Writers’ attendance register tampered with

A page with strike-day attendance has gone missing from an agriculture directorate register at Writers’ Buildings.

The administrative officer of the directorate opened the register on Thursday morning to find the page with attendance records of nine (Group D) employees of the directorate had been ripped off. “Page 3 of register number 5 was intact when I left office on Wednesday afternoon,” the official said.

The administrative officer, however, has a photocopy of the missing page. “The copy shows that eight of the nine employees were present on the strike day. The only absentee has not been attending office for over two months because of health reasons,” an official said.

But the agriculture minister was not ready to make light of the matter “We have lodged an FIR with police. Tampering of government records is a crime and I consider it to be a conspiracy,” minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya said.

The home (political) department issued a circular on Wednesday, asking all departments to submit lists of absentees on the day of the strike. Earlier, the chief secretary had issued a circular stating that no leave would be granted to employees who did not report for work on February 28.

Though the departments had been asked to submit the lists by 5pm on Wednesday, only 13-14 departments met the deadline.

The state government reissued the circular, extending the deadline for submission of absentee lists till 5pm on Thursday. But only around 10 more departments sent their lists on Thursday.

“More than 50 per cent of the departments are yet to furnish their reports. But the government is very serious about the matter and will keep persuading them until the complete list of absentees is drawn up,” said a senior official.

Writers’ remained abuzz with speculation over what action the state government, which had threatened to invoke the break-in-service clause, would take against absentees.

North Bengal Festival from Feb 10

KOLKATA: The state government is all set to organize a glittering North Bengal Festival that will be inaugurated by the chief minister in Siliguri on February 10.

It will continue till February 16 at several places across the six districts of North Bengal.

Announcing the festival at Writers’ Buildings on Tuesday, North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb said at Writers’ Buildings on Tuesday that it will be a gala festival in which people from different fields will participate. The festival aims at promoting tourism in North Bengal.

“A meeting was held with districts magistrates of the six districts. The festival is being organized jointly by the North Bengal development department, forest department, sports department, tourism department and information and culture department. The focus regions will be Jalpaiguri and the Siliguri subdivision,” the minister said.

The festival will be inaugurated on a 16,000 sq-feet stage that is being set up at Kanchenjunga Stadium in Siliguri. A colourful procession will mark the inauguration. The festival will have a gala combination of sport, culture and literature. Folk artists and people from several places, including Bangladesh and Manipur, will participate in the weeklong festival.

Deb said the festival will witness several traditional sports of the country like khokho, archery along with other sports like cricket and volleyball. There will be a 42.5 kilometer long marathon run.

The cultural programmes will be graced by a host of renowned artists like Bangla bands Bhumi, Chandrabindoo, singers like Nachiketa, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta and Anjan Dutt.

Cong, CPM blocking road to development: Mamata

KOLKATA: After taking a day’s break from bashing her ally, Mamata Banerjee was back in “business” on Tuesday. At a programme organized by the West Bengal Minorities Development and Financial Corporation at Netaji Indoor Stadium, the Trinamool Congress chief again took on the Congress and, of course, CPM.

Mamata Banerjee is back to Congress bashing. A day after she chose to refrain from the political attack on Monday with all her focus on the business summit, the mercurial chief minister was back to her basics at a programme organised by the West Bengal Minorities Development and Financial Corporation at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Tuesday.

She alleged that they are trying to throw spanner in her effort to put the state on development track. “Babu chale bazar, kutta bhowke hazar(while someone heads for market, dogs bark)

. Keep shouting on television, I will keep working – nothing bothers me,” she said.

Referring to the Raiganj incident, Mamata said, “A small thing committed by some youngsters spurred some people to question whether this is the change they’d wanted. Change means development. Only those against it are refusing to see that.”

Referring to Congress without naming them, she said some parties, along with CPM are making an issue of Nazrul Academy, she said. “I know Nazrul had to leave India. We didn’t pay him due respect. At his birthplace in Churulia, CPM has its party offices. We’re trying to regain what we’d lost in the last three and a half decades. Now CPM and their political friends are pointing fingers at us. Let them do that, this will not deter us from our path.”

The Trinamool chief also held a CPM-backed union responsible for diverting funds meant for rice procurement to party funds. “Now that they’re unable to do it, they’ve hit the streets to spread malice against us with their political friends,” she said.

In response to Mamata’s barbs, state Congress president Pradip Bhattachaya said his party had formed an alliance with the Trinamool only because people wanted that. He said it was in the interest of both parties to keep the alliance going and Mamata should take an active role in saving the alliance.

Addressing a press conference in Malda, he said, “Now if people do not want us to remain an ally of the Trinamool, we will quit.” It was the Congress high command which had put the seal of approval on the alliance, and “we will leave the alliance only if the high command wants us to do that,” he said.

Bhattacharya said his party did not do anything wrong by highlighting problems faced by farmers in the state. “We consider it to be our duty. What will the farmers do if they cannot sell their produces?” he said. He also defended Congress minister Manoj Chakraborty who had criticized the ally at Writers’ Buildings on Monday. The trend was set by Trinamool, he said.

Highlighting the steps taken by her government for minorities, Mamata said the minorities welfare department will spend its allocated Rs 415 crore by March, this year. The branches of minority affairs department will be set up in every district, she said. “For setting this up, we’ve already sanctioned Rs seven-crore of the allocated Rs 14-crore. Rs 16-lakh has been given as scholarships (to minority students) and loans (to self-help groups),” she said.

Leader of the opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra alleged the state under Left tenure had not only set up departments – but carved out two directorates – for minority welfare. “The government is yet to allocate funds for a scheme targeted to empower minorities women. We’d also tried to ensure OBC quota, which has stopped now. Before criticizing, I wish to inform her that the WBMDFC was awarded by the Centre for its performance, I hope she can maintain the number one status,” he said.

Tech bosses knock on Mamata door

Calcutta: Microsoft India chairman Bhaskar Pramanik and Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia today met Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and IT minister Partha Chatterjee at Writers’ Buildings to discuss ways to bring in investments in information technology. Two key officials from Hewlett-Packard also met Chatterjee later in the day.

Both Pramanik and Bhatia expressed interest in working with the Bengal government.

Speaking after the meeting, Pramanik said his company would explore prospects of partnering the state in improving digital literacy in schools.

The company is also looking at introducing innovations in higher education and devise strategies to help generate employment for women in rural areas.

Sabeer Bhatia, CEO and co-founder of Jaxtr SMS, has proposed to set up channels of direct communication between the government and the citizens through the Jaxtr platform.

According to Bhatia, Jaxtr could be used to send texts on a large scale at three levels — between various departments of the state, from the citizens to various state agencies and from the government to the people.

“Jaxtr could also help the government in disaster management by formulating an SMS-based alert service,” Bhatia said.

“We have requested Bhatia to become an adviser to us in our initiative to set up an innovative centre in the state. The centre will propel the spirit of entrepreneurship. His proposal will help in our administrative work,” said IT minister Partha Chatterjee.

While Microsoft has already initiated similar projects in other states, Bengal will be the first to benefit from JaxtrSMS, which allows subscribers to send free text messages to people anywhere in the world.

Data connectivity on the phone is the only requirement for users to avail themselves of the service.