Salt Lake to bill boards
The cash-strapped Bidhannagar Municipality has decided to raise revenue by taxing all billboards on private and government premises.
The Salt Lake civic body has introduced the tax on grounds of “visual pollution”. “We decided to impose the tax in the beginning of the year and started sending out notices from February,” said municipality chairperson Krishna Chakraborty.
“The tax will be collected at the rate of Rs 109 per square foot and we hope to earn close to Rs 2 crore a year from over 300 such billboards across the township,” Chakraborty said. The visual tax of a standard 300 sqft billboard would work out to Rs 32,700 a year. Earlier, only hoardings on roads and municipal land were taxed by the Salt Lake civic body.
The Calcutta Municipal Corporation had brought hoardings on private premises under the tax ambit in 1985. The rate in Calcutta varies from Rs 110 to Rs 800 per square foot depending on the location and size of the hoarding.
The Salt Lake civic chairperson said the decision has been given the go-ahead by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, known for her stand against any fresh levy on citizens as was evident from her opposition to the fare hike in Wednesday’s railway budget. “We have already got the green light from the chief minister. The tax will not affect ordinary citizens but only those running a business from their premises,” she said.
Bidhannagar Municipality’s move, however, faced stiff opposition from billboard owners and outdoor advertising agencies, who submitted a memorandum to the chairperson on Thursday, calling for a reduction in the rates. They also denied having received any notice from the civic body.
“The municipality never informed us about the fee. It should at least be introduced from next financial year,” said Bidhan Ganguly, the secretary of the Bidhannagar Advertisement Association.
An attempt to pull down a billboard at Salt Lake stadium on Thursday morning ran into trouble. “The civic officials said they had an order to pull it down because we had not paid tax for 15 years. We showed them papers that proved all payments till 2014 had been made to the sports department, which owns the land on which the billboard stands,” said Anindya Banerjee, director of Enkon. It was only after the agency representatives met Chakraborty that they realised a new visual tax had been imposed.
According to municipality sources, there are close to 50 billboards on the Salt Lake stadium premises alone. The municipality has asked the Sports Authority of India, which owns a part of the stadium, to include the visual tax when it renews the contracts with billboard agencies and pay the money to the civic body.
The municipality has also undertaken a survey to list legal and illegal hoardings in the township and has so far come across 180 legal and 167 illegal hoardings.
“We have already pulled down close to 40 illegal hoardings and if the owners fail to pay the taxes we will pull down more,” Chakraborty said.
The civic authorities have also proposed to increase the licence fee of billboards on municipal land from Rs 209 per sqft to Rs 450 per sqft.
Rape threat to slain constable’s niece – 24-year-old asked to withdraw complaint in a day or face a second attack
The 24-year-old woman whose uncle was fatally assaulted for standing up to her tormentors on Holi has alleged that the assailants had threatened to rape her if the family did not withdraw its complaint.
Mamon Dhar lodged a complaint with the airport police station on Thursday, saying she had received several calls on her mobile phone asking her to ensure that the March 9 FIR was withdrawn within 24 hours. The FIR named seven youths who had allegedly assaulted constable Ashim Kumar Dam.
“The callers abused me and threatened to raid our house again and rape me if we don’t take back the complaint,” said the Birati resident, scared but determined to keep fighting for justice. “They are targeting me because the entire family is numb with shock and I am the only one protesting. But the threat calls can’t silence me. I will keep up the fight, even if I am attacked for a second time. Jodi benchey thaki, er sesh dekhey chhaarbo (Will see the end of it if I am alive). I will identify the youths during the TI parade even if that means risking my life.”
Mamon wants to meet chief minister Mamata Banerjee and request her to ask the police to speed up the probe into the death of her uncle. “The police may have been doing their bit but it’s not enough. It’s a week since the incident but several of those named in the FIR are still at large.”
Five youths had turned up at the Dams’ two-storeyed house near Bisharpara railway station in Birati and teased Mamon and forcibly smeared her with colours. They left after her uncles protested but returned in a larger group, armed with guns, wickets and hockey sticks.
One of the youths hit Ashim on the head with a hockey stick and another stabbed him in his abdomen, hands and legs. The gang also assaulted other members of the family, including Ashim’s brother Sekhar and their 78-year-old mother. The constable died of cerebral haemorrhage at a private hospital in the city on Sunday morning.
The Dams have named seven youths in the FIR but only three of them have been arrested — Abhijit Ghosh, Debu Mukherjee and Tapan Chanda. A fourth youth — Babu Chakraborty — has been picked up though his name does not figure in the FIR.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar police commissionerate claimed “no stones have been left unturned” in the probe into the assault and harassment. “Four persons have been arrested in the past three days. A hunt is on for the rest. We are also trying to identify the persons who had made the threat calls,” the officer said.
Chief secy’s term extended by six months
KOLKATA: Samar Ghosh’s tenure as the chief secretary of the state has been extended by six months from March. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee wants Ghosh to continue as the chief secretary since her dispensation is only nine-month-old and a bureaucrat like him is required at the helm of governance. It is learnt that the 1977-batch IAS officer had expressed his reluctance when Mamata first approached him.
The UPA government, which is now keeping Mamata in good humour after its recent poll debacle, has cleared the state’s request.
The Union department of personnel and training under the ministry of personnel, which is headed by the Prime Minister himself, has approved the state’s proposal.
The IAS rules have specific provisions that say the chief secretary’s service may be extended for a period not exceeding six months on the recommendation of the state government with “full justification and in public interest” with prior approval of the Centre.
Getting the current chief secretary to stay on was Mamata’s brainwave. She drew reference to the Congress government in Odisha (then Orissa) which had given Rabi Das two extensions (six months each) as chief secretary in the Nineties. Das was given extensions by then chief minister Biju Patnaik and his successor Janki Ballav Patnaik. IAS officers across the board agreed that the chief minister’s plan was befitting under the current circumstances.
A secretary at Writers’ Buildings said, “The government is still learning the ropes and a man like Ghosh is needed to give it some stability. There have been quite a few faux pas so far, and the chief secretary seems to be the only one who can stand up to a wrong decision.”
Get your building plan sanctioned online
KOLKATA: It may take only a week to sanction building plans for middle-class homes, if Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has its way. After being pulled up by the chief minister over pending applications, the civic body is planning to introduce a single window system for plan clearance of small residential units.
While an online system for tracking the status of building plans is already in place, submission of applications will soon become an online process once the plan is duly signed by an authorized architect.
Building plans for middleclass homes in the city could soon be sanctioned in a week with Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) planning to introduce a single window for such clearances at the prodding of chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The CM is learnt to have pulled up KMC authorities over applications for plan sanctions piling up with it. Not only that. Under instructions from the CM to curb corruption in sanctioning of building plans for the middleclass, the civic top brass have planned to open an ‘online’ service for sanctioning of the plans once an applicant submits the plans duly signed by a KMC authorized architect.
“The online sanction of building plans is an ambitious project for the KMC building department. Initially, we may start this scheme for small dwelling units. Sanctioning of plans for the highrises is a complicated matter and may take time,” said a senior KMC official. However, before introducing the online system, KMC will now allow the applicants (who have already applied)
to go through the exact status of their building plans online. “We are offering this facility to the applicants and the required system is already in place,” said a KMC building department official.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee has appointed Anindya Karforma, KMC’s chief architect and town planner, as the new director general (buildings) to speed up sanction of building plans. Karforma took charges on March 2 and convened a meeting of all executive engineers the very next day and directed them to clear all applications for plan sanctions in case of small dwellings.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee has appointed a new director general (buildings) to speed up building plan sanctions. Anindya Karforma, KMC’s chief architect and town planner assumed charge as DG (Buildings) on March 2, replacing Debasis Kar. Karforma convened a meeting of all executive engineers in the building department the very next day and directed them to clear all applications for plan sanctions in case of small dwellings.
“We have been asked to expedite the process of clearing files for small dwellings,” said a KMC building department official. “As a possible solution to this problem, the owner of the land has to come to the KMC building department and pursue the case. Otherwise, the sanction could be delayed since registered architects seldom approach us to solve the problem. We may have to suggest some changes in the plan which the architects have to pass on to the owner,” he added.
This is not all. The civic authorities are planning to open a single window system for sanctioning plans for middle-class homes.
“We are planning to introduce a single window system for those who approach us for sanctioning plans for small residential units. If the applicants can produce clean papers relating to land deed and a proper building plan duly signed by an architect registered with KMC, we may take a week to sanction the application so that construction can start without delay,” said a KMC building department official. Mayor Sovan Chatterjee said that all efforts would be made to ensure hassle-free sanction of building plans for the middleclass so that they are spared a long wait to get the clearance.
Sources in the KMC building department said hundreds of applications for building plan sanctions were lying with it for the last couple of years. are lying with the department for a couple of years.
The member, mayor-in-council, Tarak Singh admitted that files were piling up. conceded that plenty of these files had been lying with a group of officials for months together.
“We have to relieve citizens from such harassment. Senior civic officials need to clear these files at regular intervals,” Singh said.
Files on proposals for demolition of unauthorized buildings are also gathering dust. have also been piling up for years.
“More than a hundred such files have remained locked up in the KMC building department for the past three years. Now, we have been asked to clear those files on a war-footing,” said a senior KMC building department official. The demolition proposals are for buildings in B.T Road, Dum Dum, Cossipore, Beadon Street, Park Circus, Topsia, Behala, Jadavpur, Tollygunge and Garden Reach.
Didi memoirs detail cop role in Nandigram
KOLKATA: While the CBI probe report on the March 14, 2007, firing in Nandigram – and the role of police officers in it – is yet to be made public, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has already detailed it in 34 pages of her recently published “My Unforgettable Memories”.
A division bench of Calcutta high court had on November 16, 2007, said the police firing in Nandigram was unjustified and unconstitutional. It had also directed the CBI to inquire into the incident. Challenging the high court order, the previous Left Front government had moved the Supreme Court, which later restrained the CBI from initiating criminal proceedings in any court against police officers involved in the firing. CBI had placed its report before the apex court on March 15, 2011. But on February 25, this year, the state has withdrawn the special leave petition challenging the high court order which had described the firing as “unconstitutional”. So, now, CBI is free to initiate criminal proceedings against policemen (and others) in the matter.
While little is known on CBI findings on the role of police officers, Mamata’s no-holds-barred memoir leaves little to imagination and mentions the designation of these officers. “March 4, Sunday. CPM leaders had a secret meeting with the police in room number 26 of the Kolaghat Power Station guest house. The subject of their discussion: Operation Nandigram. Present in the meeting was the state police IG (West) and DIG. Apart from police and administration, several rounds of meeting focused on how to save their backyard. They started collecting people around Nandigram. For instance, 200 people at Janani brick kiln, 300 at Tekhali camp, 150 at Kunjapur, 100 at Swadhin Pramanik’s house in Sathkhand, 40 at Chunapiri market, 50 at Bakhatalla, and 50 at Malda, Kamrada, and Vidyapith. All of them were from Purulia, Bankura, and Jharkhand.” Mamata first wrote this in “Nandi Maa”, a 2010 publication, excerpts of which were republished in her latest memoirs.
Mamata writes: “Police sources later revealed that six teams had been formed to accomplish the task of occupying Nandigram.” She writes that according to the police roster, Team 1 was in charge of the area between Bhangabera and Sonachura. Team 2 was in charge of the area between Nandigram and Mahespur. The officers leading this team were West Midnapore additional police superintendent (Operation); Bidhannagar additional police superintendent; Katoa, Kalyani SDPO; DSP traffic; Contai and Purulia court inspector; and another inspector from Birbhum. According to her, Team 3 was in charge of the area between Tekhali outpost and Adhikari Para. The officers leading this team were Tamluk and Howrah (rural) additional police superintendents; Purulia co-police superintendent; Gangarampur, Tamluk SDPO; highway inspector; Contai and Tamluk CI, and two DIOs.
In the same chapter she mentions that the other teams too had chosen police officers trusted by the CPM regime. She then names them. “Team 4 was in Tekhali with the DIG (Midnapore range) himself in-charge. With him were additional police superintendent Kharagpur; of Jadavpur, Bankura DSP and battalion co-director; Tamluk court inspector; and traffic inspector West Midnapore. Team 5 was stationed at the Nandigram police station. Its in-charge was the additional police superintendent (headquarters), IB DSP, CI (Manbazar), telecom, and another inspector. Team 6 was under the IG himself and included an additional police superintendent, Bolpur, Raghunathpur SDPO; and two inspectors each from Sonamukhi and Bankura.”
That’s not all. She also mentions that a list of the mobile phone numbers of the top police officers had also been prepared. Apart from these top 55 police officers there were a team of junior police officers and other policemen, she writes. However, she hasn’t mentioned any names.
In another place, Mamata wrote that detectives (she didn’t specify exactly which detectives) visited Nandigram and filed their field report to the government as early as January 4. “In their report, they said the situation at Singur and the police excesses in the area was beginning to create unrest in Nandigram. Three reports had been submitted to Writers’ in the beginning of January. The final report was submitted to Writers’ Building in the second week of March. If the police forces enter Nandigram there will be a confrontation and it could lead to a big accident, said the report. Each of these reports went to the home secretary and DG. The chief minister too was briefed about them. But it was decided that police will take the CPM cadres along with it and forcibly enter Nandigram,” she writes.
Mamata hands KMDA baton to Hakim
KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday stepped aside and appointed urban development minister Firhad Hakim as the chairperson of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Political observers believe the move is likely to make things a little more difficult for mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who, as the vice-chairman of the authority, will now have to work under Hakim. It is an open secret that the duo has not been the best of friends.
A few months ago, the chief minister, who had made Chatterjee indispensable in the administration, had kept Hakim out of the KMDA executive committee. It has been a norm to make the urban development minister the chairman of KMDA. Former urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya, too, had been the chairman.
On Monday, Mamata finally adhered to the norm, but only after her apparent disillusionment with the mayor. On January 24, Chatterjee was stripped of three of his portfolios – assessment, slums and market. The move by the CM set a precedence as never before had any mayor’s wings been clipped ever since the mayor-in-council system was introduced in Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
At a meeting at the Town Hall in December, the chief minister had openly chided the mayor, asking him why he had not taken her call at 1am when a fire broken out at Topsia. She has been making her displeasure about the mayor known ever since.
Mamata, too, has been offloading some of her responsibilities – getting a new power minister (Manish Gupta) was the first such move. Last month, she appointed Chandrima Bhattacharya as the minister of state for health, even though she herself is still the minister in charge of health.
Boy given mother’s shot – Nurse showcaused for mix-up in anti-rabies injection
A mute child was administered an anti-rabies injection meant for his mother for a cat bite at Pasteur Institute, Tangra, on Tuesday.
The careless nurse, Rina Singha Ray, has been showcaused by the health department. “I have sought her (the nurse’s) reply by tomorrow, after which further action will be taken,” said Biswa Ranjan Satpathi, the state’s director of health services.
The incident comes just three days after chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked all nurses to exercise caution. “Be extremely careful while administering injections,” Mamata, who is also the health minister, had said at Swastha Bhavan.
Instances of negligence are common in government hospitals. On November 2 last year, a woman was allegedly cleaned with acid instead of an antiseptic solution soon after delivering a stillborn at Lalbag hospital in Murshidabad. A nurse at SSKM Hospital had allegedly administered an injection meant for an accident victim to a patient in the next bed in July 2008. The victim died the next morning.
Experts, however, allayed fears of any side effects in Tuesday’s case. “It’s a safe drug and there is no side effect. Even medical personnel working in anti-rabies departments are given the vaccine as a precaution,” Satpathi said.
Critical care expert Subrata Maitra seconded him. “The anti-rabies vaccine doesn’t have any side effects except, in very rare cases, an allergy.”
But health department officials admitted such careless acts could prove deadly. “Had it been a high dose of antibiotic, the boy could have suffered severe reactions. The nurse should have waited for the child’s mother to arrive,” said a health official.
Renu Debi Sahu, 30, a resident of Kamardanga in Tangra, went to the state-run hospital after she suffered bruises inflicted by a cat. “When I told a didi (nurse) about my injury, she asked me to get a ticket from the outpatient department,” Renu said.
She left her six-year-old son Dibakar, who had accompanied her to the hospital, seated at the nursing station. She returned to find Dibakar crying.
When Renu asked her son what was wrong, the boy pointed at his right arm. “I asked the nurse what had happened and she told me the vaccine had already been administered,” Renu said.
The scared mother reported the matter to the hospital authorities and lodged a complaint with the Entally police.
Cong rubbishes CM claim on aid
KOLKATA: Contrary to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s claim that her government is yet to receive any central assistance to bail out Bengal from the financial mess, Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Sunday said the state has already been given around 8,000 crore in the past few months.
“And if the state needs something more, we are ready to discuss it,” he said. “If there is any specific sector which the chief minister wants to bring in focus, that too can be discussed. But it is wrong to say that the state is being ignored,” he said.
Singhvi was in Kolkata to launch ‘Congress Barta’ , a weekly party organ.
Mamata had recently criticized the Congress – and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh – for not keeping their pre-poll promises and denying the state a bailout package. She had also said that after five meetings with Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the state is yet to get anything. Warning the Congress, she had said: “If the Centre doesn’t help, Bengal will not beg for its due. People of Bengal know how to assert their rights.”
On Sunday, Singhvi also made it clear that his party will continue with its “constructive criticism” of the Mamata Banerjee government . “If there is lack of governance , voices will be raised,” he said.
“We are in a coalition both at the Centre and in the state. But the Congress’s role is clear… we will work for better governance. We can always go for constructive criticism . It is intended to improve the quality of administrative decision making and governance,” he said.
Singhvi condemns ‘acts of violence’
KOLKATA: Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in Kolkata on Sunday that the party would continue with its constructive criticism of the Mamata government. “If the party doesn’t criticize the state government on issues which affect the common man, it would be a betrayal to confidence reposed on us by people.”
“We’ve criticized it as we wanted to improve the administrative functioning and governance . We will raise our voice against it in the coming days also. Nobody should take it negatively, because it a constructive criticism ,” he said.
On state Congress’s allegations that Trinamool is attacking its party workers, he said, “All acts of violence should be condemned.”
On Trinamool Congress allegation that Congress teamed up with CPM in criticizing the government on infant deaths and farmer suicides, Singhvi said, “Infant deaths is a known fact and farmers have committed suicides . I think all of us have to join together in raising our voices for improvement in these services,” he said.
Govt to allow private stake in rural highways
KOLKATA: The state cabinet on Friday approved the formation of a Highway Development Corporation to improve rural infrastructure in Bengal. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced her intention to form this corporation in December 2011.
Industries minister Partha Chatterjee said that the new corporation would keep state highways and rural roads in good shape. “Our aim is to ensure connectivity and increase vehicular speed,” he said. He hoped the rural economy will benefit from the better infrastructure.
The new project is known as Swarnali Rasta Prokalpa on the lines of the Prime Minister’s Sadak Yojna. It will function on the private-public-partnership model and will have PWD officials on board apart from hired professionals, said Chatterjee. Initially, it will start with a paid up capital of Rs 50 crore.
The roads will be maintained for 30 years by the private firms and they can levy a toll tax. The government will get a share of this.
Initially, maintenance of Digha and Basanti state highways will be handed over to private firms. “People will not mind paying tax if roads are in perfect shape,” an official said.
The cabinet also decided to give Urdu the status of a second language in areas where the Urdu speaking population exceeds 10%, like Kolkata, Titagarh, Kamarhati, Asansol, Jamuria and Goalpokhor. People can even write to government offices in Urdu, said Firhad Hakim, urban development minister. The government will give approval for setting up Urdu schools and colleges soon.
The government also decided to include Joka I and Joka II under Kolkata Municipal Corporation and hand over the control of Kolkata East West Metro Corporation to the railways for connecting metro link between Salt Lake and Howrah.
The PWD, which maintains roads, often suffers from a financial crisis. The corporation, when formed, will also be able to borrow from the market. Officials said several agencies had already shown interest in investing in the PPP model.
Moreover, the corporation will also take care of bridges in rural areas and will help industries develop infrastructure so that remote areas like Purulia and Bankura can be offered to industrialists. The corporation can go in for joint venture projects and also raise financial resources from banks and financial institutions.
Moreover, the corporation will also be developing land commercially and can also launch housing projects. Again, it can work as a project consultant for big projects and prepare feasibility reports.
Crib deaths: Didi passes buck to Left, media
KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the health system left behind by the Left Front government for the spate of crib deaths in the state even as 19 babies died in Malda and Bankura on Friday.
Without naming CPM, she launched an attack against the “conspiracy” against her government. “A political party is misleading the people with false information. They left farmers to die for 34 years, and now they are shedding crocodile’s tears for them. Look at our seven-month record, we’re even paying the farmers’ insurance premium,” the CM said, adding that the media carried unverified reports of crib deaths.
Mamata reeled off statistics to claim a 3% drop in child mortality rate during her tenure. Quoting health ministry data, she said Bengal ranked 9th in child mortality in India. “The figure in Gujarat is 67%, Delhi 30% but in Bengal, only 6%,” she said. Opposition leader Surjya Kanta Mishra, said Mamata was flaunting the 2009 SNS registration data collected during the Left rule.
Better facilities for pregnant women
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who also holds the health portfolio, said on Friday her government was taking steps to bring pregnant women into the healthcare system.
She gave away grants of Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh to 65 block primary health centres that had the best record of safe deliveries.
“Thirty per cent of our children are born through midwives, who use crude methods. I have heard that 50,000 babies die outside the hospitals annually. Malnourished babies born through midwives are in a critical condition by the time they are brought to the hospital,” the CM said at the health department HQ in Salt Lake.
“We want to bring expecting mothers under the hospital’s purview to ensure safe deliveries. I wanted to know if we could give them food. But that’s not possible. Then I asked health secretary Sanjoy Mitra if we could give them vitamins. He said that’s an exorbitant proposition,” she said.
The CM appealed to MBBS degree-holders to work in village health centres (a rule already in existence) for at least three years, promising them a good posting and weightage for pursuing postgraduation courses. “The government will help you clear your higher degrees,” she promised. “Why can’t you go to the district at least twice a week?” she asked.
