Tag: Kolkata

Trinamool forms seven-member committee for poll-related logistics

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Trinamool Chairperson Mamata Banerjee handed over the reins of all key pre-poll logistics to a collective team, which will steer the party towards the 2016 assembly elections. Trinamool Congress will have a seven-member committee to do it.

The Trinamool Congress Chairperson announced that all poll-related logistics will now be supervised by Yrinamool All India General Secretary Subrata Bakshi, Secretary-general Partha Chatterjee, senior leaders Subhendu Adhikari , Aroop Biswas and Firhad Hakim, South 24 Parganas District head Sovan Chatterjee Sovan Chatterjee and Trinamool Youth Congress President Abhishek Banerjee.

The party All India General Secretary said, “According to the EC directive, registration of new voters and deletion inclusion of new voters will take place within this three-month window in September-December. It is imperative that the work starts at the Block level. The various forms have been provided for additions, deletion of names and change of addresses. For any bulk deletion or anomalies of voters it should be immediately brought to our notice. We will take it up with EC.” he explained the rationale, “It to be seen that not a single person who had voted for Mamata Banerjee – and Trinamool Congress — is omitted out of the final rolls.”

Trinamool South 24 Parganas District head Sovan Chatterjee said, “The Chairperson had pointed out to me several times in the run-up to the KMC polls of mass deletion of voters. We too came across several people who said they had to return from the polling booth after their names got deleted from the electoral rolls. This can’t be allowed. If the problems are pointed out to us in time, we will fight out the cases with the EC. But once the deadline is over, nothing can be done. So the exercise has to be down with due diligence.”

The meeting at Nazrul Mancha was attended by MPs, MLAs, Ministers, zilla sabhadhipatis and block and district presidents.

28 parks in Kolkata to be illuminated with solar lights

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Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is taking a giant step to turn green compliant by installing panels to tap solar energy and illuminate 28 major parks and gardens.

With electricity bills shooting through the roof, KMC has asked the one of the leading institutions working on Renewable Energy, to design the project. Already, 50 solar poles have been installed at Deshapriya Park, which entailed a cost of Rs 40 lakh. The project will get Department of International development funding.

All solar street lighting systems that had come up earlier were battery-operated. But, it was for the first time in the country that a street lighting system is being generating power through solar panels having not battery. There is a micro-inverter that is being fixed with the panel that converts solar energy.

After monitoring the system since February this year, KMC authorities noticed a drastic 80% fall in electricity bill at Deshapriya Park. Around Rs 36,000 per month is being saved now at Deshapriya Park. Encouraged by the result, the KMC has taken the decision to light up 28 other parks, including Md Ali Park, College Square, Maddox square, Subhas Sarobar Park and others.

About Rs 35,000 to Rs 50,000 for big parks and Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 for medium-sized parks will be saved per month once solar lights are installed. Around Rs 8 crore roughly will be saved every year. But funding is an issue for which the KMC authorities have taken up the issue with state power minister Manish Gupta and a committee has been formed for the task.

The KMC electricity department has been entrusted with surveying the selected 28 parks to submit a report within a month and the authorities plan to start implementing the project from this year end.

Bengal observes ‘Nirmal Bangla Abhiyan’ on Independence Day

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All the elected representatives of the party, welfare groups and clubs in various parts of the State took up a cleanliness drive on August 15, 2015 as per the instructions of West Bengal Chief Minister. This Independence Day became special as Bengal observed Nirmal Bangla Abhiyan.

On Monday, before leaving for a 4-day visit to Delhi, the West Bengal Chief Minister had said that the cleanliness drive will be taken up between 11 AM and 12 Noon on August 15 in every corners of the State.

“West Bengal had embarked on the ‘Nirmal Bangla Abhiyan’ three years ago and we were the first ones in the country having undertaken such a campaign,” Ms Banerjee had said.

Incidentally, on a list of 476 cities ranked for cleanliness under the Swachch Bharat mission, West Bengal has done well with 25 in the top 100. Halisahar is among India’s top 10 cleanest cities.

Over 600 KMC parking lots being prepared to accommodate Taxis

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Starting September 1, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is transforming its designated parking lots into taxi stands. These free of-cost facilities are expected to bring down the refusal rate significantly as parking facilities would ensure minimum idle runs for cabbies and even make shorter runs profitable.

To hold taxi operators accountable, the civic body is planning to bring every parking lot under CCTV surveillance. The camera feed will be shared with local traffic police guard to rein in errant cabbies. This apart, introduction of hand-held parking meters will also keep private vehicles and parking lot operators on their toes.

Announcing the plan to introduce these meters by September, Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee said the device will bring transparency and make sure that there is no or little pilferage in the collection of parking fees by agencies.

“Each parking facility would accommodate at least two taxis and at best six taxis, depending on the size of the lot.But more taxis will be accommodated if they are closer to market or hospital so that people get taxis without hassle,“ said the Kolkata Mayor after a meeting with principal secretary (transport), the KMC Commissioner, the PVD director and other officials.

“Since a majority of parking lots are at prime locations, passengers can avail taxis easily. Idle run of taxis leave cabbies bleeding and force them to look for long-distance passengers so that their idle runs get compensated. But this prac tice is expected to stop now.

Also, there will be better signage and clear marking of each slot so that more cars are not packed into parking lots. A recent survey by KMC revealed that vehicles nearly three to four times of the designated figure get parked. Parking meters can be used to integrate on-street parking policy.

KMC will also go for construction of vertical automated parking lots in PPP model. The government has agreed for viability gap funding. Besides, the civic body will relay the road leading to Behala Flying Club as the motor-training hub of the public vehicle department, which will have test tracks of international standard, is coming up there.

 

KMC campaigns door to door, opens health camps to combat enteric outbreak

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Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) have decided to intensify surveillance at each household in low-lying pocket areas.

The spread of enteric diseases like diarrhoea and dermatitis in Kolkata as an aftermath of the flood-like situation in many parts of the city, civic authorities are going all out in their efforts to check their rise.

Beliaghata ID hospital reported around 100 patients on an average on daily basis since August 3 after the very heavy rainfall was recorded and subsided. 80% patients are Kolkata residents and only 20% are getting admitted from neighbouring districts.

The numbers getting admitted are causing concern for KMC’s health department officials monitoring the outbreak in the city. According to senior KMC doctors, in the wake of water-logging, there is always the possibility of stored water being contaminated coupled with personal hygiene resulting in episodes of acute diarrhoeal diseases.

“It is true Beliaghata ID hospital is getting a steady flow of patients with complaints of diarrhoea but the figure is not yet alarming to officially declare an outbreak. Only 41 patients are admitted as on date and a total of 1,100 patients have been treated in the last 10 days,” Atin Ghosh, member, mayor-in-council (health), said. KMC collected over 250 samples from different points in the city and in few places the reports were not satisfactory, denoting contamination in water.

Field workers are visiting door to door in affected wards and distributing anti-diarrhoeal drugs and ORS, and halogen tablets to disinfect drinking water. There is no shortage of anti-diarrhoeal drugs or ORS or halogen tablets. There is also no dearth of logistics support, sources said.

“We have visited 51,936 houses in 144 wards in Kolkata and have opened several health camps and our field workers have identified 1,100 patients suffering from diarrhoea and few patients suffering from dermatitis,” the MMiC (health) said.

KMC has cancelled holidays of health staffs of wards 1, 108, 109, 111 to 114, which are vulnerable areas.

Special teams have been formed to make visits at every doorstep in Tangra, Tiljala and Topsia that reports most diarrhoea cases round the year.

“In these wards, we would keep our ward health units open all the seven days for extra hours to distribute ORS, halogen tablets and derma ointments. We are also treating common cough and cold and viral fevers,” Ghosh said.

KMC is asking all Kolkatans to drink water only after boiling it.

Cleanliness drive across Bengal on Independence Day: WB CM

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West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Chairperson Ms Mamata Banerjee has instructed all the elected representatives of the party and welfare groups and clubs to take up a cleanliness drive on August 15, 2015. The District Magistrates in every districts of the State has been instructed to oversee the process being carried out successfully.

On Monday, before leaving for a 4-day visit to Delhi, the West Bengal Chief Minister said that the cleanliness drive will be taken up between 11 AM and 12 Noon in every corners of the State.

“West Bengal had embarked on the ‘Nirmal Bangla Abhiyan’ three years ago and we were the first ones in the country having undertaken such a campaign,” Ms Banerjee said when asked to comment on the PM’s ambitious countrywide cleanliness project, which has attracted global attention.

On a list of 476 cities ranked for cleanliness under the Swachch Bharat mission, West Bengal has done well with 25 in the top 100. Halisahar is among India’s top 10 cleanest cities.

Bengal shines in clean India survey, 25 urban bodies among top 100

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In the survey that assessed municipal areas for minimal open defecation and effective solid waste management, West Bengal has done exceptionally well, with 25 municipal areas in the state making it to the top 100 cities.

Halishahar was ranked 9th among cities while Kolkata was at rank 56, which was the best among the four metros. The list includes only Class I cities with a population of more than one lakh.

The ranking used three methodologies – primary data from the municipal bodies, field inspection and ground interaction with people.

The survey also assessed the status of septage management (disposal of sewage from septik tanks), waste water treatment, drinking water quality, surface quality of water bodies, and mortality due to water-borne diseases.

75,000 bicycles to be distributed to Kolkata students

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The West Bengal Government has decided to introduce the rural trend of distributing bicycles in urban areas. The backward welfare department would distribute 75,000 bicycles amongst Class 10 and Class 12 students of government and government-aided schools in Kolkata. The cycles may be distributed with the help of KMC.

The Kolkata Mayor also announced that the Rakhi Utsav will be celebrated in every ward of the KMC and it will soon specify the size of the stage to be erected and pictures of Rabindranath Tagore, Nazrul Islam and Swami Vivekananda to be garland and sweets distributed.

Workshops were also held for councillors on how to speed up schemes launched by the state government.

London-style transport coming to Kolkata soon

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The London trip has inspired the Mamata Banerjee government to revolutionize public transport in Kolkata, starting with an Oyster-card type multi-access system.

The planned ‘Kolkata Transport Card’ (KTC) will be valid on all modes of mass transport in the city — private and state bus, tram, ferry and the Metro.

The transport department has already started working on the ‘integrated fare management and ticketing system’ that will champion public transport and ease congestion.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has put this on her priority list and the first technology exploration meeting will be held at Netaji Indoor Stadium at 5 pm on Friday.

The transport department is exploring the PPP mode with a revenue sharing model, say sources.

What is KTC?

  • The KTC would be a credit-card-sized stored value smartcard that can hold single tickets or period tickets.
  • Unlike London, where you have to buy separate Oyster cards for river transport and land transport, KTC will be valid for all modes of travel, said an official.
  • Like the Metro smartcard, passengers will have to touch it on an electronic reader while entering and leaving a bus, tram or ferry in order to validate a journey.
  • Cards can be topped-up by cash payment or online. The transport department aims to encourage its use by offering some free rides.
  • It will reduce the number of transactions at ticket counters and do away with paper tickets.
  • Since people won’t have to queue up for tickets, the card will lead to faster dispersal of commuters.
  • It will also improve revenue transparency as the fare automatically goes through a payment gateway and gets credited in the bus/tram/ferry-operator’s account.
  • It will also help you track bus arrival times through the same technology used by app-cabs now.

Trinamool Chhatra Parishad gears up for August 28 rally

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Trinamool Congress All India General Secretary Subrata Bakshi chaired a meeting with the leaders of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) on Tuesday to discuss the organizing of the students rally on August 28, marking the foundation day of TMCP.

The August 28 TMCP foundation day rally is held at Rani Rashmoni Road and this year too, Trinamool Chairperson Ms Mamata Banerjee will address the rally.

The party General Secretary said that there are reports of problems regarding college admission as well as hooliganism, which is hampering the clean image of Trinamool Congress. He stated that at any given circumstance the party will go against the disciplinary measures of the educational campuses.

He reiterated that the State Assembly Elections being round the corner, the student activists should become more responsible and careful so that at no point, the image of the party is hampered.

Veteran Student leader and MLA Tapas Roy along with senior leaders like Baishanwar Chatterjee, Shankudeb Panda and the TMCP State President Ashok Rudra were present at the meeting.

It was decided that TMCP will conduct rallies in the districts to make the 28 August rally a successful one.