too.

Of the 12 beds in the observation ward, two are fully remote-controlled. These ‘robot beds’, as they are called, would make the work of doctors and nurses easier as they would be able to control the movements of the beds from a distance; the patient would be able to use the remote too.

According to the medical superintendent of CMCH, for now, these two beds would be used for the purpose of normal delivery. But if needed, they can be used to transfer newborns to the ward or the HDU.

With the overhauling of the entire infrastructure at the labour room, the hospital will now be able to ensure best-in-class treatment for people from across Bangla.

Source: Millennium Post, Sangbad Pratidin