Minister talks tough, but cop killers still free

KOLKATA: The murderers of a Kolkata Police constable continue to roam free four days after they attacked him and a day after he died in hospital despite several witnesses identifying them as local youths and the cop’s family naming them in the FIR.

On Monday, just over 24 hours after Asim Kumar Dam had succumbed to injuries sustained during a brutal attack by drunken youths who barged into his Birati home on Holi and tried to molest his 22-year-old niece, the city’s custodians of law and governance seemed more interested in scoring political points than nabbing the culprits. State transport minister Madan Mitra visited Dam’s family in the morning and pinned the blame on goons backed by the CPM.

But his assurance of stern action, close on the heels of a similar pledge by Cabinet colleague and local MLA Chandrima Bhattacharya the previous night, rang hollow as police continued to grope in the dark. Though some local youths were detained, the hunt for the culprits made little headway.

Local residents and Dam’s family members said on Monday the seven accused of the murder – brothers Abhijit, Jabar and Biswajit Ghosh, Tapan Chandra, Panka Dutta, Debu Mukherjee and Kuntal Chakraborty – were seen in the locality till Saturday. “We had named all seven in the FIR filed on Friday morning. But we can’t understand why the police still haven’t been able to make any arrests,” wondered Kamal Dhar, Dam’s brother-in-law. A senior police officer said, “The attackers may have fled the area. Raids are being conducted to nab them and police stations in adjoining areas have been alerted. Some persons are being questioned. We expect the culprits to be arrested soon.”

But the real story, as some local residents pointed out, may lie in the fact that all seven suspects have links with the thriving real estate trade in the area and share a bonhomie with police and politician alike.

Attackers CPM men: Madan

Mitra, though, said the youths identified as the culprits were CPM supporters. “I have spoken to the family. The chief minister has already been briefed. I will consult her further. It was learnt that those who attacked Dam and his family members were known as CPM supporters in the locality. Though the CPM has been thrown out of power, their party goons’ habits haven’t changed and they are still committing murders,” Mitra said. One among the accused is the brother of a CPM local committee member.

But the minister, perhaps, wasn’t aware that Airport police station inspector-in-charge Deba Prasanna Pan, who is already facing a departmental inquiry for refusing to act on the initial March 9 complaint (the FIR was eventually accepted the next day) was also the North 24-Parganas district chief of the CPM-affiliated non-gazetted Police Karmachari Samiti. Pan had defended police’s day-long inaction in spite of a heinous attack on a colleague, saying the complaint only referred to a land dispute as motive for the attack, and not eve-teasing. After Dam’s death on Sunday, his 22-year-old niece and brothers Sekhar and S o m n at h , lodged another complaint for eve-teasing and murder.

While refusing to admit the March 9 FIR, police were quick to point out that Dam’s brother Sekhar was a small-time real estate agent himself and had a tiff with the suspects over a plot of land. But in their hastiness to ascribe a motive for the attack, the Airport police chose to ignore why Dam – and not Sekhar – would face the brunt of the attack and what could have caused it. They even chose to ignore the fact that incident had taken place in front of many witnesses.

Cop killed for tease protest Constable succumbs to Holi assault

A city cop who was beaten up and stabbed repeatedly for protesting the harassment of his niece at their Birati home on Holi died of cerebral haemorrhage on Sunday morning.

Family members of constable Ashim Kumar Dam said they had named eight youths in the FIR they filed on Friday morning after being turned away by police twice, but none could be rounded up till late on Sunday.

The eight accused are Abhijit Ghosh, Biswajit Ghosh, Jabar Ghosh, Jhantu Majumdar, Debu Chakraborty, Tapan Chanda, Panka Dutta and Kuntal Chakraborty. All are residents of the area.

The police, however, said Jhantu Majumdar’s name was not on the list. “We have taken prompt action after getting the complaint,” said Tarun Halder, additional deputy commissioner, Bidhannagar.

Doctors at Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, where the 48-year-old constable of Entally police station was admitted, said he had died of internal cerebral haemorrhage caused by “severe injuries”.

Trouble started around 2.10pm on Thursday when “five-six youths” turned up at the Dams’ two-storeyed house near Bisharpara railway station in Birati, 23km from the city.

“The youths tried to forcibly smear me with colours. My uncles told them to stop but they started taunting me. The youths left after some altercation,” said 24-year-old Mamon Dhar, daughter of one of Ashim’s sisters.

The youths returned in a larger group after about 40 minutes. “This time they were armed with guns, wickets and hockey sticks. One of them hit my eldest uncle (Ashim) on the head with a hockey stick. Another stabbed him in his abdomen, hands and legs. The gang also hit my 78-year-old grandmother (Ashim’s mother) on her arm,” Mamon recalled.

After the attackers left, family members took Ashim to North Dum Dum Municipal Hospital, from where he was shifted to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and finally to Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals in the evening.

Family members said they went to Nimta police station to lodge a complaint but the officers turned them away without citing any reason.

“We then went to the airport police station but the cops told us to come back the next morning with a written complaint. They received our complaint on Friday morning but did not give us any diary number,” said a sister of Ashim.

Deputy commissioner Halder, however, denied that the airport police station had turned away the family members on their first visit.

According to rules, a police station cannot refused to register a complaint under any circumstance, even if the place of occurrence is beyond its jurisdiction.

“If faced with a jurisdictional problem, the complaint has to be forwarded to the police station concerned,” said a senior officer.

The police inaction was only matched by the promptness of political rivals to trade charges over the identity of the accused. Local Trinamul MLA and minister Chandrima Bhattacharjee, who visited the family on Sunday morning, accused the CPM of engineering the attack. The CPM’s Amitava Nandy denied the charge, saying the attackers were backed by Trinamul.

Spurt in rape cases worries governor

KOLKATA: What is a minor incident for state urban development minister Firhad Hakim is not so for West Bengal governor M K Narayanan. “Akash should not have hit a policeman in uniform,” the governor said on Thursday, while responding to questions on the Kidderpore incident that led to the arrest of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Akash Banerjee. The governor then added that “such incidents of assault on policemen on duty are not new. I think this is a problem for the police”.

The governor didn’t hide his concern over the spurt in rape incidents in the state some of which have been dismissed by the CM as “cooked-up”.

“Bengal used to be one of the safest places in the country. Now, the rapes are not being indulged by outsiders but people from Bengal. I think it is the duty of all of us to protect our women and children. Police are taking steps. Rapists are being caught. I am talking to the police, the CM is talking…” the governor said. The governor appealed to the media not to sensationalize the cases. “Rather than sensationalizing this issue as to whether it is three, two or one (rape case), I think it is bad. I think a single rape of a woman is bad for all of us. Numbers are not important,” he said.

On the assault on mediapersons at Ganguly Bagan, the governor said: “A journalist should not be beaten up. For that matter, no one should be beaten up. This is a free country and everyone is free to make observations. I don’t put journalists in any different category.”

The governor’s view came as a shot in the arm for the opposition, who have been protesting against the chief minister’s bid to downplay the rape incidents at Park Street, Katwa and Falta as “cooked-up” incidents. Leader of the opposition Surjyakanta Mishra had called on the governor a few days ago to complain against the deteriorating law and order.

CPM’s partisan slur on cops

CPM leaders of North 24-Parganas on Thursday accused police of partisan behaviour in following up a complaint lodged by them against the Trinamul MLA of New Town, Sabyasachi Dutta.

An altercation over keeping a school open in Rajarhat had snowballed into a CPM-Trinamul clash during Tuesday’s strike by trade unions.

An arrest warrant was issued against the CPM chairman of Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality, Tapas Chatterjee, after Dutta lodged a complaint accusing him of leading the assault. Chatterjee is absconding and has filed for anticipatory bail at Barasat district court. The hearing is on March 12.

The CPM had lodged a complaint against Dutta, alleging he had fomented trouble. On Thursday, CPM leaders said officers of the airport police station had not acted on their complaint. “What about our complaint against Dutta?” asked Tarit Topdar, the former MP of Barrackpore and a district secretariat member.

“Unless we get some prima facie evidence against the accused, we cannot take action,” said Bidhannagar police commissioner Rajeev Kumar.

State unhappy with counter-terror centre

KOLKATA: The state government wants to thrash out certain issues with the Centre over the powers and functions of the anti-terror agency, National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), which the Centre will set up by March 1.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday that the state government will oppose the move, as “it could not be allowed in a federal structure”. Mamata said Odisha was also opposing it.

The NCTC will derive its powers from the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), which allows it to make arrests or searches across the country in terror-related cases.

While the state police are supposed to be kept in the loop when such searches are conducted or arrests made, the state government is apparently not confident that this will be the case when it comes to actual operations or arrests. The top brass in the state administration is currently discussing the issue, and will take up the issue with the Centre officially.

Since former chief minister Jyoti Basu’s tenure, the sharing of power between the Centre and the state has been a critical issue in Bengal politics. And despite the widely differing political ideologies, the CPM and the Trinamool Congress seem to be having the same view regarding the fact that the state should be given more power in a federal structure.

The state government’s main objection is about the fact that the central agency can make arrests in areas that are under the state jurisdiction. This could also be the state’s conscious decision to monitor the Maoist issue where it does not want the Centre to intervene.

The NCTC will collate and analyze inputs on terror threats throughout the country and will have the legal power to make arrests and conduct search operations. The Cabinet Committee on Security ( CCS) had on January 11 approved of the creation of the NCTC, and now the Centre seems keen on knowing the views of the state governments on this.

The agency will have the power to keep a constant data on terror modules, terrorists and all their associates. It can also seek all kinds of information from any agency – including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigation Agency (NIA), as well as all central armed police forces, and even the National Security Guard (NSG).

It is in these areas too that the state government is looking at whether it would be “comfortable” sharing all its information with the agency, especially ones which it has investigated and which may be “sensitive” to share.

Since former chief minister Jyoti Basu’s tenure, the sharing of power between the Centre and the state has been a critical issue in Bengal politics. And despite the widely differing political ideologies, the CPM and the Trinamool Congress seem to be having the same view regarding the fact that the state should be given more power in a federal structure.

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.

CPM makes Deb North 24-Paraganas secretary

KOLKATA: Unable to find an acceptable replacement for outgoing district secretary Amitava Bose who was reluctant to continue for yet another term, the North 24-Parganas CPM threw a surprise at the concluding day of the crucial party conference on Sunday by making party central committee member and former housing minister Gautam Deb the North 24-Parganas district secretary.

So much was the confusion over the choice that party mandarins in Alimuddin Street had to make exception for Deb when the organizational rule says that a person can’t be a member of party committees at three levels. Gautam Deb is a CPM central committee member, state secretariat member and now the district secretary of CPM’s North 24-Parganas unit.

In fact, party leaders cited this organizational principle to relieve state secretariat members such as Dipak Dasgupta, Srideep Bhattacharya, from district duties. CPM’s Kolkata secretary Raghunath Kushari and party’s North 24-Parganas secretary Amitava Bose were the only exceptions. Following the principle, Deb had himself withdrawn from North 24-Parganas, months after the last district conference.

Delegates in the conference got the hint that he might become the district secretary when Deb’s name was included in the new district committee the strength of which has been brought down from 93 to 69 with one provision for cooption at a later stage.

According to CPM insiders, Alimuddin Street went for a “calculated gamble” to keep controversial Amitava Nandy, a strong contender for the district secretary’s post at bay. In fact, Gautam Deb was the one who took up the task of rallying the other factions led by Manas Mukherjee, Tarit Topdar, Ranjit Kundu against the Nandy faction in North 24-Parganas and also keep others such as Rabin Mandal, Rekha Goswami, Nepaldeb Bhattacharya in good humour.

But the new district committee was not unanimous over the selection of these local leaders for the top party post in the district. Instead, CPM state secretary Biman Bose wanted Deb to take over the reins at this crucial juncture in a bid to pull the district party out of its ongoing factional feud. Deb didn’t shirk the challenge despite his ailment. He took the party assignment as he did when Alimuddin Street wanted him to contest from Dum Dum instead of his home turf Basirhat during the 2011 assembly elections in which he lost to Trinamool candidate and education minister Bratya Basu.

However, Deb’s becoming the district secretary has ramification beyond the party’s organizational structure. For, there have been occasions when this CPM leader openly challenged the party line on the land question and also on issues of party functioning. Known for his practical sense, the CPM central committee member didn’t mind saying that the state government has to take land from small farmers if it wants to put Bengal back on the industrial map. On the contrary, the CPM session at Vijaywada resolved that the Singur-Nandigram episodes of violence over land acquisition had tarnished the CPM’s image across the country and forbade the forcible takeover of small farmers’ land.

Even as party hardliners in North 24-Parganas saw the development as a clear indication of Alimuddin Street’s war of nerves with the CPM central committee led by Prakash Karat, the young district committee members who once worked under Deb during their stint in the student front held that the party needed “a push from within” that no one could deliver other than Deb. “Delegates in the conference urged the leaders to come down from the ivory tower and show them the way. Here is someone who has at least accepted the challenge,” a party delegate said.

Some things never change in… ‘New’ hawker a riddle, not rider

Mamata Banerjee has vowed not to remove hawkers from the city’s pavements unless they are “new hawkers”, a misnomer in a city where once a hawker occupies part of a pavement, it becomes his permanent settlement.

Mamata had on Tuesday said that the CPM was crowding the city’s pavements with “new hawkers” who would not be allowed to settle.

Who will tell a “new” hawker from an “old” hawker? And how?

The cops are clueless. “What is the definition of a new hawker? And how will we identify one?” wondered a member of the team that had launched a hawker eviction drive on Tuesday in front of SSKM only for it to be aborted with a rap on the knuckles from the chief minister.

“No hawkers will be evicted, on humanitarian grounds,” declared Mamata.

Then, the riddle of a rider: unless they are CPM-backed “new” hawkers.

As Shaktiman Ghosh, the general secretary of the Hawker Sangram Committee, announced on Wednesday, his tribe is growing steadily and new hawkers are an integral part of that.

“Unemployment is growing and all industries, except IT, are closing down. In this scenario only the hawking sector will grow. More people will come into hawking and the government can’t remove them,” said Ghosh.

So much for tagging and evicting “new” hawkers.

Metro found examples across the city that proved Ghosh’s point. The EM Bypass-Rashbehari connector that was relatively clean even a year ago is now filled with shops dotting the sidewalk. Eateries, grocery shops, bedding stores and more have come up, forcing pedestrians to step on to the thoroughfare.

The plight of the pedestrian is no better in the heart of the city. About 100 hawkers sit on either side of the pavement in the Grand Hotel arcade. A narrow passage in the middle is left for jostling pedestrians.

“Hawkers were restricted to the pavements of Lindsay Street even two years back. Now hawkers have occupied one-fourth of the road on Lindsay Street,” said a police officer.

The prime patch that a hawker occupies, on or off Chowringhee, is often sold or rented out. Two or sometimes three hawkers now share the space that one earlier occupied.

Mamata on Wednesday reiterated her government’s commitment to hawkers. “The government was in favour of hawkers and will remain so. We will bring a law to regularise the system. But the CMC and police will ensure there are no fresh encroachments,” she said at Writers’.

Easier said than done in a city where the hawker count has grown from 1.2 lakh in 1996, when Operation Sunshine was launched, to 3.25 lakh in 2010.

And where the government is groping for a hawker policy and the hawker committee boss is clear that no new hawker can be evicted.

“The government must admit the settlement of new hawkers too. We suggest that new hawkers send an application to a committee that will assign a place to them. We will not allow the government to turn its back on the new hawkers,” said Ghosh.

This threat rang true — truer than the chief minister’s threat to elbow out recent entrants — because the hawkers constitute a vital vote bank for every political party.

CPM, Congress hit out at TMC over farmers’ plight

KOLKATA: Both the Congress and CPM lashed out at the Trinamool Congress-run state government on Wednesday over the plight of the farmers across the state with an eye towards the forthcoming panchayat elections, scheduled more than a year later.

CPM had called for an agriculture bandh on Wednesday, while Congress followed it up with a six-hour sit-in demonstration at Metro Channel.

Congress MP Deepa Das Munshi demanded a CBI inquiry to find out why peasants are not getting their due, in spite of the Centre announcing a minimum support price for agricultural products. “For rice they are supposed to get Rs 1,080 per quintal for the basic variety, but in reality they are getting not more than Rs 500. If the government insists its paying its due,

Where is the remaining amount going? If the chief minister can order CBI probes into a host of issues, why should this be left out?” she said.

CPM’s All-India Krisak Sabha state president Madan Ghosh claimed their state-wide bandh evoked spontaneous response from farmers across the state, alleging the ruling party (read Trinamool)

had tried to foment trouble in Sandeshkhali and Bhatar, but couldn’t. Ghosh admitted that while a bandh is not a solution to the farmer’s plight, they will continue to fight for their rights till they get their due.

Ghosh claimed the state government, till now, has only purchased 2 lakh metric tonne of rice against its target of 20 lakh metric tonne from peasants.

“Even those who are selling it are not getting their dues. Some don’t have bank accounts and others are being handed over paper chips saying they’ll be paid later. The chief minister had promised action against the agents who are responsible for this plight, her minister says the agents needs to be streamlined. Why this double speak? The government has also not renewed crop insurance for only Rs three crore. As a result the farmers are not even insured against these loses,” he said.

Ghosh alleged in the last seven months (that the new government has been in power) 12 famers have committed suicide.

Rajya Sabha member and state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said, “The government plans to set up 700 cold storage. Is this an immediate solution? Why doesn’t the government explore exporting the surplus produce to other states. Let the chief minister write to the Centre, I will also seek their intervention. We will continue to fight for their rights.”

Trinamool Congress is also not taking this onslaught lying low. Party general-secretary Mukul Roy has already convened a meeting with the Trinamool zilla parishad presidents to chalk out a strategy. Trinamool plans a massive Panchyati Sammelan at Netaji Indoor on January 19, where all panchayat members have to attend. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself is likely to inform the civic leaders on the steps the government had taken to counter the Opposition attack.