Suchitra trapped by TMC gunmen?
KOLKATA: Suchitra Mahato – the dreaded rebel who fled from the Burisole forests encounter site in November last year – was the kind of fighter and strategist that the Maoists always wanted to showcase. She spent 13 years as an insurgent and was shrewd and ruthless. Did she really surrender or was she trapped?
No one in the rebel ranks can imagine that this firebrand Maoist, who had led the massacre at the EFR camp in Silda, would make herself available to the Mamata Banerjee government so easily. But by all appearances, she did exactly that on Friday. Dressed in a saree, with her hair tidily done-up, and sporting the look of a next-door neighbour, she ‘surrendered’ at Writers’ Buildings. Her face didn’t reveal any turmoil within her.
Her rebel comrades find this difficult to digest. They believe that Suchitra – the widow of Sashadhar Mahato – was trapped by the Trinamool-backed anti-Maoist forum Jana Jagaran Mancha in her home turf in Jhargram in the first week of December 2011, soon after she sneaked in from Jharkhand. This armed outfit, beating her at her own tactic, brought her to a “safe house” at Mukundapur along EM Bypass in Kolkata.
In a strange turn of events, Suchitra had to marry Prabir Garai – a small-time PCPA activist who handed her to the Mancha.
The police say they came to know about the operation only a few days ago.
Those who know Suchitra would go by the second version of the development. The Suchitra they knew was “tempered steel”, who saw her husband Sasadhar being gunned down and later would see Kishanji riddled with bullets in a bid to give her cover. Police say she escaped even as Kishanji was shot dead in Burishole forest on November 24, 2011.
Where was she for the last 100 days? According to police, brothers Chamtu and Tarachand Tudu took the “local didi” on a bicycle to quack Bhudeb Mahato in neighbouring Benasole village. Suchitra was bleeding heavily from bullet wounds to her waist and leg. Police say she changed into a pink salwar, burnt her blood-soaked clothes, and slipped into Jharkhand. She apparently vanished after that.
Rumours about her kept doing the rounds in Kolkata. Some said Suchitra has been paralysed by the gunshot injury. Some said that she had given birth to a baby and was willing to return to the mainstream. Suchitra’s appearance at Writers’ quelled all rumours except for the claim that she surrendered.
Her trusted lieutenants in Lalgarh and Jhargram refuse to buy the police argument. Suchitra was not only a ruthless squad commander, she had a strong political acumen that often went at odds with her organisational boss Akash.
Suchitra kept issuing Maoist press releases, under the alias of Baha Tudu, warning that the Trinamool Congress would do the same to Maoists as the CPM did if it came to power.
She was also strongly opposed to the peace process with the Mamata Banerjee government while Akash, the CPI(Maoist) state secretary, backed the truce talks. The media caught on to this difference of opinion in the Maoist leadership.
“Like Kishanji and Sashadhar, Suchitra was aware that Trinamool would change its attitude towards the Maoists after becoming the rulers. Which is why she was so keen to field Chhatradhar Mahato against Trinamool in the assembly polls to send a strong message,” said a Maoist party member.
Suchitra’s background and solo running of squads in a large stretch in Jangalmahal after Sasadhar’s death, also doesn’t gel with the story of her surrender. She was no greenhorn rebel.
She was in the Maoist team that massacred 24 EFR jawans in Silda and was also part of the squad that attacked Sankrail police station and kidnapped police officer Atindra Nath Dutta.
And like every ultra Suchitra was overpowered by the fire power of her rivals who took her to custody and handed over to the police.
Born in a poor family at Dhansola village of Ramgarh – close to Lalgarh- the Class VI drop out had come out of her home and had been with the red brigade for more than past 13 years before she was recruited by Sashadhar Mahato in the Maoist outfit. The last she came to her village was 10 years ago with her husband Sasadhar, and never went back even after her husband’s death.
Fingerprint-based attendance atstate govt offices
KOLKATA: Government employees can no longer sneak a French leave or walk out before 5.30pm. The Mamata Banerjee government is installing fingerprint readers that will record the time an employee logs in and logs out of office.
Attendance has always been a prickly issue with government employees. Many staff walk in late by simply signing in. Those who sneak out before closing time have evolved any number of smart tricks, including leaving their spectacles or bag on their table to feign that they are around and would return any time. Last week, on the day of the bandh, there was a tampering of the attendance register in the agriculture directorate at Writers’ Buildings. Some staff were absent in spite of the threat of break in service but when a headcount was ordered, the page for February28 went missing.
Once the biometric system is introduced, attendance registers will be redundant, officers said. The previous Left Front government had tried to implement it but failed. But the Mamata Banerjee administration is rolling it out with the Swasthya Bhavan (health department HQ) in April. Last week, the health department completed installing four fingerprint terminals in the lounge. The employees won’t have any card to swipe. Each terminal has a ‘reader’ to scan the fingerprint and match it to a databank.
Earlier attempts to improve attendance at government offices had a lukewarm response, but this time, officials hope to achieve success by introducing the fingerprint system in all government offices.
Generally, secretariat staff start leaving around 3.30pm and after 4.30pm there is a great rush to leave when the official check-out time is still an hour away.
Health secretary Sanjay Mitra had earlier tried to use SMS-based technology to get information about functioning of out patient departments (OPD) in government hospitals. But it was found that many hospital superintendents were sending SMSes to show that the OPDs were functioning from 9am without verifying whether there were any doctors present. In reality, many OPDs were not operating. Health officials want to install the biometric attendance system at all hospitals and health centres.
A recent survey by the health department found that staff would often indulge in ‘mini-shifts’ and instead of work far less than the mandatory 48 hours a week. Many teaching doctors were also found absent from medical college hospitals, say sources.
“The fingerprint system will help keep a tab on the doctors and staff. There will be special system for those who work in shifts,” said an official. Sources say staff of colleges and universities will also have to clock in with a biometric system.
US trade team to visit WB after four years
KOLKATA: After a gap of almost four years, a US trade delegation will visit Bengal on February 17. This will be followed by a series of trade delegation visits in the second half of the year.
This would be the first US trade delegation to visit the city after the Mamata Banerjee government came to power. The delegation, though, may not meet the chief minister and the industries minister Partha Chatterjee.
The US Embassy’s minister counselor for commercial affairs, Judy R Reinke, said the United States has decided to increase the visibility of trade missions in India. That is why there will be a series of delegations visiting Bengal.
According to Reinke, the focus of the first trade delegation will be on ports. It will comprise representatives from seven companies – The Port of Baltimore, Ellicot Dredges, DSC Dredge, Great Lake Dredge & Dock Company, IRDS and Thermo Fisher.
Explaining why they won’t be meeting anyone from the state government, she said this delegation is primarily a B2B group looking to explore opportunities for partnerships with Indian companies as opposed to a direct investor group for whom it would make sense to meet the chief minister or the industries minister. The delegation will meet Union minister of state for shipping Mukul Roy.
The last US trade delegation on clean energy visited Kolkata in August 2008. And this time the delegation’s visit has assumed significance as the US-India Business Council (USIBC) cancelled its Bengal trip in wake of the Singur crisis. At a CII meeting that year, the then US consul General in Kolkata, Beth Payne, had said that USIBC was very excited about coming to Kolkata, but changed its mind after the Singur problem.
The US diplomat had said that the delegation led by companies like Cargill and Boeing could have brought in many US investors to Bengal but they decided to skip the state at least for the time being. “It is regrettable that West Bengal lost such an important opportunity to showcase the best it has to offer,” she had said in 2008.
Asked whether the investment climate in Bengal has become more conducive now, Reinke said there were US trade activities in Bengal over the last few years but those were low profile.
“Now, we want to make it more visible. This strategy is not only for Bengal but for India as a whole,” he added.
Bengal gains Rs 346 crore from Singhvi-Mitra spat
KOLKATA: The argument between Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Amit Mitra over central assistance to Bengal has ultimately turned out to be a gain for the cash-strapped Mamata Banerjee government.
The state got an additional 346 crore under the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) just a day after the powwow between the Congress leader and the Bengal finance minister over the nitty-gritty of fund allocation and actual fund flow.
This is over and above the 1,100-crore backward region grant that panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee spoke about at Writers’ Buildings on Wednesday. Finance ministry data shows the Centre released 700 crore as BRGF grants to the state between June 01, 2011, and February 6 this year. Congress national spokesperson Singhvi said in his written statement on Wednesday the Centre “released 1,046 crore under the BRGF scheme till February 7.”
But the real story lies in the fine print. A day after the war of words that ended on February 6, the Union finance ministry hiked the release of funds under BRGF by another 346 crore for the 11 backward regions of Bengal.
“I am not counting much on what I said today about fund release. I have just quoted the finance ministry data, as on February 7, in my written statement. What I wanted to clarify is my statement on February 5 when I talked about allocation/approvals and not disbursals. I said that the Centre had approved central assistance of about 8,750 crore to Bengal under the BRGF in the 2011-12 financial ,” Singhvi said.
Mitra, who had rebutted Singhvi’s allocation claim saying not a penny has come to the state’s kitty, didn’t take calls on Wednesday after Singhvi’s written statement.
“Yes, it seems so when we compare the Union finance ministry data with the figure Abhishek Singhvi stated in his statement on Wednesday. The extra funds will indeed facilitate the development of the backward regions of Bengal. There is no denying that the state government is under constraint, but then the state finance minister should have made a detailed statement on the central funds received on plan and non-plan account till date before placing what he wants more from the Centre,” the PCC chief said.
According to finance ministry data, the Centre released Rs 1,857 crore as grants for specific schemes, and another Rs 13,877 crore on non-Plan account till February 6.
Earlier in the day, minister Subrata Mukherjee said: “The public health engineering department has got Rs 1,100 crore and the public works department Rs 1,278 crore. We have just received a letter from the Planning Commission that our project for supplying clean water to Bankura has been sanctioned. The amount (Rs 1,100 crore) is from the BRGF allocations.”
Going by what Mitra was stressing the other day, Mitra has been trying to drive home the point that Bengal has not received any special fund assistance from the Centre, or a moratorium on the interest payments of the huge Rs 2 lakh crore debt, a liability inherited from the Left Front government. The fact is that Bengal didn’t get such relief than the statutory central support applicable to all the states.
However, the BRGF is a scheme where the state government and local bodies – panchayats and municipalities – can take liberty in planning and implementing projects unlike other purpose-specific central assistance projects, a Union finance ministry official said.
“The plans for such projects are drawn up at the district planning committee level under Article 243 ZD of the Constitution. The fund can be applied for rural or town roads, drinking water or anything not covered under the specified central projects. They may also be used to fill gaps in cases where specified projects fail to meet the local demand. A total 11% of the fund can be used for staff provisioning and capacity building,” the officials said.
However , the fund is meant for 11 backward districts in West Bengal – Bankura, Birbhum , Purulia, Midnapore East, Midnapore West, South 24-Parganas , Murshidabad, Malda, South Dinajpur, North Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri.
Buddha, Mishra hit out at govt on law and order
MIDNAPORE: Anti-socials are having a free run in Kolkata and suburbs for the past few months. “They believe that their government is now in power, so nothing will happen to them,” former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Wednesday, while addressing a party rally at Midnapore College grounds on the concluding day of the CPM’s West Midnapore district party conference.
The veteran CPM leader came down on the government for its “failure on all fronts”.
Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Mamata Banerjee government that found a more shaper resonance in Assembly Opposition leader Surjya Kanta Mishra. Bhattacharjee chided the government on its “failure on all fronts” but singled out the free run of anti-socials in Kolkata and its suburbs for his sharpest attack. “The anti-socials now believe their government is now in power, so nothing will happen to them,” he said.
Apart from Bhattacharjee, Surjya Kanta Mishra and Left Front chairman Biman Bose addressed the rally. Dipak Sarkar was re-elected as its secretary, and found a place for all senior leaders absconding either in the Garbeta skeleton case and Netai carnage.
“The clubs have benefited from a government largesse, where is this money coming from? The government claims it’s cash-strapped only when it comes to buying rice and paddy from farmers and paying salary and pension to transport employees. It has enough to increase the salaries of ministers from Rs 7,000 to Rs 27,000,” the former chief minister said.
Bhattacharjee said the spate of murders and violence unleashed against CPM leaders and supporters can’t wipe out the party. “People wanted change, and there was change. People will again decide which path they want the political parties to tread. They are also noticing where we left eight months ago, and it has come to what,” he said.
Mishra said, “The Calcutta high court had granted bail to Sushanta Ghosh. The government still arrested him in a different case. They are repeatedly opposing the bail in Supreme Court. I have told the chief minister the behavior meted out to Ghosh’s elderly mother is unacceptable. In the 34 years, we’ve been in power not a single Trinamool MLA has been arrested.”
Without naming Mamata, Mishra said: “There were enough incidents where she had provoked unrest. We remained patient. All these are recorded. The police director-general now sends a missive claiming CPM is attacking Trinamool. Did he bother to find out? There is a provision for a security commission, which, according to Supreme Court guidelines, has to accommodate opposition MLAs too. Nothing has happened. We will not indefinitely, we will seek answers in the February 19 rally at Brigade.”
Harping on Trinamool’s alleged Maoist links, Bose said: “The apple of their eye has now become an eyesore. If they believe violence is the only way to end CPM, they are living in fool’s paradise.”
Regarding the Nandigram incident, Bhattacharjee, too said Trinamool was hand in gloves with Maoists, had burnt people alive, cut roads and refused to let police in. “We were trying to create a second Haldia there,” he said.
State urban development minister Firhad Hakim said, “The manner in which they are attacking the government is misleading. People are not with them; they are with us and chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Why are they speaking on law and order now? Where was their voice in Nandigram and Netai’s aftermath? Government will not spare any murderer. If speaks of tremendous restraint by our party workers that nothing was done to the likes of Tapan, Sukur and Sushanta. The government will follow the legal route.”
A tale of two distinct cities
One is a city of paradoxes, the other in a state of constant celebration. If Amit Chaudhuri finds little in common between Calcutta and London, author Craig Taylor thinks the “city of proximity” harks back to a London of earlier times.
Monday’s evening session, Dickens @200: Tales of Two Cities — London, Calcutta, at the Calcutta Literary Meet in association with The Telegraph, opened with the question whether Calcutta could be turned into London, as promised by the Mamata Banerjee government.
“Calcutta reminds me of other cities but London wasn’t one that sprang to mind. Calcutta at one time used to remind me of New York, when I saw it in 1979 and when it was economically not doing well and was a dangerous and disreputable city but had an enigmatically thriving cultural life,” said Chaudhuri, whose next book is on Calcutta.
Taylor, the editor of literary magazine Five Dials and the author of Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now — As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It and Long for It, said Calcutta seemed like “a city of proximity” from what he had seen of the city in a day.
For Chaudhuri, Calcutta is a city of paradoxes — of dirtiness and despair and decay but with a thriving culture — but which didn’t become part of a global alchemy that was changing cities across the world.
Sujata Sen, the moderator for the talk and the director (east India) British Council, which was hosting the session said: “I guess you see the ugliness first before you get to the good parts of the city.”
Taylor said, from what he had gathered from secondary sources, Calcutta probably resembled “London of a previous era”. For Taylor, a city like London cannot be generalised. He spoke about how some people found London shackling while others had travelled all the way across the world to be a part of it.
“I have always been bemused by the I Heart New York T-shirts. I don’t think they would work in London…. I don’t know about Calcutta but I probably think there are no I Heart Calcutta T-shirts (here) either,” said Taylor.
Chaudhuri called London a city in a constant state of celebration, like Mumbai. Calcutta, for him, was a city “without direction or definition”, one that he loved but one with which he felt an intellectual disconnect. He also rued that the Bengali language has been marginalised.
“I value London because a lot of support I got as a writer happened there. People here are not interested in a whole lot of writing … you get more of that outside,” Chaudhuri said.
On Sen’s request, Chaudhuri read a piece on Calcutta that he wrote in 2010, where he spoke about the disconnect he felt with the city while Taylor read a chapter from his book Londoners on a finance guy’s view of London.
Taylor told Metro the Calcutta Book Fair was different from others he had been to since there was “actual excitement about books”.
Ramesh, Subrata discuss rural jobs
KOLKATA: The Centre is receptive to the Mamata Banerjee government’s idea of paying beneficiaries of the 100-day work scheme under MGNREGA on a weekly basis. It, however, would prefer to study the legal implications before acceding to another request – to make anyone above 18 years eligible for work under the scheme even if they’re from the same family.
Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday met state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee over several demands by the cash-strapped government as part of his three-day trip to Kolkata.
Ramesh is expected to head for Bankura and Purulia to take stock of the rural projects funded by the Centre. So far, the state has only been able to provide 19 days’ job to the rural poor under the scheme. The poor record also figured in Ramesh’s November 30 letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Mukherjee, after taking over as the panchayat minister, has set a 50-day target to be met in the next three months. This, however, hinges on whether the government will be able to pay the beneficiaries at intervals shorter than the three-week period and if members of the same family are made eligible for work. “They’ve agreed to it,” said Mukherjee.
The state’s wish list to Ramesh included paying more money under Indira Awas Yojna (from the present Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000), allocation for construction of 500 to 999 km road stretches under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sarak Yojna and immediate allocation for construction of 148 bridges connecting the roads already built under this scheme. “The roads and bridge construction has been sanctioned,” Mukherjee said.
The meeting, which was attended by Trinamool MLAs Tamonash Ghosh, Rajeev Banerjee, Asoke Deb, Firdousi Begum and assembly deputy speaker Sonali Ghosh, also saw Mukherjee highlighting another issue in which the state and Centre are at loggerheads. As per the Centre’s records, 28.3% of the state’s population is eligible for BPL cards. But state’s records show the figure actually stands at 48.5%. On this BPL records depends the quantum of allocation.
Ramesh had earlier written to Mamata on the state dragging its feet over conducting the census. Mukherjee defended this saying it requires a client version software which the state received today and the census would commence next week.
Ramesh on his part tried to impress on Mukherjee the need to breathe life into the “Nirmal Village”. He said the identified villages should be provided with all facilities for use by villagers. This, he said, should be backed by a sustained campaign on the need to develop proper sanitation habits. Ramesh appeared satisfied with the progress of the projects under the PHE department, but said more work needs to be done in the Jangalmahal districts.
Trinamool’s Domjur MLA Rajeev Banerjee wanted such projects in Howrah where water salinity is a problem. “It is a shame that even to this day, people in some of these affected belts have to buy drinking water,” he said. Both Mukherjee and Ramesh promised to resolve the issue.
CM rejigs Cabinet, strips Congress of three departments
KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee sprung an unpleasant surprise on Congress on Monday, stripping the alliance partner of three departments and swearing in two new Trinamool Congress ministers in the first major reshuffle of the eight-month-old government.
By sidelining Congress and strengthening Trinamool’s presence in the ministry, Mamata intends to send out a tough message to the ally that is embroiled in a prickly fight with Trinamool. Sources say this isn’t the end of it – Mamata may have other plans for Congress and more reshuffle surprises may be in store for even some Trinamool ministers.
While Trinamool’s Aroop Biswas and Chandrima Bhattacharya were sworn in as new ministers, Congress’s Abu Hena and Manoj Chakraborty lost a department each. Hena, the fisheries minister, lost the food processing department, which was given to Trinamool’s Ujjwal Biswas, and Chakraborty lost both his minister-of-state departments – parliamentary affairs and cottage and small-scale industries.
Chakraborty was made deputy to Ujjwal Biswas in the food processing department and will, in fact, have to move out of Writers’ Buildings because his office is in Salt Lake. He was fuming all day because he realized that something was afoot but could not be sure. He was clearly upset but avoided making any comments. “I will speak with my party,” he had said. The government was tight-lipped about the reshuffle and kept everyone on the tenterhooks till late in the evening. It was 8.45pm when he chief secretary finally announced the reshuffle.
Chakraborty reacted with fury. “This is vendetta for speaking up (against the attacks on Congress workers by Trinamool),” he said.
Trinamool’s Aroop Biswas has been made youth affairs minister and is also MoS parliamentary affairs, along with maverick Congress leader Abu Naser Khan Chowdhury, who had announced two days ago his desire to join Trinamool.
It is significant that Both Abu Hena and Manoj Chakraborty are Congress leaders from Murshidabad, the turf of Congress strongman Adhir Choudhury who has repeatedly attacked the Mamata Banerjee government. Only a few days ago, he had said Congress should walk out of the coalition. Adhir’s comment had triggered a sharp rebuke from Trinamool ministers.
Finally, heritage tag for 2500-yr-old Chandraketugarh
Exactly 105 years after it was first “discovered”, Chandraketugarh is finally getting some attention. The Mamata Banerjee government has decided to turn Bengal’s richest archaeological treasure trove into a heritage village.
The ruins dating back to 6th Century BC has been a pilferers’ paradise for decades, and people all over the world have minted money smuggling the exquisite antiques out of the ‘garh’ (fortified city) tucked away in Berachampa village in North 24-Parganas, about 34 km from Kolkata. To know that, you have to simply check out some of the relics soaked in Bengal’s rich yet unknown past at the Christie’s or the Sotheby’s websites.
Countdown begins
Is this the beginning of the end to the booming “trade”? Shuvaprasanna, chairman, West Bengal Heritage Commission, nodded. “We shall do everything to establish Chandraketugarh in its archaeological glory. We are also trying to make it a world heritage site,” said the painter. The commission, in collaboration with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), has embarked upon a major excavation attempt within the next year to unearth the myth and mystery of the historical township. Harvard professor and commission member Sugato Bose said: “This archaeological site can transform our understanding of the ancient history of Bengal.” Bose must return to Harvard shortly, but will be in Kolkata in February to formulate some important decisions on Chandraketugarh.
Locals overjoyed
“This is the best thing we have heard in a long time. I can’t remember since when we have been demanding that the area be excavated and if required, the entire land be acquired,” said local resident Asim Karmakar, who had formed a pressure group years ago so that the governments (both state and central) did something to stop the extensive looting of the relics. “The administration has been insensitive to conservation as well as to the crime related to Chandraketugarh,” he said.
The heritage village will cover Berachampa to Haroa, including Singer Ati, Shanpukur, Hadipur, Jhikra, Ranakhola, Ghorapota, Dhanpota, Chuprijhara, Mathbari and Ghaziatala. The ASI might dig up Berachampa, Khana-Mihirer Dhipi, Ita Khola, Noongola and Hadipur all over again; these sites were excavated about half a century ago, but the job has been largely inadequate.
Heritage village, fort and temple
Calcutta University’s Ashutosh Museum did unearth remains of a temple in 1956-57. Constructed during the times of the legendary Mihir and Khana, the temple is two miles from King Chandraketu’s fort. “The temple and the fort comprised the prosperous urban settlement that flourished between 4th Century BC and 12th Century AD. It was a remarkable civilisation spanning at least six eras, starting from that of the pre-Mauryans and ending with the Pala period,” say ASI records.
The temple, said to be built during the Pala era, is the most valuable archaeological find of the region. Almost nothing, however, is left of the polygonal structure connected to a square vestibule. The roof had collapsed long ago and all that remains are the walls and a flight of stairs. “The fort and the temple are immensely vulnerable to pilferage and decay. The heritage village complex will automatically protect the entire area. The excavation, on the other hand, will enhance Chandraketugarh’s archaeological stature,” said Amal Roy of the state archaeological department.
Museum and research
First things first. The heritage commission intends constructing a museum – like the one at Nalanda – in the middle of the ‘garh’, along with research facilities. Since there are currency like the gold coin belonging to Chandragupta-Kumaradevi, semi-precious stone beads, ivory and bone materials, terracotta plaques, figurines, pottery and wooden objects of remarkable sculpting that survived the test of time, Chandraketugarh has potential to be identified as the oldest early-history site in Bengal.
“The idea is to develop a thematic museum that can reconstruct the history of Chandraketugarh,” said archaeologist and OSD, heritage commission, Basudeb Malik. The town planning of this prosperous urban set-up that existed 2,500 years ago will also be reconstructed.
Port ‘reconstructed’
According to a school of thought, Chandraketugarh was actually a port city that had come up on the rich, alluvial Ganga-Vidyadhari delta, and had eventually merged into the mainland, thanks to the rivers’ changing courses. No wonder there is no hard fact about the period of Chandraketugarh. An artists’ impression of the port theory is, thus, being conceived along with a picture-story of the Hindu Chandraketu running into a conflict with the Muslim saint Syed Abbas Ali Gorachand. Finally, an illustrative tale of how the mound at Berachampa and Deuliya (later rechristened Debalaya) villages earned the name Chandraketugarh.
Tapping tourism
On the cards is a mega tourism centre of international standards. “Tourists will be awed by the sheer historical evidence lurking in and around the place. A thorough excavation will show off Chandraketugarh as the Mecca of Bengal’s heritage,” said Shuvaprasanna. He and Bose led a team of archaeologists to the ‘garh’ on January 7 to see for themselves. The thrust will be on protecting the invaluable heritage site – especially from the clasps of international smugglers and their local linkmen.
The fort and the historians
And about time, too. A hundred years have already been wasted. The archaeological implication of Chandraketugarh came under the spotlight early last century when a group of government contractors deployed to lay a road somewhere between Barasat and Basirhat came across some sleek brick structures beneath a cluster of mounds. Word got around, albeit slowly, until A H Longhurst visited the site, prodded by local resident Tarak Nath Ghosh, in 1907. He stumbled upon large volumes of bricks and pottery, but reported that the ruins were nothing much to write home about.
Finally, Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay – already known for his tryst with Mahenjodaro – travelled to the site in 1909 and wrote: “The relics and terracotta figurines are archaeological wonders….” The stamp of authenticity had K N Dikshit, superintendent, ASI’s eastern circle, publish the first paper in 1922-23. But the site wasn’t excavated until 1956 – by CU’s Ashutosh Museum for an entire decade. A trial trenching by ASI in 2000 ended abruptly.
Unesco funds
Given the enormity of the project, the state heritage commission has decided to rope in Unesco to pitch in for setting up the heritage village, the excavation of the site and rehabilitation of locals. “Getting Unesco’s funds shouldn’t be difficult since Chandraketugarh has been famous for decades,” said Shuvaprasanna. He said the government would also seek help from the likes of British Museum to salvage some of the relics smuggled out of the country through the ministry of culture. A national register of the ‘garh’s artefacts would also be compiled.
State plans to boost rural job scheme
KOLKATA: The Mamata Banerjee government has resolved to stamp out its poor record in providing employment under MGNREGA, which assures 100 days’ work, within the remaining months of the current fiscal. Subrata Mukherjee, who has recently been handed over the panchayat and rural development portfolio, on Tuesday met district magistrates to provide more jobs under the scheme. With an eye on rural polls, Mamata is in a hurry to implement projects in the next few months.
“At present, we are only able to provide 19 days of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Urban Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). We intend taking it to 50 days in the next three months,” Mukherjee said. The government also wants to employ more than one member of a family under the scheme. Currently, only one member gets 100-day work. “We shall try and make any member above 18 years eligible. The wages will be paid on daily basis — in cash or cheques,” he added.
Trinamool recently expressed its anguish over Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh’s letter that criticized the state’s handling of the MGNREGA funds. The party blamed it on non-performance of gram panchayats run by the CPM and Congress. “We shall discuss the issue at length with Ramesh when he comes here on January 23. We’ll pin-point the non-performing panchayats,” Mukherjee said.
Officials in the panchayat and rural development department said the government has set a target of spending around Rs 5,000 crore by this fiscal on rural development. The department has prepared a report revealing that of the Rs 600 crore unutilized funds, Rs 480 crore accounted for gram panchayats run by the CPM and Congress. The report also shows that the time span mentioned by Ramesh had been a lean period and things were much worse before Trinamool came to power in May. But as per the latest data released by the Union rural development ministry on December 16, Bengal could generate only about 14 days of employment under MGNREGA.
Mukherjee also blamed the Left government for not spending Rs 2,000 crore under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna. “We have decided to spend the money on building 1,000 km of roads in villages,” he said. However, officials in the rural development department revealed that the total allocation under the Gram Sadak Yojna would only be about Rs 800 crore. So there was no way so much funds could have remained unutilized.
The minister said there were 27 rural development projects that were pending. Of these, six would be implemented soon. He said projects could not be implemented since there were about 1,000 pending litigations. “We have asked the CM to have these cases disposed of in a tribunal or by setting up a special court,” said Mukherjee.
He also pointed out that BPL lists were yet to be compiled. “As per the Centre’s records, 28.3% of the state’s population is eligible for BPL cards. But state’s records show the figure actually stands at 48.5%. Thus, we must bear the burden of the rest,” said Mukherjee.Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government has resolved to improve its poor record of 19 days of employment under NREGA (which assures 100 days’ work) to 50 days – within the remaining months of this fiscal.
Subrata Mukherjee, whom the chief minister recently handed over the panchayat and rural development portfolio after the removing Chandranath Sinha, met district magistrates to take some major decisions on Tuesday. Mamata is in a hurry to implement projects in the next few months, determined that she is out to wrest the panchayats from the CPM in the rural polls next year.
Mukherjee said, “At present, we are only able to provide 19 days work under National Urban Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). We intend taking it to 50 days in the next three months.” The government, he said, wants to allow more than one member of a family NREGA jobs. Currently, only one member gets 100 days’ work. Mukherjee said, “We shall try and make any member who is 18 years eligible. The wages will be paid on daily basis — in cash or cheques.”
The Trinamool Congress recently expressed anguish over a letter from Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh to the chief minister, criticizing her government’s handling of the NREGA funds. The party blamed it on non-performance of gram panchayats run by CPM and the Congress. The panchayat minister said, “We shall discuss the issue at length with Ramesh when he comes here on January 23. We’ll pin-point the non-performing panchayats in a list compiled regularly.”
Officials in the panchayat and rural development department said that the government has set a target of spending around Rs 5,000 crore by this fiscal. The department has also prepared a report revealing that of the Rs 600 crore unutilized funds, Rs 480 crore accounted for gram panchayats run by the CPM and the Congress. The report will also show that the time span mentioned by Ramesh had been a lean period and things were much worse before the Trinamool Congress came to power in May 2011. But as per the latest data released by the Union rural development ministry on Decemebr 16, Bengal could generate only about 14 days of employment under NREGA.
Mukherjee also blamed the erstwhile government for not spending Rs 2,000 crore under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna. “We have decided to spend the money on building 1000 km of roads in the villages,” he said. However, officials in the panchayat and rural development department revealed that the total allocation under the Gram Sadak Yojna would only be about Rs 800 crore. So there was no way so much funds could have remained unutilized.
The minister said there were 27 pending rural development projects. Of these, six would be implemented immediately. The minister said projects could not be implementing because there were more than 1,000 pending litigations. “We have asked the chief minister to have these cases disposed in a tribunal or by setting up a special court,” said Mukherjee.
He pointed out that BPL lists were yet to be compiled. “As per the Centre’s records, 28.3 per cent of the state’s population is BPL. But state’s records show that it’s actually 48.5 per cent. Thus, we must bear the burden of the 20.2 per cent people. No wonder old-age pensions are pending for six months,” said Mukherjee.
