Crusader who bleeds blue

Crusader who bleeds blue

- hurrah over HC order

Zeeshan Jawed

A Calcuttan was bleeding blue-and-white even as the entire country was bleeding blue on Thursday. Tanweer Khan, who owns a ladies' footwear store on Ripon Street, was anxious about the PIL he had filed in the high court challenging the Calcutta Municipal Corporation's decision to waive off property tax for residents who painted their houses in chief minister Mamata Banerjee's favourite blue-and-white combination. A billion hearts may have been battling the blues after M.S. Dhoni's men bowed out of the World Cup, but Tanweer had reason to be happy on Friday because the division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur asked the state government and the CMC to explain the rationale behind their move to have the entire city painted in blue-and-white. "I was anxious the whole day yesterday. Today, I am happy. I will pursue this issue till the last," said Tanweer who calls himself a "political activist". The 40-year-old, who stays in a rented apartment near St. Mary's School on Ripon Street, had filed the PIL on March 11 because he felt that the ruling party's decision to provide tax relief to residents painting their houses blue-and-white was tantamount to bias. "I saw this decision of the ruling party as an expression of one's allegiance. Suppose my house is not painted blue-and-white and I get into some problem with somebody whose house is in that colour combination. Will the administration be non-partisan? Will they stand by me if I am correct?" he demanded. "The ruling party can't get away with anything and everything. Today, it is telling me which colour to use to paint my house. Tomorrow, it will tell me what to eat or how to lead my life. This is unacceptable," said Tanweer, also secretary of a voluntary organisation that works for underprivileged students. He is contesting the civic elections from ward 61 as an Independent candidate and feels that the poll symbol assigned to him, an apple, is symbolic of greater responsibilities coming his way. "One Apple has changed the way we communicate. This one will change the political system for good," said Tanweer. The idea of moving court occurred to Tanweer when he saw many people questioning the government's move to paint the city in blue-and-white. He thought it was imperative to raise the subject on the appropriate platform rather than just talking about it. Tanweer believes that raising questions isn't enough. Doing it on the right platform is just as important. "I have heard many people questioning the government's move, some even ridiculing it. But that is only among friends or in news conferences. I thought, why not approach the court and take the topic into the larger public domain," he said. Tanweer soon approached a lawyer and has spent around Rs 25,000 so far in pursuing the case. For him, leisure means reading newspapers and following news channels rather than watching movies. "My day is incomplete without reading the newspapers and watching news channels," smiled Tanweer, who idolises former chief minister Jyoti Basu. When this graduate in Urdu from Maulana Azad College is not attending to customers in his footwear shop, he can be found pursuing his mission to seek "justice for the marginalised". He was one of the faces in the protest rallies in the wake of the Park Street rape and, more recently, Ranaghat. Tanweer, who heard about Shreya Singhal and her crusade against 66A of the Information Technology Act only this week, feels the two of them are "comrades in arms". Shreya, a graduate from the University of Bristol in the UK, was the first to petition the Supreme Court against Section 66A, which was struck down on March 24. Section 66A had been the favourite tool of those in power to suppress free speech. "Both of us are fighting for the powerless and voiceless," declared Tanweer, the relentless crusader.

Prime land in Kolkata leased to Bengali paper

By Romita Datta

LIVEMINT, Posted: Mon, Feb 28 2011. 1:00 AM IST

The Trinamool Congress-controlled Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has allotted two acres on lease to a Bengali newspaper, run by a trust founded by a party member, for a premium of `6.6 crore, when it may have earned 10 times that amount by auctioning the land.

The move comes months ahead of assembly elections in West Bengal, in which an alliance of Trinamool Congress and the Congress party is hoping to end the three-decades-old rule of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM-led Left Front.

KMC has leased out the plot to Pratidin Media Trust, which runs the Sambad Pratidin newspaper, for `550,000 a cottah, or `3.3 crore an acre, and an annual lease rent of `1 a cottah. A cottah is one-sixtieth of an acre. The 33-year lease is renewable for two more terms of 33 years each.

Three years ago, the corporation had leased out to DLF Ltd a five-acre plot in the same neighbourhood for almost 10 times the lease premium: `52 lakh a cottah, or `31.2 crore an acre. DLF had secured the plot through an open auction; this time there was no contest.

Developers said the plot could have fetched a lease premium of `70-80 crore if KMC had chosen the tenant through an auction.

“Only a few years ago, LIC (Life Insurance Corp. of India Ltd) had paid over `50 crore an acre to secure from KMC a plot in the same neighbourhood,” said a real estate developer. The insurer was to build a hotel there, but is yet to start the development.

The largesse comes at a time KMC is unable to achieve its `150 crore revenue target from sale and redevelopment of properties it owns, and is dipping into bank deposits to complete projects.

The founder of Pratidin Media Trust, Swapan Sadhan Basu, is a Trinamool Congress representative in Rajya Sabha. His son and the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Srinjoy Bose, said there isn’t anything surprising in the deal. “The Left Front has in the past done similar things many times.”

Kolkata’s mayor Sovan Chatterjee when asked why the concession was made, said the trust would use the plot for “some good cause”, without elaborating.

The decision was approved by Trinamool municipal councillors after Left Front representatives “left the house protesting against another issue”, said Rupa Bagchi, a CPM councillor and leader of the opposition in the KMC.

“It was not even on agenda,” she said. “We didn’t know they would move this proposal after we staged a walkout.”

This isn’t the first time KMC has allotted land to news organizations. Former mayor and Trinamool Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee said in his term (2000-2005) he had allotted land to several newspapers irrespective of their political leanings.

“I had given land to Pratidin, too,” he said.

Bengal CPI (M) Shall Review Civic Poll Results

BENGAL CPI (M) shall go into the details of the electoral reversal it faced in the civic polls 2010, despite the fact that there has been a slight if not perceptible improvement in the vote share and seats won this time compared to the Lok Sabha elections of the past year. The Bengal CPI (M) and the Bengal Left Front have felicitated the people for their participation in the elections and have also humbly accepted the popular electoral verdict.

Biman Basu, Bengal CPI (M) secretary briefed the media at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan on June 2, 2010. Biman Basu who also heads the Bengal Left Front as its chairman, noted that the Left Front ‘has not done well in the elections, whereas the principal opposition, the Trinamul Congress has performed well,’ causing the CPI (M) and the Left Front to conduct a review of the results towards fixing the tasks ahead.

It would be found out if there had been any error in the performance of day-to-day contact with the masses. It would also be looked at from the point of view of the conduct of the campaign-movement, with special note of the fact whether the campaign ‘had passed over the heads of the masses in the process.’

The CPI (M) and the LF have done marginally if not significantly better than in the past Lok Sabha polls. The performance was less than that of the CPI (M) and the LF in the 2005 municipal elections. The following are the brief details of the election result. The complete statistical picture would be available shortly.

In 2009, during the Lok Sabha polls, the LF had won 525 municipal wards with a vote share of 29.73 per cent. This year it won 603 wards with a vote share of 33.67 per cent. In municipalities like Jamuria in Burdwan, or Englishbazar in Maldah the vote share has increased as it has done at Kalna in Burdwan despite losing the latter to the principal opposition outfit.

Biman Basu assured the media that there could be no question of advancing the dates for the 2011 assembly polls based on the civic poll results as a mere 17 per cent of the electorate of Bengal had exercised their franchise this time around. The Left Front would have no role to play in the ‘hung’ municipal boards.

The following results were obtained in the civic polls 2010.

Total 81 civic bodies

Left Front 16

Trinamul Congress 25

Pradesh Congress 07

‘Hung’ 31

Kolkata – 141 wards

Wardwise results

Left Front 33

Trinamul Congress 95

Pradesh Congress 10

BJP 03

Bidhannagar (Salt Lake) – 25

Wardwise results

Left Front 09

Trinamul Congress 16

(BP)

Buddhadeb Calls for Defeating the Unholy Alliance

BENGAL CIVIC POLLS

By B Prasant

THE civic polls being held for 81 self-governing institutions in the cities and townships spread across Bengal are a political battle, as are all elections. The enemy of the people are standing by to wreak havoc and let slip the dogs of war. The masses must come forward to rip apart the gathering darkness of the storm cloud on the political scene in Bengal, re-elect the CPI(M) and the Left Front by big, emphatic margins, and ensure that the process of development and democratisation continue apace.

Thus said Bengal chief minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, while he was addressing a very crowded media conference at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan at noon on 16 May.

There is a twin process of industrialisation and urbanisation in Bengal under Left Front governance. The process needs to be made faster. There is a continuing attempt to maintain a balance between urban and rural, between the townships and the cities, between the cities and the metropolis.

The Left Front has been engaged in this task from back in 1978 when much earlier to the concerned Constitutional proviso coming into force, the civic bodies and the Panchayats had been made into viable self-governing institutions. The Left Front is the founder of the implementational concept of local institutions and this has been a unique achievement in the country.

The Left Front has included such elements in the civic bodies like timely elections, citizens rights ensured, voting age brought down to 18 years, reservations set in place, putting in place the mayor-in-council, borough committees, and making them operative, along with the latest addition of a citizens’ charter in each municipality.

Critical of the Congress, Buddhadeb pointed out that the successive Congress-run central governments deprived the state of funds due. The Trinamul board at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) sat on its hands and spent funds on non-essential items of expense. The Left-run board of the KMC have been seen to go all out with pro-people development programme implemented in a balanced manner. He also pointed out that the union government gives back but 32 per cent of the tax it collects from the states. The demand of elevating this amount to at least 50 per cent has been ignored by the Congress-run central governments in succession. The state finance commission has been engaged in allowing 50 per cent of the plan budget to be spent at the local level.

Noting that it was always difficult to comment on the intransigent ways of the Trinamul Congress and its partners in the right and to the extreme Left, Buddhadeb pointed to the rainbow alliance with political fuel from forces of reaction abroad and said they must be defeated and defeated comprehensively. It was dangerous of the Trinamul Congress to speak of an impending communal violence to precede the civic polls.

The outfit is dangerous to the point that they would see a violent scenario overtaking the municipal elections – ‘violence, threats, and lies,’ comprise the slogan-mongering of the Trinamul Congress. Buddhadeb pooh-poohed the claim of the Trinamul Congress that there were no ‘Maoists’ in Bengal.

On the other hand he asserted that the outfit was engaged in preparing the ground for the left sectarians in Bengal In passing he also pointed to the internecine killings that had started to take place at Nandigram and surrounding areas amongst the assassins of the Trinamul Congress itself, and called upon everybody to maintain amity, through discussions when necessary.

Buddhadeb commented in this context that two recent developments were of an alarming nature. The RSS spokesperson has called upon to ensure that the Trinamuli leader becomes the Bengal chief minister. Secondly, clutches of people from the BJP have joined the Trinamul Congress but they have not given up their RSS memberships. The left sectarians had long back exposed their preference to see the Trinamuli chieftain as the next chief minister of Bengal.

It was imperative, concluded Buddhadeb, for the masses of the people especially the young to come forward, take part in the democratic process and ensure a big victory of the Left Front in the upcoming civic polls. The people have already realised the Left stood for progress, for development for amity and for democracy. In responding to queries Buddhadeb said, among other things that only the state government could bring forward the date of elections for the Vidhan Sabha polls.

Developmental Works of Kolkata Municipal Corporation

By B Prasant

IN a free-ranging interview, Bikash Bhattacharyya, noted legal authority and the serving mayor of the vast metro of Kolkata spoke to People's Democracy on the developmental works that had been undertaken during the tenure of the Left Front board between 2005 and 2010. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) goes to gather the people’s verdict on 30 May. Excerpts follow.

 

WATER  SUPPLY

Improving water supply, noted Bikash, ‘has been a major focus of the LF-run board over the past half-a-decade.’ The efforts have yielded results. The piped water supply of potable water has been vastly augmented via commissioning of water treatment plants, booster pumping stations, reservoirs, and what he called ‘headworks’ that included covered, underground reservoirs, sinking a big number of tubewells, and revamping the distribution system itself.

Giving examples, the mayor pointed to the commissioning of a 260 MGD water treatment plant at Palta, water-treatment plant and pumping station at Watgunge and Gardenreach, replacement of vital electrical installations at the big pumping station at Auckland Square near the La Martinier’s school at the very heart of the metro, and laying of no less than 200 km of big dia pipes across and around Kolkata – a massive project.

SEWERAGE  AND DRAINAGE

Water-logging has been made much of in the corporate media while ranting and raving against the Left-run KMC board. Kolkata as we know has a saucer-like shape and the main drainage to the east of the city has sadly given away to urbanisation with the horizon-touching stretches of shallow water bodies disappearing.

The principal sewer networks were laid in the colonial period and it consists of a century-old brick sewer of 180 km or more. What causes water logging, other than heavy rainfall?

Bikash informed us of the following causes:

Reduction of hydraulic capacity of the sewerage system due to silting

Poor and collapsing sewer lines

Destruction of wetlands that we noted above

Old and creaking pumping machines

Silting up of the ‘outfall’ canals around the metro

The Left-run KMC has undertaken over the past five years a series of measures through upgradation of the sewerage and drainage systems with gradual replacement of the brick stricture with fibre-based gigantic sized tubes – a costly and time-consuming operation. We cannot stop water from being logged, but we could ensure that the accumulated aqua disappeared rapidly enough was how the mayor would put it. The measures taken include clearing the lines, boosting the pumping stations, and re-excavation of the drainage canals.

SOLID WASTE  MANAGEMENT

This is a bane for any metropolis. The Left-led board has tackled this issue in a uniquely pro-people way. The capacity to collect waste has been increased by nearly 70 per cent and 65 per cent of all households stand covered with more in the pipeline, so to speak. The resources and machines used for waste management have been increased manifold. New disposal sites have been set up with facilities for conversion of waste into useful material. Waste is used for landfill with an environmental-friendly outlook.

PRO-POOR  ACTIVITIES

The mayor pointed out how 30 per cent of the metro populace still lived in bustees (there are officially 5500 such ‘colonies’) and, thanks to the pro-rich bias of the successive union governments bent on depriving the states of their due share of finance, 22 per cent of the metro population yet languish beneath the poverty line if we are to go by the 2001 census figures.

The mayor emphasised on the fact of realisation of the KMC that unless the poor underwent uplift and rehabilitation, the city itself could never flourish as a viable urban centre with a vast hinterland. While the direct pro-poor expenditure back in 2004-2005 stood at Rs 56.16 crore, the present figure is a thumping Rs 138.18 crore.

The expenditure on providing basic services to the bustees has virtually increased a hundredfold. The water infrastructure development mean that bustees now have more in the way of piped water supply, better sewerage/drainage systems to access, better and improved lighting system, and better and longer metalled roads for the people to travel on.

The additional water supply lines measure 47,270 metres, the sewerage, 417,901 km, and roads, a whopping 857,083 km. There are now 113,854 modern latrines, and the ‘old’ hexagonal latrines are being converted to modern toilet facilities. A total of 24,829 lamp posts lit up the bustees.

 

Community halls have been set ‘up and running,’ the internal pathways of nearly all the bustees have been made into paved ones, whilst on the social side, thousands of mohalla-level communities have been set up to provide gainful employment through self-help and small-scale, plus job-linked training programmes. A BPL list has been published and is again been updated, along with a plan for minority development plan for the metro.

Other sectors where initiates have been set in place in the metro under the leadership of the Left-run KMC board are:

 

Health

Education

Roads

Disaster management, and

Acquisition of land with compensation/ rehabilitation

The past five years have seen the face of Kolkata change for the better. Much more remains to be done. Yet, to the eternal credit of the CPI(M) and the Left Front, the fact remains that the population overload of Kolkata is not increasing exponentially with more population flowing into the developing small and medium townships across Bengal. We shall look to a better Kolkata every time we look on her was how Bikash Bhattacharyya put it.

 

LF Candidates Announced in KMC election

LEFT Front chairman Biman Basu announced early in the afternoon of April 17 names of the candidates put up by the Left Front for the corporation polls of the metropolis to be held on May 30.

The CPI(M) has put up 96 candidates, CPI 14, FB 11, RSP 10, M-FB, SP, DSP, RJD (LF supported) one each, and BBC and RCPI-- one each.

There are 92 new candidates or 65 per cent of the total. Most of the candidates are young. There are 67 women candidates who have been put up in seats over and above those reserved for women. Biman Basu said that the Left Front was satisfied with the working of the corporation in the present term that had started on and from 2005.

The present mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who is a lawyer of note, is not contesting the polls this time, and Biman Basu clarified to say that the post of a legal authority was being thought of about him.(INN)