QKolkata: Calcutta Metro Survey Flagged Bagree Hazard & More
Your daily lowdown of all things Kolkata.
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1. Calcutta Metro Survey Flagged Hazards That Mirror Bagree Plight
Observations made during a survey of 130-odd buildings in the central business district before two Metro tunnels were dug through Brabourne Road last year appear to mirror why a disaster like Bagree Market is just a spark or a jolt away.
Terms like “very poor condition”, “spilling of concrete”, “cracks”, “damp patches” and “damaged walls” pepper the survey reports, although the tunnel-boring operation was completed without any collateral damage.
Steel props and grouting had been used to bolster the weaker buildings along Brabourne Road before the tunnel-boring machines passed underneath them. According to engineers involved in the construction of the East-West Metro, several of these buildings remain unstable.
(Source: The Telegraph)
2. Robbed Of Homes, Families Spend Sleepless Nights
The fire at Bagri Market has not only stripped hundreds of traders and their employees of their livelihood but has also rendered scores of families homeless.
Sunil Singh, a security guard at the wholesale mart, who, along with his family of five, lived in the staff quarters on the terrace of the building, has temporarily put up at a dharamshala on M G Road. The hall he and his family have been living in, The hall he has been staying in has four more families crammed in. “When we left our home in a hurry, we could not even bring spare clothes,” Singh said. “The fire has been doused but still, the police are not allowing us to return. We have no clue when we can get back home. My children have exams but they can neither go to school nor study in this crowded hall, where we hardly have space even to sleep.”
(Source: The Times Of India)
3. Decoy Drama And Switch To Trinamool Ends BJP Rural Body Lead In North Bengal
The BJP has been robbed of its slender majority in Alipurduar’s Kumargram panchayat samiti after a winner defected to Trinamool amid an alleged “decoy drama” that drew him from Assam where the BJP flock had been quarantined.
Since Pratap Lama joined Trinamul on Tuesday after rushing from Assam following claims about his father’s illness, BJP leaders have been exploring options to form the board at the samiti but are yet to find a way.
The BJP had won 17 of the 32 seats in the panchayat samiti, and Trinamool the remaining 15. BJP leaders had shifted all its 17 winners to neighbouring Dhubri in party-ruled Assam. “We had plans to bring them here at the last moment, only after the administration announced the date for the formation of the board,” said a BJP insider.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. GRSE Bridges For Majerhat
The defence ministry’s Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd will supply two portable bridges to the state government connecting the proposed routes in view of the Majerhat bridge collapse.
Company officials on Wednesday said it had received a communication from the state authorities on Tuesday for the bridges that would connect both ends of the Chetla canal.
In addition to making ships for the navy and coast guard, the engineering division of the city-headquartered company builds and supplies bridges for the Border Roads Organisation augmenting road networks and connecting difficult terrains, especially in hilly areas, Rear Admiral V.K. Saxena (Retd), chairman and managing director of GRSE, said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
5. Stephen Court Lesson In Safety Responsibility
Occupants of buildings need to take responsibility for their safety instead of blaming the owners for fire hazards, residents of Stephen Court appear to have realised after failing to obtain a fire-safety certificate eight years after a blaze in the building killed 43 people .
Occupants of the Park Street landmark said the fire-safety certificate hadn’t been issued because some among them were yet to comply with the recommendations of the fire services department.
“What do you do when all occupants do not agree and some refuse to implement fire-safety measures? We are helpless. We cannot barge into someone’s property or force someone to comply with the recommendations of the fire brigade,” said Debashis Guha Niyogi, the secretary of Stephen Court Welfare, an association of residential and commercial occupants of the building.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Man With 3 Rods In Body Returns Home
Uday Sardar (45), whose torso was pierced through by three iron rods, returned home on Wednesday after spending over a month in the hospital. The mason from Laksminarayanpur had fallen from the first floor of an under-construction building onto the iron rods on the ground floor balcony on 8 August. Rushed initially to Baruipur Hospital, Sardar was referred to Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (CNMCH).
Luckily, apart from an injury in the mid colon, the rods had not punctured any vital organ. But even as the rods were removed through a critical surgery, doctors fought a tough battle containing infections post surgery. They decided to discharge him after ensuring no further infection threats.
(Source: The Times Of India)
7. Raging Ganga Devours 16 Homes in Murshidabad
The raging Ganga has eroded its banks at Hossainpur near here, gobbling up 16 homes and posing threats to 25 other houses.
A part of a metalled road running parallel to the riverbank was also eaten up by the waters cutting easy access to the village. Now, an 8km detour is required to reach the village.
The 41 families were shifted to relief camps on Wednesday.
The block development officer of Farakka, AM Ansar, and other administrative staff reached Hossainpur and distributed tarpaulins and food.
Sonamukhi Singha, a Class XI student, said her house was about 100m from the riverbank.
(Source: The Telegraph)