SINGUR RALLY OF THIRTY THOUSAND CALL FOR INDUSTRIALISATION

TURN AROUND OF MIND-SET NOTICEABLE AMONGST VILLAGERS

SINGUR, 3rd December,2008: The morning haze still hangs in shreds – the fertile rural earth is just being warmed up by the somewhat weak and yellow sunlight, and it is 3 December. We move around the villages in and out of the vicinity of Singur, and beyond, in the Anandanagar Gram Panchayat, and speak to the rural folk.

The CPI (M) activists and mass frontal workers-- plus their family members – even the kids had joined in, a typical Hooghly tradition – were in the midst of preparing to be in their best turn outs for the early afternoon pro-industrialisation rally of the Left mass organisations opposite the motor car factory, now dusted over, and with a somewhat forlorn look.

Red Flags and banners are being pressed carefully with hot iron with great care and then neatly folded. The flag poles and the thinner flag staffs are oiled and then wiped clean. Fresh coats of cheap paint are brushed on the letterings that the buntings, the flags, and the banners carry, words that have the equally cheap whitish-coloured ‘undercoat’ the last evening.

The banners simply call for industrialisation, and for a stronger unity of the kisans with all other sections of the working masses. Men, women, children—all are hard at work and perhaps all of them found my urbane, inquisitive-to the-point-of-being-dilettante approach somewhat irksome.

Nonetheless, they do bother to respond to my prying queries. After all, this is a known old face they see. ‘What is the rally for, comrades and brothers? Is it a paalta (reaction and response) to the rally of the Trinamulis the day earlier?’ The response border on anger – indeed, I find anger to be the sentiment of the hour in the villages I walk around – ‘no. it is not.’

‘We have not done right’, they say, in unison in most instances, ‘by voting in the Trinamulis, at the last Panchayat polls a few months back. They do not want us to have a life that is better. We shall call for development – both in our green fields and in the yards of the large factory grounds that resembled a kabristan. We shall make it come alive, we shall ask the Left Front government and the Party to start industrial ventures there and beyond, and we shall not rest till we have these done -- and now please go, and leave us be.’ We leave and the ageing heart is now pleasantly warm.

No wonder the rally called under the aegis of the CITU, the AIKS, the AIDWA, the DYFI, and the SFI on a large stretch of cropped land opposite the small motor car factory yard, draw more than thirty thousand people who lustily roar out when the speakers talk boldly about re-starting, if necessary from scratch, and making the Singur factory yards hum again with the whirr of the machines-- and the people do derisively hoot when the leaders recall the Trinamuli chief’s ‘homely tale’ about ‘uprooting the factory premises’ and ‘making it a cabbage-and-potato patch.’ The mood has turned.

The speakers included central committee members of the CPI (M) Benoy Konar (who presided) and Shyamali Gupta, and state secretariat member Subhas Chakraborty along with Kali Ghosh (CITU), Samar Baora (AIKS), Minati Ghosh (AIDWA), Avas Roychaudhury (DYFI), and Dhruvajyoti Chakraborty (SFI).

By B. PRASANT

BENGAL LEFTFRONT SWEEPS HOWRAH, JHARGRAM ELECTION

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS 2008

KOLKATA, 3rd December, 2008(INN): Bengal Left Front candidates won overwhelming electoral triumphs, in the most difficult of circumstances, at the emanate township of tribal Jhargram in adivasi-dominated Midnapore west. The Left Front also won three of the five civic by-polls that were held on the same day 30 November 2008.

They also registered a thumping victory at the industrial township of Howrah called Kolkata’s twin city. Like in the earlier years, the Left Front lost out in Berhampore where Adhir Chaudhuri again put his muscle power in, and in ample measure, to bolster and supplement his money influence. Krishnagar’s civic board again slipped out of the political grip of the Left Front although margins of losses were smaller that the margins of seats won by the all-in alliance of the Bengal opposition, more of which later.

Much had been made in the corporate media about Jhargram. They said that the adivasis were no longer with the CPI (M). Some like the Ananda Bazar Patrika group of publications and the TV channels it owns, went a step farther to say, again and again, with a dry humour, that the adivasis were always against the ‘CPM control’ over them, and that this time around, the blockades and the dug out made of a few roads were clung to by the worthies of the media to outline a whole structure of danger signals for the Communist Party – whose candidates, they predicted with a fine, laid-back casual air, were going to lose in huge humiliation in the Jhargram municipal elections.

They were proved wrong and left, perhaps not possibly literally, quite red in the face. The LF supported CPI (M) candidates won 13 of the 17 seats that were contested. We had won 11 seats the last time around five years back.

Before reeling off the figures of the sorry losers, let us say that this time, in every municipal ward, and in all four civic bodies and in the by-polls, a mahajot, stretching from the separatist Jharkhandis to the reactionary Congress and the Trinamul to the left sectarian ‘Maoists,’ was active in a full-fledged manner with one-to-one contests being the order of the day. We still recall posters of BJP and Pradesh Congress during our recent visit to the laterite zone of Bengal that said ‘vote for the Jharkhandis or the Trinamulis as per strength and prospect of the candidate.’

Congratulating the adivasi brothers and sisters for the courage of political conviction, they had shown, when the time came to cast their votes, LF chairman Biman Basu said that the Communists had remained with the adivasis right from the 1950s through many struggles and movements in their interest and for their uplift.

From the Lodha struggle, to the rôle played by central committee member of the CPI (M) Kumar Siralkar (who is fluent in five adivasi dialects) in helping Santhali make it to the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, to the hard struggle for the barrage on the roaring Kangsabati river, to struggling against the Jharkhandi and Maoist intruders and their killers’ ways, the Communist Party had always been in the van taking along the people of the vananchal till the very recent movement for the recognition of the right of the tribal to the forest resources.

Bimanda also made a very valid point when he said that the corporate media, print or otherwise would always call those engaged in digging up roads of felling precious trees, adivasis, and those going against these barbaric acts of commission men and women of the ‘CPM’ Bimanda asked the members of the fourth estate to be a little less biased when they regurgitate their anti-Communist ire. Midnapore west CPI (M) secretary Professor Dipak Sarkar has quietly pointed out to us, as the results were coming in, the crucially important fact that this year, the mahajot notwithstanding, the two reserved seats for adivasis at Jhargram went to the CPI (M) by a much larger margin than the last time around.

At Jhargram, in fact, the seats of the Pradesh Congress came down from two to a tragic one, that of the separatist Jharkhandis by the same statistical step down, while the Trinamulis just managed to hang on to two seats as they had done during the last elections although going by the diminishing return of popularity measured in terms of the votes won, one feels rather good when one looks to the next elections.

The question that the Telegraph correspondent, who has this bubbly outlook on whatever the issue is at stake, be it elections or accidents, in the instant case, both, chose to ask of Biman Basu was to probe and find the reason why, ‘despite the motor factory at Singur not coming to fruition, and what with Howrah abutting Kolkata’ (did he mean that the metro had ‘protested too much’ on the motor car factory issue?!), how could the CPI (M) make out so well, come the civic polls? Biman Basu as is his wont would not deign to reply to conjectures without analysis, and he told this straight to the reporter’s face.

But what struck us as fair bemuse was that the big money media owners have by now been able to make ‘corporate brains’ of young men and women sufficiently, hatefully corpulent enough about and against the Communists, for them to reveal their hatred openly, in public, in media conferences, and not bothering to wait to go back to sit at the spanking new state-of-the-art PCs back in the office to boot and the work sheet to open.

Elsewhere, in Krishnagar, 24 seats saw a split like this: Left Front 2 (4 seats won during the previous poll), Trinamul Congress 8 (from nought earlier), and Pradesh Congress 14 (down from 18 the last time around). Berhampore saw Pradesh Congress of the Adhir fraction sweep all 25 seats although margins were lesser.

In Howrah, the picture is like this (with seats won earlier in brackets): LF 33 (37), Pradesh Congress 9 (8), Trinamul 7 (4), and finally BJP 1 (1). The LF and the CPI (M) would go in for a detailed analysis of the poll results, ward by ward, before coming up with a review, the senior CPI (M) leader Biman Basu informed the media.

B.PRASANT

Tata Motors moves HC on Singur land allotment

Kolkata, 3rd December, 2008: Tata Motors has approached the Calcutta High Court against an RTI application seeking details of its agreement with the West Bengal government on the land allotment at Singur, from where the company has since moved out.

The company on Tuesday challenged before the High court the RTI Commissioner's competence to deal with the matter, with its counsel submitting before Justice Dipankar Dutta that the Right to Information Act was not applicable in case of an agreement involving industrial secrets.

Justice Dutta has scheduled the matter for hearing on Friday. The company said in its petition that as the Nano project has been shifted to Gujarat from West Bengal, there was no logic in seeking to know a deal which has fallen through.

Justice Dutta had on September 26 set aside an earlier order of the information commissioner here on Tata Motors' plea that it had not been given a chance to be heard by the commissioner before ordering revelation of the agreement. The court had then directed the commissioner to hear the matter afresh giving all parties fair chance to be heard.

However, after one hearing, Tata Motors moved the High Court again with the fresh plea and Justice Dutta took it up yesterday. The prestigious Nano car project was shifted to Gujarat following prolonged agitation by unwilling farmers demanding return of land.

Metro Cash & Carry opens first store in Kolkata

Kolkata, Dec 3, 2008 : Metro Cash & Carry, the Indian arm of German wholesaler Metro AG, Wednesday opened its first outlet here, nearly two months after the company was granted licence to sell farm commodities and other food items in West Bengal. “We have invested Rs.140 crore (Rs.1.4 billion) in the region and also created 350 new jobs for local citizens,” Metro Cash & Carry India managing director Martin Dlouhy told reporters here.

The company faced tough times earlier as Forward Bloc, a partner in the state’s Left Front government, which controls agriculture and agricultural marketing departments, opposed the renewal of the licence. None of the Forward Bloc members turned up for the inaugural ceremony though the company said it had invited them.

Asked abouit this, Forward Bloc leader and Agriculture Marketing Board chairman Naren Chatterjee told mediapersons: “We usually don’t go for any private company’s ceremony. There is no other reason apart from this for not attending the inauguration.”

Including the 100,000-square-feet Kolkata store, the German wholesale major has five stores in India - two in Bangalore, one each in Hyderabad and Mumbai. Cricket star Sourav Ganguly and state Sundarbans Affairs Minister Kanti Ganguly inaugurated the outlet.

“I am confident that our unique model will catalyse the entrepreneurial attitude of Bengalis by providing a one-stop solution for purchase, improvements in assortments and high quality products to our professional customers,” Dlouhy said. The minimum level of purchase from this store should be Rs.1,000, a company source confirmed.

Hindustan Motors launches mini-truck

The vehicle is developed jointly with Shandong Shifeng of China.
To produce 1,000 vehicles a month.Plans national roll-out in nine months.

KOLKATA, 2nd December, 2008: C. K. Birla-controlled Hindustan Motors on Tuesday launched a mini-truck, which, it hoped, would utilise the substantial excess capacity that the country’s oldest automobile unit had in the face of plunging sales of its flagship vehicle, Ambassador.

Talking to the media after the national launch by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of the first new vehicle in 28 years, company Managing Director R. Santhanam said that with retail finance becoming a serious problem in the last three months, Ambassador sales had nearly halved between July and October as compared to the same quarter in 2007. The mother unit at Uttarpara has an annual capacity of 24,000 units.

“With the new car ‘HM-Shifeng-Winner’ we hope to utilise some of the excess capacity,” he said.
Production capacity for the new vehicle, developed jointly with Shandong Shifeng, a China-based automotive and agri-equipment company, is 1,000 vehicles monthly and newer variants of the mini-truck, including a CNG model for the National Capital Region (NCR), will be ready in about two months.

A national roll-out was planned in nine months, Mr. Santhanam said. Moloy Chowdhury, Vice-President, said that while the chassis and the cabin assembly were developed by the Chinese company, the power unit, driving component and gear box were by Hindustan Motors.

Mr. Bhattacharjee said that this was a cheerful development after the very grim happenings in Mumbai. “We condemn the happenings and pay homage to those who sacrificed their lives while performing their duty,” he said.

He said that the State had suffered a serious setback after the pullout by the Tatas. “We tried to persuade them but they left under certain circumstances. We have to try again afresh since the State needs automobile and ancillary units”. He said that he had readily agreed to C. K. Birla’s proposal to set up IT units and housing to utilise the excess land at Uttarpara. “He says he has just started developing the projects”.

Company Chairman C. K. Birla said that this was an important day for the company. The three external divisions for forging and castings were progressing well, Mr. Birla said.

Jharkhand Party-Maoist miscreants set CPI(M) office ablaze in West Bengal

Kolkata, Dec 2, 2008: Hundreds of Jharkhand Party-Maoist miscreants Monday set ablaze a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) office in West Bengal’s Maoist-hit Lalgarh region to protest alleged police excesses after the Nov 2 landmine blast in Salboni targetted at Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s convoy.

A large number of people, mostly supporters of Jharkhand Party(Aditya Kisku) group, ransacked the CPI(M) party office at Belatikri at Lalgarh and then set it on fire, West Midnapore police superintendent R.K. Singh told mediapersons. He said: “We’ve already sent our police force to verify the information. But there are no reports of any injury.”

Trouble erupted at Lalgarh after the district police arrested some school students and allegedly heckled tribal women following the landmine blast that ambushed the convoy of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and central ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasad near Bhadutala Nov 2.

Jharkhand Party-Maoist miscreants dug up metalled roads and placed big tree trunks across them, virtually cutting off the trouble-prone zone from the rest of the district.In a separate incident, hundreds of Congress supporters also staged a blockade on National Highway-6, causing a major traffic bottleneck. They demanded immediate administrative action into the ongoing unrest at Lalgarh.

Meanwhile in Bankura district, CPI(M) activists, fought a battle with Jharkhand Disham Party (JDP) supporters over the alleged police action on tribal communities at Lalgarh.

According to media reports, two supporters of JDP were injured in the skirmish at Taldangra area of Bankura.However, West Bengal Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia did not confirm any incident of fresh violence in the region.

Closure of Dunlop unit is unfortunate, says Mrinal

KOLKATA: Dec 02, 2008- The closure of Dunlop India Ltd's Sahaganj unit has come as a surpirse to the West Bengal government as it did not get any prior indication that the company was moving towards that direction.

State labour minister Mrinal Banerjee after a meeting with government officials on the Dunlop issue told reporters that the declaration of suspension of work by the Dunlop management was sudden and "the state is taken aback by the unfortunate decision."Dunlop India declared suspension of work on November 30 following its declaration of suspension of production just 13 days before.

According to company spokesman Dhrubajyoti Nandy, although Dunlop intended to only suspend production "for the time being" remitting Rs 2000 per month to each of its 1200 workers as aid substituting remuneration, both the CITU and INTUC-led labour unions did not sign an agreement agreeing to the company's terms. The unions were supposed to sign the agreement on November 24. "Hence we have decided to go for a suspension of work for an indefinite period and workers will be deprived of the supporting aid that we were willing to give," Nandy said.

Dipankar Roy and Bijon Kanti Sarkar, CITU and INTUC leaders, respectively, in Sahaganj said they were willing to sign the agreement to protect the interest of workers but a section of them had not allowed the unions to do that.

"By signing the agreement we could have prevented the immediate suspension of work and got time to negotiate with the management. But for a section of workers that could not happen," Roy said.Banerjee, who had a meeting with the minister of state for labour, Anadi Sahu, and chief minister's principal secretary Subesh Das, said: "We will soon talk to Dunlop officials and union leaders and try to find a solution.

"We will also try to implement the recently ammended industrial dispute Act to solve the Dunlop clousre issue," Banerjee said. Pawan Ruia controlled Ruia group took over Dunlop India from the Chhabarias in 2005 with a promise to revamp the closed units in Sahaganj and Ambattur.

Although Ruia had said the Sahaganj unit would run at 130 tonne capacity per day within one-one and a half years from the commencement of production, the unit never produced beyond a capacity of 40 tonne a day. Production at Sahaganj was actually halted since September, and Ruia waited for an opportunity to declare closure.

However, the financial downturn came as an opportunity for Ruia to declare suspension of production and thereafter suspension of work. The financial downturn, however, did not affect the Indian mining sector, to which the major chunk of Sahaganj's production, off the road tyres (OTRs), are meant.

According to Dunlop officials, owing to lack of market for Dunlop-brand OTRs, production was curtailed. Overhead costs (salaries not exceeding Rs 6 crore per month) too had mounted pressure on the working capital.

Dunlop chairman Pawan Ruia has put March 31 as the deadline to commence production at Sahaganj once again. Officials, however, said that the management was eager to re-start production in January itself, if it could arrange for a working capital of Rs 100 crore. Ruia, while announcing the suspension of work, had said that Rs 300 crore working capital would be needed to resume production.

Commandos for West Bengal stations

KOLKATA, 2nd December,2008: Commandos of the West Bengal police will be deployed in four major railway stations in the State in a move to tighten security in the wake of the recent terrorist strike in Mumbai. Vigil has also been intensified across the State and along its border with Bangladesh.

The decision to deploy the commandos in Sealdah and Howrah stations as well as in Kharagpur station and in New Jalpaiguri in north Bengal was taken at a review meeting of senior State and police officials here on Monday.

Intelligence inputs of various agencies were discussed at the meeting. The government railway police admitted that given its present strength it would be difficult to tackle any eventuality and there is a requirement for additional security forces in the major railway hubs, sources in the Eastern Railway said.

Elaborate security measures were being taken in the city though there was no specific threat, the city’s Commissioner of Police, Gautam Mohan Chakravarty, said.

West Bengal industrial growth rate higher than national average

KOLKATA, 1 December, 2008: The industrial growth rate of West Bengal is 1.1 per cent higher than the national average of 10.8 per cent (2006-07), and the State continues to move ahead on the path to development and economic progress, the Singur episode notwithstanding. According to leading industrialists, the sectors like steel and mining, chemicals and petro-chemicals, power, agro industries and food processing, Information Technology (IT), real estate and retail have been generating a lot of interest in West Bengal.

The State is a gateway not only to north-east India besides other States like Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, but also to countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. The growth and development is obvious in and around the capital city of Kolkata. Major real estate players like DLF, Unitech, Singapore-based Keppeland, Purvankara, Emaar Group, are all competing for a pie of the new satellite township coming up at Rajarhat, near the airport. Besides housing estates, several budget and star hotels and conference centres, cultural centres, shopping malls, multiplexes are being built across the city.

Smaller towns like Durgapur, Haldia, Asansol, and Siliguri across the State are developing. The steel sector, recently received a boost with the foundation stone laying of the proposed Rs. 35,000 crore-Jindal Steel Plant in Salboni, in West Midnapore District, approximately 240 kilometres from Kolkata. The other sectors that have witnessed a lot of activity are metals, mining and plastic. With a sustained agricultural growth of over 8 per cent, the State is also finding investors in the agro-industries and in food processing.

"There is great focus in potato, other vegetables and fruit cultivation and processing. The entry of wholesale giants like Metro-Cash-And-Carry signals well for this segment," says Dr. Rajeev Singh, Secretary General, Indian Chamber of Commerce. According to the city-based industrialist Sanjay Budhia, Chairman of the Patton Group, Kolkata finds investors because of facilities like low-cost housing compared to other metros, good sanitation and basic amenities, best clubs in the country, culture and a literate working class.

Sanjay says investors from Japan and Korean get bowled over when they see the great golf courses the Tolly club and the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC). In the hotel industy, Kolkata has witnessed entry of big players. The Apeejay Group is putting up a 300-room five star hotel spread over a 3.3 acre plot on the Eastern Bypass worth Rs 1.36 billion, as is the Emaar Group. The Bengal Shrishti Infrastructure Development is building a hotel in Rajarhat worth Rs. five billion. The Hilton group has also made enquiries.

According to Samit Ganguly, Director for Sales, Hyatt Regency, Kolkata, has a corporate-driven hotel market, which is growing despite seasonal downslides. West Bengal today is the third largest economy in the country. Its IT sector, which set off much later than other parts of the country, is growing fast with big names like Wipro, TCS and IBM finding a place in the IT hub at Sector V already. The State, according to industry leaders, is on the right track. It has garnered new projects worth two billion dollars in the last four years. The government has offered the right incentives and even during the recent global meltdown and recession, not many see much reason to worry.

However, all emphasize that there is need for an environment for industrial growth. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's government in West Bengal has shown the political will towards taking the State forward industrially. However, the state's merit as an investment destination and for industrial development would ultimately be decided on the basis of its work culture and the public will to see projects through.

West Bengal’s IT sector upbeat in spite of meltdown

Feature IT companies have significant expansion plans

KOLKATA: December 01, 2008--Major IT companies in Kolkata have no immediate plans to withhold or temporarily stall their investment or expansion plans even though the worldwide recession has not left Kolkata’s IT sector unaffected. In fact, Kolkata’s IT industry in Sector 5, Salt Lake City, is all set to enter new areas such as animation and gaming software, engineering services, and security software. The IT industry in Bengal has already established itself in key IT-enabled functions such as knowledge processing, consulting and back office services.

According to the September edition of the state government’s IT Newsletter posted on the net, the staff strength of Wipro’s Salt Lake BPO unit is slowly heading towards the 10,000 mark from its present strength of 4,500 people. In view of the company’s significant expansion plans in the city, Wipro has requested 90 acres of land in the second IT park in Kolkata’s Rajarhat township.

Meanwhile, HTMT Global Solutions has plans to invest Rs 400 crore ($80 million) towards new acquisitions in West Bengal. The company’s IT unit in Durgapur, about 200 kilometres away from Kolkata, already employs 150 people. The Durgapur unit serves Bharti Airtel.

Capgemini has also earmarked Kolkata as a major IT destination. The company has drawn a massive expansion plan and aims to acquire a 200,000 sq ft facility at New Town, Rajarhat, which would employ 1,700 people.

Another leading IT consulting company, Cognizant has plans to invest Rs 201 crore ($40 million) to extend its Kolkata facility. The plan includes an extension of its office space by another 500,000 sq ft to accommodate 5,000 employees.

HCL Infosystems has chosen Kolkata as the location of the company’s consulting center in system integration. The company plans to recruit 1,000 to 1,500 people in the coming year. Besides, many well known outsourcing companies like Genpact are choosing Kolkata as their main centre for handling global clients and India-to-India business.

Meanwhile, indigenous BPO units are coming up in various small cities in West Bengal, outside Kolkata. Although these are mostly small scale Indian-owned facilities, they are certainly enhancing employment opportunities. For instance, a company named Firstsource has launched its operations in Siliguri with plans to employ 500 people. The company’s Siliguri facility serves Vodafone.

The West Bengal IT sector is marked by low salaries and relatively low productivity levels in comparison with the other IT hubs in the country. However, this inadequacy is compensated by factors such as low attrition rates, easy availability of skilled and talented workers and a high standard of English communication skills among employees.

In the face of the current global economic meltdown plaguing international businesses, there is no doubt that some of the companies aiming for large scale investment in Kolkata may adopt a wait and watch policy. However, in the long run, the IT prospects in West Bengal continue to remain strong.

Dunlop declares suspension of work at Sahaganj unit

Kolkata, 29 November, 2008: Tyre maker Dunlop India Ltd on Sunday declared suspension of work at its Sahaganj unit in the Hooghly district, affecting the fate of over 1,100 workers.

"After failure of rounds of prolonged discussions with the labour unions of Dunlop India Ltd, the management of the company is constrained to declare suspension of work at its Sahaganj plant with effect from November 30, 2008," a Dunlop statement said here. Just two years after it was revived, Dunlop decided a temporary suspension of work at the unit on November 17, citing lack of working capital.

During the suspension of production period during which workers were not required to report for duty, the management had proposed to pay each worker a solarium of Rs 2,000 per month. An agreement on this issue between the management and trade unions was supposed to be signed on November 20 but it did not materialise.

On November 24, Dunlop Chairman Pawan Ruia said that the company had approached the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation for a loan of Rs 100 crore. Ruia had taken over Dunlop in 2005 and Sahaganj factory opened in October 2006. The company's Ambattur factory in south India is already closed for long.

Kolkata Police seek new anti-terrorism force, tenant database

Kolkata, Nov 29,2008: Gearing up after the country's most brazen terrorist strike in Mumbai, Kolkata Police Thursday issued a notification directing the house-owners to maintain a complete database of tenants and requested the West Bengal government to raise a special anti-insurgenct commando force.

"We've decided to make it mandatory for all the landlords (house-owners) to fill up a 'tenant profile form' and submit it to the local police station. We've already issued a notification today following the attack in Mumbai," Kolkata Police Commissioner Gautam Mohon Chakraborty told a press conference.

He said the police wanted to maintain a thorough database of all tenants in the city and its surrounding areas. "We'll soon give a deadline to complete this process. Those violating the norms will be penalised under Section 188 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), according to the gravity of the offence," he said.

"In that case, the offenders might face a jail term - from one to six months - and a fine," said Chakraborty, adding Kolkata Police would also send a proposal to the state government for forming a special action commando battalion to fight critical terror attack.

"We're constantly in touch with Mumbai Police and keeping a tab on the situation. We're also sharing information and intelligence with Mumbai Police and other sister agencies," he said but declined to share the operational details.

Security measures have been stepped up in Kolkata and its adjoining districts after serious terrorist attacks rocked India's commercial capital Wednesday night, leaving at least 101 killed and several injured.

The police said additional forces along with sniffer dogs and metal detectors have already been deployed in all district police headquarters and major railway stations across the state. "Kolkata Police have already issued a security advisory notice for all the hotels and commercial building owners in the city to abide by the norms. The guidelines would soon be circulated to schools, markets and shopping mall authorities also.," he said.

"We're also trying to formulate strict measures for telephone booths as people often make crank calls from the public booths and cause unnecessary panic," he said. Chakraborty mentioned that three hoax calls, including in the office of a leading Bengali daily and a central public sector undertaking office, were reported Thursday. The Kolkata Police top brass had an emergency meeting with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty Thursday morning.

"Metal detectors have been installed at all vital places in the city, especially at five-star hotels, shopping malls, multiplexes, airport and metro rail stations. There will be at police picketing at all major road junctions and crowded places," Chakraborty said. He said no vehicle or person would be allowed to enter unchecked important places like hotels and airport .

"Every vehicle and every person will be thoroughly checked before entering important places like hotels, malls and airport. There will be heavy police security in and outside these places. Our officers have been instructed to report anything and anyone suspicious," said Chakraborty.
Watertight security has been arranged, especially for five-star hotels.

People entering hotels like the Taj Bengal are not only undergoing a metal detector test but sniffer dogs are also used to check them and their baggage thoroughly. Besides, two-layer police security has been posted at the hotels. The number of security guards has also been increased.

The Kolkata Port Trust will Friday hold a high-level meeting to review its security arrangements."There is a high-level secuirty apparatus in the port as per the Internaitonal shipping and Port Facility Security Code. It is reviewed by the Directorate General of Shipping from time to time. Whenever it sees any deficiency, the DGS points it out and identifies the reason" said a highly placed KoPT official.

Salt Lake Stadium to host only semis and final

New Delhi, Nov 29, 2008: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) today made minor changes in the fixtures of December 4-21 Federation Cup in Kolkata due to non-availability of the Salt Lake Stadium there for most part of the football tournament.

Earlier, the group matches of the tournament were to be held in both the Barasat and Salt Lake stadia in Kolkata while the two semifinals and final were to be played at Salt Lake.But now, Salt Lake Stadium will host only three matches -- two semifinals and final -- while Barasat Stadium will host all the group matches, an AIFF release said.

This was necessitated after the Indian Football Association (state association of West Bengal) informed the AIFF that the Salt Lake Stadium will not be available before the semifinals.Moreover, the two Group A matches -- between Dempo and Chirag United, and Mumbai FC and State Bank of Travancore -- which was earlier scheduled to be played on December 6 will now be held the next day.

State Bank of Travancore, New Delhi Heroes, Oil India (Assam) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited had made it to the 16-team main round from the qualifiers.The 16 teams have been divided into four groups of four teams each to play a round-robin league and the winners of each group will make it to the semifinals to be held on December 18. The final will be played on December 21. (Agencies)

Two from West Bengal killed in Mumbai terror attacks

Kolkata, Nov 28, 2008: Two people, including a 66-year old woman, from West Bengal were among those killed in the Mumbai terror attacks, an official said Friday.

”We heard the information that a youth from Boriya police station area in Murshidabad district was killed in the ongoing terror attack in Mumbai. But we’ve not received any further details of the victim,” Murshidabad district police superintendent Basab Dasgupta told Friday.

He said the district police had not yet received the name of the person. “We’re now trying to get all the details of the victim,” Dasgupta said.

According to police, Meera Chatterjee, 66, of Hooghly district’s Singur was also killed in a firing Wednesday night while waiting at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) to catch a train home.

She went from West Bengal’s Singur to the country’s commercial capital to be with her son who had just lost his job and was in a state of serious depression. A terrorist walked up to Chatterjee and shot her at pointblank range.

Media reports said, her two sons - Ardhendu and Purnendu - had gone to get some food for their mother at the platform and escaped the terrorist’s bullets by minutes. They heard the gunshots but could not realise that it was their mother who was killed in the firing.

When both the brothers ran back they could only find bulletmarks and bloodstains all over the place. Their search for their mother ended at a nearby hospital’s morgue two hours later.

UPA failed to take effective steps against terror: Left Front

Kolkata, Nov 28, 2008: Condemning the terror strike in Mumbai, West Bengal's ruling Left Front Thursday pulled up the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre for its failure to take effective steps to combat terrorism.

Describing the intensity of Wednesday's terrorist attack as "unprecedented", Left Front chairman Biman Basu said it had left the entire nation stunned.

"Several insurgent attacks have taken place in the country in the last few years. But incidents of this magnitude never occurred in the past. The ultras devastated the police and held entire Mumbai to ransom. The central government has failed to take effective steps against terrorism... We condemn the insurgent attacks," a statement quoted Basu as saying.

The Left Front chairman claimed terror strikes have been occurring time and again as part of an "imperialist conspiracy to break the country's democratic system. In this situation, we have to mobilise public opinion for protecting our democratic system and against terrorist activities," he said.

Basu appealed to leftist activists and supporters to remain alert and take out rallies throughout the state.

Government needs to be very cautious towards land acquisition: WB CM

KOLKATA, 28 NOV., 2008: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Wednesday said that his government needs to be very cautious towards land acquisition.

Speaking at the National Executive Meet of FICCI, Bhattacharjee said, “Singur and Nandigram have sent a wrong signal to investors both in India and abroad. Very often foreigners who meet me ask me about them and I had to explain (why this has happened).”

Bhattacharjee said that from the very beginning, he has advocated a nationwide land acquisition policy. He said 60 percent of the people in the state were dependent on agriculture, which is not a good sign for the economy. “We have 1.35 crore acres of land and out of that only 1 per cent is needed for implementation of all our projects. The Opposition does not want to understand that,” said Bhattacharjee.

Bhattacharjee also pointed out that the farmers should get remunerative prices and they should be rehabilitated. “There should be rehabilitation of the farmers too. The Central government is preparing a bill for compensation and rehabilitation and it will be passed soon,” the CM said.

The CM stressed on the need of a deep sea port in the state’s South 24 Parganas on Bay of Bengal. He, however, expressed his unhappiness over the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) move to explore the possibility of setting up a deep sea port at Chittagong in Bangladesh.

“I am going to Delhi next Saturday and will discuss this with (External Affairs Minister) Pranab Mukherjee and if necessary I will talk to Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh”, said the 64 year old minister.

West Bengal CM condemns Mumbai terror strikes

Kolkata, Nov.28: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today condemned the terror attacks in Mumbai. He said it was a challenge for the people of the country to remain calm and resolute and to try to overcome the menace unitedly.

He also expressed a hope for a robust national response to terrorism and added that there was no doubt in his mind that foreign forces are behind this attacks. He offered his condolences to the families of the victims of the attacks. We are very much worried about what is happening in Mumbai. The flush out operation is still going on. Near about hundred people have been killed so far and more than 350 people were injured, including policemen and foreigners,” said the Chief Minister.

“It is a horrible incident. It is a time to forget political rivalries and people should stand up unitedly to fight with the terrorism and its the need of the hour.We must take oath against the terrorism. These attacks had external linkages and I have no doubt. I offer my condolence to the people who have lost their lives. Let us take an oath against the terrorism, he said.

Alert in West Bengal after terrorist attack in Mumbai

KOLKATA, November 27, 2008 :An alert was sounded on Wednesday night across West Bengal, including the eastern metropolis in the wake of terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Checking at entry points in the metropolis have been intensified and additional forces posted in vulnerable areas as a precautionary measure, city Police Commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakraborty told a news agency.

He said extra police personnel have been deployed in front of railway stations, big hotels, government offices and vital installations."We are keeping watch on the situation in Mumbai and have kept our forces alert here," he said.

Meanwhile, security has also been strengthened at the Sealdah, Howrah and Kolkata stations and Railway police asked to be vigilant in both Eastern and Southeastern Railways.

Ennore Coke plans Rs 1,000-cr project

Chennai, Nov. 27: Ennore Coke Ltd, whose 130,000-tonne coke plant at Haldia began operations just a few months ago, is preparing a plan to put up a 1 million-tonne plant that may require over Rs 1,000-crore of investments.

Ennore Coke, listed on the BSE, is an associate company of Shriram EPC Ltd, part of the Chennai-based Shriram group, which has a 32 per cent stake in the company. It produces coke, used in the conversion of ores into metals, from coking coal that comes from mines. Coke is a key raw material in steel production.

Mr T. Shivaraman, Managing Director, Shriram EPC, told Business Line that to put up the project, it is imperative to either have possession of coking coal mines or have a company that has the mines as a partner. Depending upon how things pan out, the new project may be put up either by Ennore Coke itself or through a joint venture, he said.

Today, Ennore Coke has 410,000 tonnes of capacity under its command, half of which is through an arrangement with a company called Durgapur Projects Ltd. Ennore Coke outsources coke manufacture to Durgapur Projects. In addition, Ennore Coke recently acquired an 80,000 tonne coke plant from Wellman Incandescent, in West Bengal, for a consideration of Rs 30 crore.

The rest of the capacity comes from the newly commissioned plant at Haldia that has a 12 MW thermal power plant that produces power from waste heat from the coke plant.

The current year is the company’s first full year of operations. For the half year ended September 30, Ennore Coke achieved a turnover of Rs 20 crore and made a net profit of Rs 22 lakh.

The current price of coke is about $500 a tonne. Assuming prices remain unchanged and capacity utilisation is full, Ennore Coke could potentially achieve a turnover of Rs 900 crore in 2009-10.

Asked if work on the proposed 1 million-tonne project could begin at least by 2010-11, Mr Shivaraman said, “we are pushing for starting the next year itself.”

Govt ‘unhappy’ with Dunlop stand, no loan cushion for factory

Kolkata, 26 Nov., 2008 : The situation at Dunlop India took a new turn when it emerged that the company may not receive Rs 100 crore loan, which it has asked from the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) to resume production at its Sahagunj factory.

“No state government provides working capital to any factory. Merely because you could not get it from banks, you cannot rush to the government. If we give money to Dunlop, then other companies facing financial crunch will also approach us,” a highly-placed source at the Writers’ Buildings told The newspersons.

Labour Minister Mrinal Banerjee tried to organise a tripartite meeting between the management, trade unions and the state government on Tuesday. But with Dunlop chairman Pawan Ruia taking an unflinching stand on suspending the production, the meeting failed to take off.

“We told Ruia to modify the draft he gave us, where he used the phrase ‘suspension of production’ at Dunlop. He refused to change the words and hence the meeting could not take place,” said Banerjee.

According to labour department officials, the government can intervene only in cases such as lock-out, lay-off, suspension of work and retrenchment of work. But since Ruia stuck to the phrase ‘suspension of production’, the government washed its hands of Dunlop.

Government officials also said Ruia refused to budge from his demand that trade unions sign the agreement accepting Rs 2,000 as subsistence allowance for each worker.

On Tuesday, the Dunlop chief also met Subesh Das, Principal Secretary to the chief minister, and gave him a letter requesting for the loan of Rs 100 crore and sales tax exemption. “We have given the letter to the CM’s secretary. We had to suspend the production because of lack of working capital,” said Ruia.

Representatives of two trade unions owing allegiance to Centre of Indian Trade Unions and Indian National Trade Union Congress met the labour minister and demanded that the government bring Dunlop to the negotiating table.

“Ruia has lost his credibility. If he cannot mobilise Rs 70 crore to run the factory, why did he take up the unit,” Pramatesh Sen, state general secretary of INTUC, said.

Througout the day, the union leaders kept waiting at the Writers’ Buildings for a tripartite meeting. Finally in the evening they were told to go home.