Italy aims to increase bilateral goods exchange

KOLKATA: Besides helping the 538-odd tanneries in West Bengal shift to the newly formed Calcutta Leather Complex(CLC) to upgrade their products and technological processes and meet the EU regulations, Italy is also looking to increase bilateral exchange of goods and services in this sector.

Vittorio Mecozzi, Italian Trade commissioner, said “that export import of leather goods had been on a high growth path between India and Italy which can be further increased because many Italian companies are looking at joint ventures with India companies in leather sector. Last year in 2007-08 Italian imports of leather goods from India was close to 32 million Euro and India exported closed to 10.5 million pairs of shoes which is equivalent to 122 million euro and finished leather good export from India to Italy was close to 133.5 million euro. Infact India is the fifth largest supplier to Italy after China and Vietnam.

Italy a leading player in the world leather market, it does $18.66 billion worth annual exports in leather goods is also the largest exporter of tannery machinery to India. Italy exported close to 25 million euro last fiscal of which 10 million euro is tannery machinery. Italian consulate and trade office is investing close to 1.5 million Euro in the TTSC facility in supplying the high end machinery which can help address the environmental concerns, one of the chief hurdle of CLC Bantala complex. The facility will be spread over an area of 2700 square meter, for which construction is on, land was procured by West bengal government, informed, S S Kumar, chairman, Government College of Engineering and Leather Technology.

MAOISTS STRIKE AT PURULIA VILLAGE: KILL ONE, INJURE TWO

KOLKATA: A local committee member of the CPI (M) comrade Haradhan Majhi, his son Ravi Majhi, and a Party worker Chandrasekhar Majhi have become the latest victims of Maoist violence. Comrade Haradhan died from a massive head wound for he had been shot on the forehead at point blank range from a pistol by the Maoist killers. Chandrasekhar and Ravi are recuperating at a hospital near the Bersa locality of Balarampur at Purulia where the attack took place in the late evening.

Comrade Haradhan had long been on the hit list of the Maoist killers. Of late, he had forsaken his ancient bicycle to move around in an equally rickety motorbike. This could not save him. Comrade Haradhan (50) was on his way back from the bi-weekly haat and he had made purchases of some essential commodities for the week. The two other comrades were riding pillion.

The killers waited near a culvert where the road bends sharply and vehicles have to slow down. As soon as comrade Haradhan throttled down the motorbike and ‘walked’ the vehicle to negotiate the hard bend, the Maoist villain, there were seven of them, all clad in olive green camouflage fatigues and wearing Army-style peaked caps, came forward, pressed a pistol on his forehead and fired twice. The CPI (M) leader died on the spot, and the two other comrades received gunshot wound as the Maoists made good their escape.

Biman Basu has condemned the killing and said that there was a plan foot by the Maoists to create anarchy if they could in the western districts of Bengal. He called upon the mass of the people to remain vigilant. Elsewhere, on 3 February, a Maoist leader addressing the media at the press club in Kolkata responded to a query to say that the ultimate plan of their outfit was to create an autonomous jungle mahal area comprising Bankura, Purulia, and Midnapore west.(INN)

CORTEGE FIRED UPON: 3 DEAD, 10 WOUNDED

KOLKATA: An act of unimagined inhumanity unfolded before my eyes, deep into the evening of 2 February at Lalgarh. The cortege carrying the mortal remains of the martyr comrade Nandalal draped in a large Red flag was on its way towards the designated place for the last rites deep in the afforested area of Ramgarh. The procession comprised several thousand villagers and was led by the local committee members of the CP (M). The villagers wept angrily for, comrade Nanda had been a household name, always available by their side, rain nor shine. The entire ambience was a mix of rousing slogans and bitter tears.

As the cortege took the final bridle path that would lead to Ramgarh, the marchers found themselves confronted by a dozen-odd heavily armed, masked men and women who rudely declared that the cortege must not proceed farther, the body must be left behind and the marchers gone. A veritable thunderclap of a sound wave hit the accosters as rousing slogans rent the air. The Maoists made a temporary, as it turned out, retreat.

They came back with guns blazing. A very unequal mêlée ensued before our eyes. The CPI (M) workers threw a ring around comrade Nanda’s body while the villagers started to pelt the shooters with brickbats and stones. Palestine and Lebanon have shown that stones are no match for bullets raining death from automatic weapons. Three CPI (M) workers fell.10 were carried off with severe wounds to the chest and abdomen. Yet, the CPI (M) wouldn’t give an inch of the forest land to the craven Maoists who finally chose discretion as the better part of valour and ran away. The last remains of comrade Nandalal were subsequently carried to his native village where they were consigned to flames.

The next morning we met up, at the Lalgarh bazaar, with a self-proclaimed ‘Maoist’ supremo who spoke to us on conditions of anonymity although he his name frequently appears in the corporate newspapers. Openly acceding and maybe with a touch of cravenly boast the shoddy fact that he worked as a leader of the local Trinamul Congress unit during the day while taking on the persona of a Maoist killer when daylight has faded from the jungle mahal of the Santhal Pargana, the double-faced goon freely noted that a spree of killing of CPI (M leaders and workers ‘has been decided on,’ by the ‘joint command’ to work back a terror and abject fear in to the hearts often villagers, and thus also gaining the 'ground lost politically,' of recent yore. He also boasted of the publicity that the killings received in the right manner in the big media. How right the man was. Coming back t the city, I note every one of the corporate media organ, print or audio-visual deep in thought abut ‘who fired the shots at Lalgarh and Ramgarh....(INN)

MAOISTS SNEAK INTO LALGARH: KILL CPI (M) WORKER

KOLKATA: Mass resistance had made the craven Maoists and their running lackeys in the Jharkhand Party and the Trinamul Congress lie low for seven weeks now. In between, internecine struggle amongst their cowardly ranks resulted in the killing of a Maoist followed by that of a Trinamul goon with an ill-reputable history sheet of considerable proportions in the police dastabej (documented records.)

Mass resistance and revolutionary discretion, as Biman Basu, state secretary, Bengal CPI (M) has hammered repeatedly into the hearts-and-minds of the CPI (M) workers, however, cannot match upto a well-planned, swift, secretive, spineless, and evil attack on CPI (M) comrades, bold and resilient as they are, especially when the assailants are using superior attacking strength in the shape of heavy and sophisticated firearms, ferried from across the border from Jharkhand and Bihar, especially the former.

As I move around the spot at Lalgarh, in the descending darkness and amidst the shiver of a clammy cold on 2 February, in what is commonly cited on both sides of the border as the Santhal Parganas, where the comrade had fallen in pool of blood, I note the extreme unfriendliness of the terrain. There are innumerable hillocks, there are clumps of thick, dense growths, there are, also large thickets of tall and imposing and leafy and evergreen sal and piyal trees. The border is just a stone’s throw away. The paths are narrow and set on an extreme rolling terrain. The attackers had their route in and out, well-planned, the villains.

I learn that the slain comrade, Nandalal Pal (52), a member of the Binpur-1 zonal committee of the CPI (M) was that bit out of sorts and out of mind following the sudden demise of his mother. On 1 February, comrade Nandalal wandered slightly off the beaten track following the cremation of his mother’s last remains by the side of a narrow, dried-up-in-the-winter stream. He would not know that he had been kept under sharp focus by the Maoists and their adjutants for a long time. After all, he was one of the best organisers that the local CPI (M) unit has thrown up over the years and the decades through struggles and movements.

The moment comrade Nandalal became alone and entered a lonely stretch – it was about mid-day – some distance away from the nearest village cluster, five men, faces swathed in head scarves swooped on him, hit him hard, twice, on the head, with pistol butts, and then systematically, cruelly shot him along his thin body from the head to the stomach five times with what were foreign-manufactured, most probably Bulgarian-made 9mm pistols.

Biman Basu and Midnapore west secretary of the CPI (M) Prof Dipak sarkar have condoled comrade Nandalal’ s dastardly killing and have called upon the police and the administration to bring the assailants to book as quickly as possible. In the meantime, the CPI (M) stands to lose one of its warriors for the cause of farther social changes.

Te entire Lalgarh area displayed its solidarity for the fallen comrade by taking out numerous marches and rallies. A bandh was observed. The CPI (M) units of the Lalgarh area have decided to attend the Brigade rally come 8 February carrying large Red banners, and wearing Red headbands, in their rousing thousands. (INN)

COMRADE MADHURI DASGUPTA (1921-2009)

KOLKATA: She with her eruditition, with her kind yet confident demeanour, most importantly with her great dedication to the cause of Marxism-Leninism is no more with us and the body of immensity of work of her whole life remains with us like a shining star that shed, when she was alive and active, a quiet radiance and provided us with a comfort of leadership and of knowing that we are not alone.

Comrade Madhuri Dasgupta belongs to that class of women who performs their duties as mother, as wife, and as organizer, and above all as a revolutionary who struggles towards the farther changes ahead while organising women with a balance of competence and great dignity.

Comrade Madhuri or Dolldi was universally known in the AIDWA and beyond. We have to draw lessons from her far-sighted efforts to make poor women economically self supporting and training them up vocationally from as far back as the mid-forties.

She donated let it be put on record, a great part of her not-too-large house for initiating a self-employment programme. Perhaps we may even say that the success of today’s scheme of women’s self help groups definitely is conceptually and schematically indebted to her.

The major events of her revolutionary life are:
Organizer and leader of ‘Nikhil Banga Mahila Atmaraksha Samity’(1943)
Membership of Communist Party of India(1943)
Marriage with Communist leader comrade Sudhangsu Dasgupta(Babuda) (1943)
Participation in anti-communal movement in Noakhali in what was united Bengal in the pangs of being torn asunder(1946)
Participation in the historical peace march on the demand of freeing of the Communist leaders from jail, a march on which police fired and Latika, Amiya, Pratima, Gita and one young man, Biman, became martyrs(1949)
Primary role in conversion of ‘Nikhil Banga Mahila Atmaraksha Samity’ to ‘Paschim Banga Mahila Samity’ (1958)
Elected Founder general secretary of ‘Paschim Banga Ganatantrik Mahila Samity’(1970)

General Secretary, All India Democratic Women’s Organization, Sudha Sundaraman, Bengal CPI (M) secretary, Biman Basu, member Polit Bureau and AIDWA leader Brinda Karat, AIDWA leader Shyamali Gupta and others deeply mourned her passage that came in the wake of a protracted illness of a fatal kind.

BENGAL AIKS CALLS FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND INDUSTRIAL GROWTH

GENERATION OF EMPLOYMENT IS A CORE AGENDUM

KOLKATA(INN):In its three-day meet at Burdwan Township in the district of Burdwan, Bengal’s rice bowl, the state unit of the AIKS called for agricultural growth at a faster pace. It also heralded a call for industrial growth. Both agenda looked at increased figures of per capita employment as part of the pro-poor developmental perspective of the CPI (M), the Left Front and the Bengal LF government.

The open rally was a ‘mere’ assemblage of six lakh for the district membership of the AIKS itself exceeds 25 lakh. Lest my friends in the corporate media, sorely disappointed at the recent turn of political events in Bengal (more of which in a separate article), jump in glee with both feet in, and label the conference a boycott by the district AIKS, we may hastily posit that only the leadership level cadres were rallied on the occasion. The reason why is to be found in that ever elusive thing in Burdwan – open, uncultivated space.

The final choice fell on a broad swathe of a kilometre-long sandhead on the shores of the now quiescent but otherwise torrential river Damodar, an area of hard-packed gravel that could accommodate but five-odd lakh of people. That an additional one lakh turned up did not quite leave the question dangling of any disciplinary action. The all-India AIKS leadership present was overwhelmed at the response – that was the outcome of strong political drive for, and relentless organisational dedication to the cause of social change.

In an attractive speech delivered in simple but evocative language, Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that a challenge faced Bengal. The challenge comprise making the stat come to the very fore of the country’s states in terms of development of agriculture, industry, education, and health. Buddhadeb was full of praises for the Bengal AIKS for the role it had emoted right from the days of the nation’s freedom struggle to stand by the side of and lead the kisan, the humble tiller of the earth, organising them into a weapon of social change.

The concluding part of the speech of the CPI (M) Polit Bureau member basically dwelt on the land reforms movement and the role of the AIKS in assisting the two UF governments of the late 1960s and then of the Left Front government from 1977 in the process of redistributing land made khas by the political will of the Bengal administration. The lone statistics he mentioned was this, telling as it was in its impact: more than 84% of the 1.35 lakh agricultural land of Bengal belonged to poor and marginal farmers. The state also leads the list in production of rice paddy, vegetables, and jute.

All-India AIKS leader K Varadarajan detailed the horrific picture of the condition of the kisan and of the agrarian scene at the national plane. He reminded the massive assemblage that the AIKS had prevailed upon the central government not to go in for a policy of liberalisation fifteen years ago – and the advice was just put in the back burner. There was collective sigh from the rally when the AIKS leader pronounced that until date, no less than 1.75 lakh desperate kisans, thrashing about in the pangs of abject poverty had preferred either to swallow pesticides or to hang themselves. Was the central government moved by this? No, has been the answer until today, assured Varadarajan. The causes of the mass suicide were market orientation of commodities, lack of good procurement prices, want for viable loan components, and the credit entrapment by the sahukars and the mahajans among others.

Polit Bureau member of the CPI (M) Nirupam Sen who dwelt on the imperatives of pro-employment industrialisation, and veteran AIKS leader Benoy Konar who spoke feelingly on the ‘two nations existing within one nation, the rich and the poor segments,’ also addressed the gathering.

In the wake of the delegate session where there were 525 delegates and observers out of a total of several crore of AIKS membership, a new leadership was elected. Madan Ghosh is the president, Tarun Roy is the secretary, and Achintya Roy is the treasurer of the Bengal unit of the All-India Kisan Sabha.

RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED AT THE CONFERENCE:

1.Condolence resolution
2.Struggle against imperialism, terrorism, religious fundamentalism, and separatism
3.Against anarchic attempts to crate chaos in Bengal
4.Industrialisation for the interest of the kisans themselves
5.Organising the khet mazdoor struggles in a multifarious stream of movements
6.Against river erosion, and in favour of extension of irrigation
7.Early completion of the Teesta scheme
8.Early implementation of the Subarnarekha river bund project
9.Strengthening the AIKS and the kisan movement farther
10.Augmenting and accelerating the cooperative and the self-help movements
11.Build up each Panchayat as a Red bastion for the safeguarding of democracy
12.Defend and secure the right of the forest dwellers and forest resources
13.Against the Israeli attack on the Gaza strip and against Palestinian people in general
14.In demand of accelerated process of rural electrification
15.Onwards to the Lok Sabha election coming up

Country’s largest solar power plant in state soon

KOLKATA: The state is set to get the countrys largest solar powergeneration plant by the end of March this year, said state power minister, MrMrinal Banerjee speaking this morning at the inaugural ceremony of the 18thInternational Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference and Exhibition(PVSEC) at Science City.

The minister said the power plant, under construction atJamuria near Asansol, would be capable of generating around 2MW solar power.The state government has invested Rs 38 crore(USD 8MN) in the project.

As per the norms, 4.8 per cent of the total powerdistributed by West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) should be generated from renewable resources, which is not currentlythe case. Mr Banerjee said: ""Initiatives to increase powergeneration from renewal resources will be essential for the future of thecompany."" He added: Besides the government initiative,many private companies have started investing in the sector to meet the crisis.

SEPARATISTS IN COOCHBEHAR MUST BE ISOLATED FROM THE PEOPLE

KOLKATA: In the late morning of 20 January, the anarchic separatist activists of the so-called ‘greater Coochbehar’ movement blockaded the busy north-south national highway 34. Initially, 40-odd youth loitered in and out of the road space at Raigunj, dislocation traffic as a logjam started to build up.

Then suddenly, catching everybody by surprise, 500-odd armed separatists, equipped with sharp, cutting weapons, and a few countrymade firearms came out from the roadsides, sat themselves down on the highway and started to attack vehicles as well as passers by including cyclists through heckling, threats and pelting of stones and brickbats. They also created an atmosphere of provocation and the villagers and urban dwellers of the area came out in sheer frustration at the block.

By 12 noon, the civil administration of the subdivision and the police argued with the separatists to withdraw the blockade as tension was on the rise. In response, the divisive elements launched an armed attack on the police and regrettable the latter had to resort to a ‘push back’ through a lathi charge. A few tear gas shells too had to be lobbed. The way was soon cleared.

In a statement, Biman Basu, state secretary, Bengal CPI (M) has condemned the separatists’ acts of commission and has said that the separatists’ ranks are filled with the worker of the Trinamul Congress, the BJP, and the Pradesh Congress, the latter always willing to fish in troubled waters. Biman notes that one Shivaji Sarkar, who leads the Coochbehar separatists, is often seen as a leader of the local unit of the Trinamul Congress, the BJP, and the Pradesh Congress.

Under Sarkar’s nefarious leadership, the separatists have been engaged for some time in a covert manner to create spurts of disturbing of the public life in the district. Sarkar’s henchmen-in-chief are Katan Burman, Sashthu Burman, and Bundilal Burman of Bhatol. Biman has appealed to the Left and democratic forces and the mass of the people of Raigunj and north Dinajpore to protest vociferously against the attempts made afresh to create disruption by the forces of division and separatism. The clique that would go to the extent to call for a de novo division of the state must be isolated from the masses, by the masses, said the CPI (M) leader. (INN)

BENGAL ICDS HOLDS ITS SEVENTH STATE CONFERENCE

KOLKATA:The Bengal unit of the Integrated Child Development Scheme or ICDS, a central government project, is by far the largest representative organisation of its kind in Bengal and in the country. The Bengal ICDS unit is affiliated to the CITU. At the all-India level, the unit is a member of the all-India Anganwadi workers’ federation.

The work of the ICDS concerns the health welfare of the mother and the child through a balanced diet of nutrition. The coverage limits the scheme to a child until she or he is of six years. In this realm, the Bengal ICDS has done a continuously exemplary work as far as coverage density and coverage width are concerned. This has been going on with help from the social welfare department of the Bengal Left Front government whose one-time minister and an active ICDS leader is Nirupama Chatterjee who yet heads the organisation as its president.

Each ICDS centre like the one by the side of which I reside in a block of ancient flats in east-central Kolkata, provides a healthy mix of cooked food that comprise rice and / or home-leavened bread (chapatti), lentils and pulses in the form of thick soups, and a variety of green, orange and red vegetables plus milk and potable water keeping in mind the nutritional imperatives of the growing child and the post-partum mother.

The untiring work of ICDS workers in Bengal has helped bring down drastically the rate of child and mother mortality. The ICDS centres also prepare survey reports that are great inputs as developmental indicators. The ICDS workers – they are all women – also help in the tasks of vaccination, schooling, and general social welfare of the child and the mother.

The ICDS workers receive but a pittance from the central government, with the Bengal LF government providing them with what are virtually living wages but even this is not enough. Over and above these travails, the humble but dedicated ICDS worker get no benefits of employment, not even pension and PF facilities, not to speak of cadres, posts, and promotional avenues.

Fluting with impunity the apex court’s order to make the ICDS universal, the successive union governments have carried on with a pitiable state of affairs in the domain of child and mother welfare-- whilst the Bengal LF government is hamstrung by its financial constraints in a state-centre relational structure that heavily tilts towards the latter component.

Of late, as the state conference delegates and speakers from the dais pointed out, the World Bank had sent down a diktat to the docile union government to say that the ICDS project ‘is wasteful and should be restructured.’ This would virtually mean the end of the project as a pro-poor endeavour. The state conference fulminated against this harmful anti-people plan of the central government and raised a set of demands:

1.The ICDS project must be made perennial
2.The scheme must not be privatised
3.Until such time, each Anganwadi worker must receive a wage of Rs 3500 and each Anganwadi assistant, Rs 2500 per month
4.The sixty-plus Anganwadi workers and assistants must be given a lump sum retirement benefit of respective Re one lakh and Rs 50,000
5.The wage must be increased in keeping with the price indices
6.The project must be universalised
7.The World Bank diktat must not be obeyed

The seventh conference that was held at the Salt Lake stadium elected Nirupama Chatterjee as president, Ratna Dutta as the general secretary and Manasi Das as the treasurer of the Bengal unit of the ICDS workers’ association. The open rally that saw the commencement of the conference and which was held at the Rani Rashmoni Road crossing, heard addresses by, among others, CPI (M) leaders Shyamal Chakraborty, Subhas Chakraborty, Kali Ghosh, and Arati Dasgupta.

BENGAL CPI (M) CALLS FOR A MASSIVE PRO-DEVELOPMENT ANTI-ANARCHY RALLY ON 8 FEBRUARY

KOLKATA: In its two-day state committee meeting held at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan on 16 and 17 January 2009, the Bengal CPI (M) resolved to farther widen and strengthen its political-organisational base and to hold a big rally at the maidan to emphasise its stance against anarchy and for pro-poor development. Benoy Konar, central committee member of the CPI (M) presided.

Biman Basu, state secretary, explained the resolutions of the most recent meeting of the central committee. He also said that the upcoming Lok Sabha elections would be a tough challenge for the Bengal unit of the CPI (M) and for the mass of the people of Bengal. Biman was of the firm opinion, as he expressed it, that all kinds of opposition forces, stretching from the right reactionaries to the left sectarians, were arraigned against the Party and the people.

The opposition were working in unison or at least in tandem with one another. The garget was the CPI (M). The Bengal CPI (M), said Biman, must thus build up fast an even better, deeper, and wider contact with the mass of the people, clearing their confusions, and rallying then along the correct path. The Bengal CPI (M) must farther widen and deepen its bases among the rural and urban poor, Biman stressed.

The CPI (M) leader focussed attention of the state-level leadership to the importance of carrying out intense political campaign at all functional levels and to work towards enhancing the level of political consciousness of the CPI (M) workers. The work of campaign must be accompanied by revolutionary discretion and caution.

The district leadership spoke of the experience borne out of organisational conventions held across the state. They identified the points of weaknesses of the organisation. They emphasised the need to carry forth with vigour the ongoing rectification campaign. The state committee noted how the mass mobilisation for development and against anarchic manoeuvres had increased manifold of late. The state committee also had a preliminary look at the processes that obtained behind the results of the three by-elections haled at para, Sujapore, and Nandigram.

KOLKATA WITNESSES A BIG RALLY ON THE ISSUE OF DEVELOPMENT

KOLKATA, 18th January: The metropolis has been historic witness to many a large rallies. The one held on the morning of 18 January spanned the entire length of the city north to south and the marchers walked in an orderly double-column file. Twenty-one kilometers were covered with masses of the people from all sections of the society. The marchers assembled at the call of the CPI (M).

The basic slogans that under pinned the rally were a cry for development, and a shout against attempts at anarchy—and the slogans reverberated across the length and breadth of Kolkata for all of four hours.

In registering their protests – vibrant and vociferous – the marchers let it be known in no uncertain terms that developmental initiative would have the poorest of the poor at the top of its list of priorities, and the marchers warned the saboteurs of democracy, of the right and the sectarian left padded up by the foreign-funded NGOs not to go ahead with their anarchic planning against the popular and mass mandated Left Front government of Bengal.

Biman Basu, state secretary of the CPI (M) who led the marchers shouldering a large and waving Red Flag also briefly addressed the marchers at the Chiria More crossing near Baranagore in the northern suburbs of the city. Biman said that the country was reeling under the collapsing capitalist economy of the western countries. The prices of articles of common consumption have shot up. The CPI (M) has written to the Congress-run union government to put a leash on the galloping up of the price level – but to little effect. Perhaps this is hardly of surprise concerns as the strident demand does from an anti-people government that would rather be busy hushing the real magnitude of the deepening crisis involving the InfoTech magnates and their hot-money-run firms.

Biman was stringently critical of the foreign policy of the Singh government, a policy that heavily on and towards the US and its lackeys. In a gradual but menacing way, the sovereignty of the nation was put to jeopardy but would Singh and his friends in the ‘right’ places really care? The right reactionary elements have targeted the left in general and the CPI (M) in particular especially after the support to the UPA government was correctly withdrawn some months back on serious grounds of the disastrous-to-sovereignty nuclear accord.

Despite it having been a Sunday, the march was overflowing with people who had come from all over the city and beyond. There were 24 large banners delineating the popular demands as raised by the CPI (M) over the recent period. There were two big tableaux. There were an uncounted number of placards that drew attention of the people to the popular developmental demands of the CPI (M) for Bengal.

The marchers were felicitated in fourteen places in between the starting point and the finishing stage at Tollygunj deep into the south of the metropolis. The marchers had in the van several thousand Party volunteers attired in Red jackets and carrying Red flags.

“Reservation based on religion is not possible,” :BUDDHADEB

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee ruled out any reservation on the basis of religion, saying such a quota was not possible. “Reservation based on religion is not possible,” Bhattacharjee told a delegation of the National Commission for Minorities, led by its chairman Md Safi Quereshi.

Quereshi earlier said that the state’s minorities demanded reservation during an interaction with the Commission yesterday.The commission chairman was talking to reporters after the delegation met the CM as part of its visit to assess the status of minorities in the state.

Asked about the Commission’s views on reservation for the minorities, Quereshi said, “it’s a policy matter. I can’t say anything without discussing it with the Centre.” Quereshi said that the Chief Minister also told the delegation that Muslims should not feel isolated even if the minorities were not facing any crisis other than some socio-economic problems in the state.

However, the state government was trying hard to solve all their problems and upgrade their social and economic status through various development programmes and opportunities for employment, Bhattacharjee told the delegates.

During its visit, the Commission interacted with minorities, including Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and Muslims and reviewed the problems faced by them. Meanwhile, Minister of State for Minorities Affairs and Madrasah Education Abdus Sattar said that taking in view of the socio-economic problems of the minorities, the state government has earmarked Rs 400 crore in the budget.

Recruitment in Bengal IT sector may slump due to meltdown

Kolkata, Jan 15: The recruitment in the information technology (IT) sector in West Bengal is likely to be lower than the target set by the government due to the global economic meltdown, state IT minister Debesh Das said here Thursday. "Last year we generated employment for around 15,000 people in the IT sector and this year we had set a target of 20,000. But now it seems recruitment will be lower than last fiscal (2007-08)," Das told reporters on the sidelines of Infocom 08-09 - an IT seminar.

He said new IT projects growth is slumping but the existing projects are going steady. In the last fiscal 33 companies have registered for the software technology park in the city. This fiscal (2008-09), 30 companies have registered so far. "We expect the number to surpass last year's registration," Das said. Regarding the upcoming India Design Centre at the satellite city of Salt Lake, Das said the cost of construction will escalate as it has been decided now to increase the height of the design centre from 18 floors to 24. The hub will house companies that develop high-end software for computer chips.

Tiger attacks in Sundarbans send wake-up call

KOLKATA: Man is not a natural prey for big cats, but tigers in the Sundarbans in West Bengal are increasingly sneaking out of the dense mangrove forests and attacking humans, prompting the government to finally wake up to the warning signals. An expert committee will be set up to monitor the activities of maneaters, as such big cats are called.


It will try to find out why the tigers are attacking villagers - officially, there have been at least six such cases in the past year, but many more are suspected to have gone unrecorded.It will also suggest steps to prevent such crises.According to top sources in the Sundarbans development affairs department, the proposal to form the expert committee was placed before Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee last week during a meeting with the Sundarbans board.


'The committee will comprise senior officials from the state environment and Sundarbans development affairs departments. This apart, several wildlife experts, especially those who deal with tiger-related issues, will be included. The blueprint is ready and it's with the chief minister now,' a top state government source said on condition of anonymity. 'The committee will monitor why the tigers are often coming out of their core forest belt and attacking humans. If there's any dearth in the food chain, the expert team will also try to find that out after a detailed survey. 'We expect the committee to be formed shortly and it'll start functioning this month,' he said, adding the team might be headed by state chief secretary Ashok Mohon Chakraborty.'A few names have already been suggested but those are not yet finalised,' the official added.According to sources, the team may have experts from the Zoological Survey of India, representatives from the Wildlife Institute of India and faculty members of Calcutta University's zoological department.


Admitting that the number of tiger attacks has seen a sharp increase in the past one year, state Sundarbans Affairs Minister Kanti Ganguly said: 'We've not seen such a rise in the past 25 years'.In India alone, the Sundarbans has a vast area covering 4,262 sq km, including a 2,125 sq km maze of mangrove forests, creeks and tidal rivers. A larger portion of the forest is in neighbouring Bangladesh. There are many villages within this area, with the local population largely dependent on the forest to earn a living, thus triggering a conflict with animals.Shrinking habitat due to climate change and cyclone Sidr, which left behind a trail of devastation in 2007, forced many a Royal Bengal tiger to migrate from Bangladesh into the Indian side of the Sundarbans island.


Wildlife experts say a good number of tigers might have come into the Indian forests in search of food.Reports came Saturday that a fisherman, Gouranga Das, went missing at Jharkhali after he went to the Matla river to catch crabs. Das was cooking his meal on a small boat when a tiger jumped upon the boat and dragged him into the forest.A few pug marks were also spotted Friday evening near Gosaba village in the Sundarbans, triggering panic among villagers. District forest department officials were informed and searched the area, to no avail. Three people - including a girl and a forest official - were injured when a tiger entered Deulbari village near Kultali in South 24 Pargans district, about 110 km from here, in the last week of December. The tiger was later captured by forest officials.Another injured tiger that strayed into a village in the Sundarbans Dec 31 was taken to Kolkata for medical treatment.


'In the past year, at least six people were killed in tiger attacks in the Sundarbans,' Ganguly said. 'Generally what happens is that many people enter Sundarbans creeks without any permit. 'And when they are attacked, their family members don't lodge any complaint with the police. So naturally, we don't get to know the exact figure of how many people are actually killed in tiger attacks in Sundarbans every year.' 'We've also seen a sea change in the behaviour of the Sundarban tigers.


Now they are fearlessly entering nearby villages and attacking people,' the minister said.He said the state government was planning pig farming in Sundarbans to provide adequate food to the man-eaters and stop growing tiger intrusion in the locality.The Sundarbans forest is the world's largest mangrove reserve, recognised as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

West Bengal to revise bus, taxi fares after oil price cut

KOLKATA: West Bengal would review bus and taxi fares when the central government reduces fuel prices, Transport Minister Sunbhas Chakraborty said here Tuesday.'The government of India has not issued any notification so far. But once they issue it, we'll definitely review the bus and taxi fares in our state,' Chakraborty told reporters.

'We'll revise the fares of public transport in West Bengal within just one day from the time the notification will be declared,' he said.Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora last week said the government was working on a price cut and would announce the new rates within 10 or 15 days.

Medical college doctors perform miracle surgery in West Bengal

KOLKATA, Thursday, 15th January, 2009: A team of doctors at the Kolkata government medical college successfully operated on a youth who had been pierced by a six-foot-long iron shaft in a road accident. Sheikh Rezzak Ali, 22, survived a head-on clash with a speeding truck Wednesday morning at Arambag in Kolkata's neighbouring Hooghly district. An iron rod had pierced his right lung in the accident.

The seven-member medical specialist team, headed by surgeon Siddhartha Mukherjee, performed the two-hour long critical surgery at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital Wednesday to remove the shaft. Mukherjee said Ali showed immense courage and stamina. He was not nervous and did not even faint after suffering the fatal accident.'It helped us to save him,' the doctor added.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Thursday congratulated the doctors and said he wanted to meet them.Ali was driving a Tata Sumo to Arambag with his brother Sheikh Rajak and some neighbours when a truck rammed into them at Shirakol. An iron shaft shot out of the truck, smashed through the windscreen and speared Ali. Rajak managed to pull Ali out of the car and first took him to a nursing home nearby.

Later, he was taken to the state-run Kolkata Medical College and Hospital. A similar accident took place in the national capital in July last year when an engineer, Supratim Dutta, was impaled by an iron beam that perforated seven of his organs. Dutta survived as the beam had narrowly missed his heart, but needed a series of complicated surgeries.

Veteran Indian director Tapan Sinha mourned

KOLKATA: Leading Indian filmmaker Tapan Sinha has died in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata at the age of 84. Sinha, who suffered breathlessness and a chest infection late last year, died in a city hospital.

Last year, he was awarded the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke award - the highest national cinema honour - for his contribution to Indian cinema.Sinha, who made some 40 films - mostly in Bengali - was a versatile film-maker who straddled a range of themes.

Born in the eastern state of West Bengal - which was home to some of India's most acclaimed directors like the Oscar-winning Satyajit Ray - Tapan Sinha carved out a niche for himself as an intelligent and popular film-maker.

Making films in Bengali and later in Hindi, he took on a wide variety of subjects.Some of his films like Kabuliwalla, Harmonium and Jhinder Bandi became box office hits in Bengal. Ek Doctor Ki Maut (A doctor's death), made in Hindi, gained him nationwide recognition.

"He was an unassuming gentleman who had a strong ear for music and great command over adaptation of famous literary works," film critic Shoma A Chatterji said. Sinha began his career as a sound engineer and shot into the limelight with his 1956 feature Kabuliwalla, based on the story of a relationship between a girl and an Afghan dry fruit-seller by Nobel Prize-winning author Rabindranath Tagore.

He then took up several political and social themes - Adalat O Ekti Meye (The Law and a Lady), for example, dealt with a rape victim ostracised by society.Sinha won more than a dozen film awards in India for his work

2 pilgrims from Bengal killed, 25 injured in mishap

Balasore (Orissa), Jan 13: Two pilgrims from West Bengal were killed and 25 others injured when a bus in which they were traveling collided with a truck near Bahanaga on National Highway 5 in Orissa on Tuesday.

The bus, with 56 pilgrims of Nadia district in West Bengal, was returning from Puri when the driver lost control over the vehicle, police said. While Bharati Biswas (45) and Khokan Saha died on the spot, 25 others were injuries. The injured were admitted to Khantapada and Balasore hospitals and the condition of ten of them was stated to be critical, police said.

Other members of the group remained unhurt or suffered minor injuries. The group hailed from Krishna Nagar village in Nadia district who were on a pilgrimage tour to the seaside temple town on the eve of Makar Sankranti.

WB Govt to speed up phase out of old vehicles

KOLKATA: West Bengal Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty on Tuesday said the government is committed to introduce pollution-free transport in two years, and accordingly bus and taxi owners would be offered schemes to phase out their old vehicles. "The process has begun with auto rickshaws. Exact schemes for phasing out buses and taxis will be announced later to ensure pollution-free transport in the state," the minister said.

Two stroke autos would no longer be found on city roads and the Calcutta High Court order would be implemented in this regard. Unauthorised autos would also be out of city roads, he said. Chakraborty, earlier, said the state government was planning to procure 400 new generation buses this year and the proposal was discussed with three manufacturers Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Eicher Motors.

The minister, however, did not specify when and in how many phases the new buses would be procured and what would be the quantum of investment for the purpose. The Calcutta High Court had in July last year directed that all 15-years-old buses must be phased out by March 31 this year. As such, a large number of old private buses would go off the roads by that time.

Kolkata gets cord blood bank

KOLKATA: A cord blood bank - a source of stem cells for transplantation to cure a range of diseases - was opened here Tuesday.This is the first Indian facility launched by Cordlife Ltd, a Singapore-based cord blood banking group.

'The first Cordlife facility in India, with a storage capacity of up to 1,50,000 cord blood units, has been set up at Bishnupur area on the outskirts of Kolkata. There are two additional centres - at Siliguri town in West Bengal's Darjeeling district and Durgapur in Burdwan district - for blood collection,' group CEO Steven Fang told reporters here.Fang said stem cell therapies will also be developed at the Kolkata centre.'Cord blood has become a very common source of stem cells for transplantations. Permanent cures are possible for some diseases using stem cell therapies,' he said.'

At present, the Rs.100 million facility will be used only for storing and preserving cord blood. But within 18 months we will develop stem cell therapies for treating various diseases like heart ailments, diabetes, skin trauma, certain cancers like leukaemia and breast cancer, and blood disorders like thalassemia major,' Fang said.

Cordlife will invest Rs.300 million in 18-24 months to set up similar facilities across India.'First, we are targeting the major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore followed by tier-two cities,' said Meghnath Roy Chowdhury, managing director (MD), Cordlife Sciences India Pvt Ltd.Cord blood, which is also called 'placental blood', is the blood remaining in the umbilical cord and placenta following birth and after the cord is cut. Cord blood is routinely discarded with the placenta and umbilical cord.However, the cord blood, with its rich sources of blood stem cells, can be used to treat over 80 diseases.