NCC plea to return to education dept

KOLKATA: The National Cadet Corps (NCC) in West Bengal is trying to return to the education department.

In most states in the country, the NCC is under the education department. In West Bengal too, it was the same till 1996 when the Left Front government shifted it to the civil defence department. Since then the organization in the state has been facing problems.

Things have started looking up after the new government took over and efforts are being made to shift it back to the education department.

“We did face some problems with the previous government which did not pay due importance to NCC. However, after the change of guards, we have been getting alot of support. Both the civil defence minister and the chief minister are very keen to sort out our problems. I have suggested to the state civil defence minister and the education minister to bring NCC back to the education department. I will submit a formal proposal after I discuss the matter with Mamata Banerjee.

Several ministers, including Firhad Hakim, are former NCC cadets and are very cooperative,” Maj Gen M P Singh, additional director general, NCC (West Bengal and Sikkim directorate) said. According to Singh, the performance of NCC cadets from Bengal has improved significantly in the last few months, thanks to the motivation.

On Tuesday, Governor M K Narayanan gave away medals to NCC cadets who have excelled in several fields. “NCC should be made compulsory in schools. Children should go through the NCC discipline as it will make them better citizens,” Narayanan said.

Verdict on AMRI directors’ plea by Monday

KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court will give its verdict on bail petition of the AMRI directors by Monday. A division bench of Ashim Kumar Roy and Tarun Kumar Gupta said this on Wednesday after end of four days of hearing.

Appearing for the state, Kalyan Banerjee submitted that the board of directors of AMRI had violated statutory rules of the hospital and also civic building rules. He said though the hospital authorities had sought sanction for construction of lower basement for setting up a chemotherapy unit and an upper basement for car parking, after taking consent from the board of directors, they converted lower basement into a pharmacy and the upper basement into office space.

“This is clearly a case of violation of the KMC building rules, Banerjee said. The chargesheet would be filed within 10 days, he said.

Discussion on campus discipline

KOLKATA: Campus skirmishes have escalated in recent times, leading to heightened concern about discipline in educational institutions. Educationists came together on Wednesday to discuss what needs to be done to ensure and create a healthy democratic environment in colleges and other institutions of higher learning.

Commenting on ‘Maintaining Discipline in Educational Institutions’, La Martiniere for Boys principal Sunirmal Chakravarthi said despite having the responsibility of imparting value-based modern and high-quality education, schools don’t have the right to discipline the children.

“Teachers are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. We are really crying out for help,” Chakravarthi said. He raised a question: Since parents have abdicated their duties and schools can’t punish them, who is to educate the child between what is right and wrong? Jadavpur University VC Pradip Narayan Ghosh felt authorities too were to blame for clashes and agitations.

He pointed out that rarely do students demand better quality of teaching or educational facilities during strikes or agitations. Most of the disruptions are political and election-related. All panelists felt politics should be removed from educational institutions.

“A political atmosphere is not conducive for an educational institution,” said St Xavier’s College principal Felix Raj.

Thespians’ dilemma portrayed on stage

The play was meant to be a birthday gift from Debesh Chattopadhyay’s Sansriti to theatre lovers of the city. On Sunday evening, the Academy of Fine Arts was packed to capacity to watch the first show of ‘Brain’.

The play, which is a one night’s tale about the interaction between a theatre director, his wife and an actor and deals with the understanding of how every action of a human being has a scientific basis to it, once again raises the whole debate of whether theatre is a higher form of art in comparison to that which is churned out in the name of resurgent and popular Bengali cinema.

One reason why ‘Brain’ has the potential to become the next talking point of Bengali theatre is that it marks the return to stage of two of Bengal’s finest actors – Sujan Mukhopadhyay and Bidipta Chakraborty. Complementing them was none other than Pijush Ganguly, who has been a favourite on the stage, having consistently done plays such as ‘Jochhona Kumari’, ‘Virus M’, ’17th July’, ‘Mrityu Ishwar Jounota’ and ‘Babli’.

The choice that a theatre actor has to make when he opts for mindless cinema that offers both money and fame as opposed to the marginal existence of a theatre person in quest of knowledge does not merely remain an engaging debate between the idealist Pijush and the more realistic Sujan. It is a dilemma that most theatre actors in Tollywood are now facing. For them, the moot point is to decide whether it make sense to remain a “bad director” who is all equipped with the knowhow on dramatics but has no new production to talk about, or is it wiser to unlearn everything that was taught on stage and join the melodramatic world of populist cinema that is only concerned with number crunching?

Says Sujan, “When I first heard Debeshda’s script, I could see mirror images of so many people I know from Tollywood in the character that I was playing. The theatre actor’s dilemma might have been dealt with in earlier plays, too, but nowhere before has it got so magnified. At least 50% of the theatre actors I know in Tollywood will agree with these lines I mouth on stage: ‘Dorshok haat tali dichhe, director bhalo bolchhe, production house amake chaichhe, tor contradiction tokhon ****. Majhe majhe ektudialogue bhule jai. Tui ekjon byartho gyani director hoye barite bose thak. Ami ekta ***** actor hoye gari chalabo’.”

Sujan himself didn’t do theatre for close to five years and had refused his brother (Suman Mukhopadhyay) when he had offered him the role of Bishu Pagla for ‘Raktakarabi’. “I felt, I might end up coming late for rehearsals and not give the honour that’s due to theatre.

But it’s a fact that in between, I did a lot of roles on the small screen that didn’t make me proud. Reality shows pay a lot these days and I couldn’t ignore that lure,” he admits. There is a scene in the play where Sujan’s character shows a photograph of his that’s been published on Page 3 and proudly tells Pijush that he is happy to be seen there. “That’s actually the truth for so many actors,” he says.

Ask Pijush if he ever faced such a dilemma in his life and he says: “This is dilemma among most theatre actors in town. Having quit my job as a bank employee, I had to wait for six years before I was in a position to do theatre. Being on stage wasn’t enough to sustain me financially and even today, I need to go back to doing serials and cinema. But having said this, I must add that I don’t agree with my character’s views about theatre being a higher form of art. Today’s Bengali films and serials also offer intellectual fodder.”

Bidipta, who took 11 years to return to stage, says: “I started doing theatre when I was five. I had various reasons for not doing theatre in between though I did serials and films. Not too many interesting offers came my way. I loved Debeshda’s script and found Sujan’s character very interesting. I see so many such actors around me and I also notice that somewhere deep down they have that urge to go back to theatre but can’t.”

Debesh, on his part, insists that while the dilemma of the theatre actors is known to him, he doesn’t subscribe to the view that there can be any hierarchy in art forms. Says Debesh, “Let’s not compare the dynamics of theatre and cinema. In fact, it’s tougher for an actor to maintain the emotional continuity in a film and movie shooting requires more concentration. On stage, it’s challenging to connect with a live audience who will instantly give a feedback. There is no retake on stage.”

Vice-President Hamid Ansari to visit Kolkata in February end

KOLKATA: Vice-President Hamid Ansari will be in Kolkata later this month for the three-day celebrations to mark the birth centenary of well-known poet, novelist and journalist Sachidananda Vatsayan Agyeya, popularly known as Ajneya. The event is being organized by the Prabha Khaitan Foundation between February 21 and 23.

Apart from the vice-president, who will be the chief guest, nearly 50 renowned literary personalities from across the country will attend the event. During the programme on February 22, Soumitra Chatterjee, Arpita Chatterjee and Moon Moon Sen will recite Ajneya’s poems. West Bengal governor M K Narayanan and others have also confirmed to be present at the event that is being organized in collaboration with the Sahitya Akademi and Raza Foundation.

Ajneya was born in 1911 and edited several newspapers before taking up a faculty position at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1965, he returned to India and became the founder editor of the newsweekly ‘Dinaman’ of The Times of India Group. He remained in India till 1968, before embarking on a trip to Europe. In 1969, he returned to Berkeley as Regents professor and continued there till June, 1970. After a stint at Heidelberg University, he returned to India. He was editor of Jayprakash Narayan’s ‘Everyman’s Weekly’ and editor-in-chief of ‘Navbharat Times’ between 1977 and 1980.

Hamid Ansari will attend the three-day celebrations to mark the birth centenary of well-known poet, novelist and journalist Sachidananda Vatsayan.

Alipore jail inmates to get computer lessons

KOLKATA: The inmates of Alipore Correctional Home are all set to attend computer literacy classes. The computer training centre was inaugurated on Tuesday. The inmates would be trained under project Umeed by Vedanta Foundation (VF), an organization running computer literacy centers in correctional homes across the country.

Anandamoy Sardar, a lifer and former tutor from Kultoli, will don the teacher’s hat and teach computer to his fellow inmates. Sardar, who has been serving his term for nearly six years now, was selected for the post by VF. Other faculty members will be from Microsoft. Sardar was arrested during a political clash in the South-24-Parganas. While the SUCI activist had completed his BSc second year prior to his imprisonment, he fnished his graduation in prison. He has also done basic computer courses.

“I used to give private tuition to students in my locality. Now I will be able to pursue the profession in the prison,” said an elated Sardar. VF will be giving him a monthly salary of Rs 3000 which will be handed over to his family by the jail authority.

The other prisoners were equally excited. “Acquiring this new skill could be of help when I am out of the prison. But I do not know if I would be selected as I have studied only till class VIII. I am keeping my fingers crossed,” said Sheikh Azan, who was convicted for a dacoity.

“The classes will be conducted through batches of 18 students each. This is an effort to bring the inmates into the mainstream,” said minister of correctional administration Shankar Chakravorty.

Govt warns teachers shirking exam duties

KOLKATA: The state government has issued a directive, warning teachers that refusal to examine Madhyamik and Higher Secondary answer scripts or to invigilate during the exams will lead to penal action.

“It is disheartening to find teachers reluctant to check answer scripts. The deadline set for examiners is often violated as answer scripts and submitted late. This hinders in collating marks. This, in turn, delays publication of results of time,” said a senior official of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education.

He added, “The problem arises when sometimes examiners lose answer scripts. Their callousness takes a toll on examinees. Though there is a provision for taking action against them, it takes a long time. The circular has been distributed to ensure that teachers take their jobs more seriously.”

The circular issued on February 8 says since the government has noticed apathy among teachers in discharging their duties as invigilators or as examiners and scrutinizers in Madhyamik, HS and annual examination of Class XI, the government is strictly instructing teachers to perform duties as and when assigned by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education.

“We have directed that in case of any refusal, complaints can be lodged with the director of school education and the WBBSE president who will take action against teachers as per rules,” said a senior school education department official.

The headmaster of Ballygunge Government School, Rupak Homray, said: “There is no reason why an examiner should falter in submitting answer scripts on time. Earlier, there were problems when sessions in schools would get over during the same time when Madhyamik and HS examinations were held. Time constraint forced examiners to delay submitting answer scripts. Now, the examination schedule is different. However, there still remains a problem but mostly it is out of their callousness.”

Trader’s murder: Cops scan CCTV footage to track down assailants

KOLKATA: Three days after a trader was gunned down at Burrabazar, police are working on some CCTV footages and accounts of three eye witnesses to nab the assailants. However, the investigators are still at a loss over the motive behind the murder.

The eye witnesses, who are roadside hawkers by profession, told the police that they saw two youths fleeing the spot when Syamsundar Popat – the victim – collapsed on the street. However, none of them noticed any jostle between the assailants and the victim. This has left the cops clueless. “If they were looking for the money that Popat was carrying with him, there should be a jostling before firing. If they got the bag without any resistance, then why did they open fire?” wondered an investigator.

Jyesh, Popat’s brother, also added to the confusion by raising a valid point: “My brother was walking from Rajakatra. Some stretches between Kalakar Street and Rajakatra remain dark and deserted on Saturday night as most the shops remain closed. Then why the assailants chose a crowded area like Satyanarayan Park remains a mystery.”

Police collected footages from the CCTVs installed at two shops located near the firing spot. The footage shows the assailants came on foot and went close to the victim. But the next frame captures the two fleeing and Popat collapsing. Due to crowd, the camera could not capture what happened in between. The two youths whose movement was suspicious were seen fleeing towards Laddu Galli. Cops managed to get a hazy picture of the duo.

Images from the CCTVs installed at MG Road-Kalakar Street crossing and the Cotton Street-Kalakar Street intersection could not provide any leads as they weren’t facing the murder spot. The one at Satyanarayan Park, which could have come handy, was switched off by then.

Jyesh said four years ago, some miscreants tried to snatch cash from Popat at Sonapatty. But his brother managed to escape with the cash. Jyesh does not believe that snatching could be the only motive. He claimed to have some interesting facts that he would share with the investigators soon.

The footage shows the assailants went close to the victim. But the next frame captures the two fleeing and Popat collapsing. The camera could not capture what happened in between.

Ayah hatched robbery plan at Kasba flat

KOLKATA: The ayah, who was recruited to look after the month-old grandchild of the landlady, masterminded the robbery at the Kasba house on February 11. Following interrogation of the ayah, Shukla Mondal, police rounded up her fiance Bapi Mondal and his friend Amalesh Jha with charges of robbery.

According to police sources, Shukla originally hails from Mathurapur. Some years ago, she left her husband and started staying with Bapi – who ditched his wife as well – at Sonarpur. Strewn by extreme financial crunch, the couple started looking for some easy money. Meanwhile, Shukla started working as an ayah and Tapasi Banerjee hired her through an agency to look after her daughter Indrani’s child.

After working for few days, Shukla noticed that Tapasi and her daughter could be an easy prey. She even used to overhear the mother-daughter conversations and concluded her employers stashed ornaments in their house. She informed Bapi about the possibility of laying hands on the ornaments and a plot was hatched consequently. Bapi took into confidence his three friends, one of them was Amalesh Jha, a resident of Kalikapur and a cabdriver by profession.

On February 11 night, the gang of four boarded Amalesh’s cab and went to Tapasi’s Kasba Rathtala residence. While two stood guard outside, the rest stormed into the first-floor room where Tapasi stayed alone. Her daughter Indrani was out to a neighbour’s house that time. Police said they robbed some silver ornaments and utensils, but were looking for more precious ornaments. When they could not get anything worthwhile, they threatened Tapasi and finally snatched her gold bangle before leaving.

Suspicion fell on Shukla during investigation as the robbers tied and gagged Tapasi but left Shukla free. Initially, she tried to reason that robbers spared her since the baby was on her lap. But she broke down after prolonged interrogation and Bapi’s name finally cropped up.

But the cops failed to nab Bapi as he fled from his house and Shukla did not disclose his whereabouts. Police finally managed to get hold of him tracking his mobile tower location. “We have managed to recover major portion of the booty. We are now looking for the two other accused,” said Damayanti Sen, joint CP ( crime).

Raid busts Bata counterfeit racket

KOLKATA: Did the pair of ‘Bata’ shoes that you purchased at a discounted rate from an outlet not owned by Bata India Ltd (BIL) give you trouble? It may have been a fake one manufactured by one of several units operating at Maheshtala in South 24-Parganas.

In one of the biggest raids undertaken by the enforcement branch in recent times, thousands of pairs of such fakes worth over Rs 1 crore were seized on Tuesday. These fake shoes, labeled Power, Marie Claire, North Star and Bata were distributed to towns in districts like Asansol and Siliguri and exported to Bangladesh as well. The counterfeiters have been operating for years, barely a stone’s throw away from the BIL’s unit at Batanagar. Not only did these units manufacture shoes that resemble Bata ones, these were also branded and packed in boxes that resembled original Bata packaging. Even the user manuals that are distributed with certain shoes were replicated.

Incidentally, BIL has plans to invest in West Bengal and make a major comeback by opening new outlets across the country. Recently, BIL lodged a complaint with the state EB against these manufacturers. “It has recently come to our knowledge that several persons/firms are engaged in the manufacture of brands the copyrights of which are owned by BIL. This is of extreme concern as the goods supplied are of inferior quality thereby diluting the brand equity of our copyrights and trademarks. These people have the intention to deceive the customers and mint money by cashing upon the reputation of our company’s copyrights,” it was stated in the complaint.

On Tuesday, a large police contingent accompanied enforcement officials and those from BIL’s legal cell on the raid. “We conducted raids on only 10 outlets and seized thousands of pairs of counterfeit footwear. One person was arrested. Others managed to flee. Such was the size of the seizure that we required three trucks to shift them to the EB’s office. We have no problems if other companies manufacture footwear. We are only concerned about somebody using the company’s trademark illegally. This was certainly one of the biggest raids carried out in recent times,” said Swatarup Banerjee, legal counsel for BIL.

Police said that better monitoring will be carried out in future and a search will be launched to nab those involved in the manufacture of the counterfeit shoes. The arrested man will be interrogated to find out where the counterfeit shoes were sent and the contacts of others involved in the trade. There could be other locations in and around Kolkata where similar activity takes place. “If necessary, more raids will be carried out,” an officer said.