ADVERTISEMENTREMOVE AD

QKolkata: BJP Demands to Know Brigade Rally Cost; Fire in Gariahat

Your daily lowdown of all things Kolkata.

Published
India
4 min read
story-hero-img
i
Aa
Aa
Small
Aa
Medium
Aa
Large
Hindi Female

1. BJP Wants to Know TMC Rally Cost

BJP leader Mukul Roy said on Sunday, 20 January, the party had written to the Election Commission of India, seeking information about the money spent by the Trinamul Congress to organise the “United India” rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds here on Saturday.

“We have asked the ECI, which monitors the accounts of all political parties, how much money Trinamul spent on holding the Brigade rally on January 19. The party’s declared annual turnover is Rs 5.16 crore, while it has spent around 160 times more on yesterday’s rally,” Roy told a news conference at the Bengal BJP headquarters in Calcutta.

He said Trinamul had spent around Rs 17.70 crore on flexes and banners alone for the Brigade rally.

A BJP leader later said the figure of Rs 5.16 crore was for the 2017-18 fiscal.

Roy also sought to scoff at the Brigade rally’s call to save democracy.

(Source: The Telegraph)

ADVERTISEMENTREMOVE AD

2. Bonfire of Saris in Wedding Season

Sari shops Traders Assembly and Adi Dhakeswari Bastralaya were gutted with their warehouses in the peak wedding season when fire broke out early on Sunday at the landmark five-storey building that houses them at Gariahat junction.

The 12.45am blaze, which raged more than 10 hours, destroyed or damaged a third of the 25-odd shops the building accommodates and forced the 40 resident families to rush down the stairs and spend the winter night on the street.

At least two flats in the 80-year-old building, 161/A & B Rashbehari Avenue, were severely damaged. A Class XII student who will write her board exams next month lost some of her books.

(Source: The Telegraph)

0

3. No Lessons Learnt: Dalas Still Choke Approach to Major Markets in City

Hawkers’ dalas – the small makeshift shops covered with plastic or tarpaulin – clog pavements and approach roads around all prominent markets across the city, jeopardising fire prevention measures. The vending kiosks are usually made of wood and covered with tarpaulin sheets, which are inflammable and also make it difficult for firefighters to get past them in the event of an emergency, like the one that happened at Gariahat in the early hours of Sunday.

Hatibagan market, one of the oldest and largest markets in the city, had witnessed a devastating fire in March 2012 that left hundreds of stalls gutted. The traders came together to revive the market, which now has about 800 stalls. But not much has changed, rued the traders.

(Source: The Times of India)

ADVERTISEMENTREMOVE AD

4. TMC Joins Civic Workers in Brigade Clean-up Ops

Hundreds of Trinamool workers on Sunday joined conservancy staffers of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to clean up Brigade Parade Ground after Saturday’s rally. At the end of the day, the ground was ready for the usual cricket matches.

KMC deployed over 1,500 civic workers to clean up the ground. Officials said the clean-up work was started as soon as the rally ended on Saturday afternoon. “Work went on throughout the night and continued on Sunday and most of the ground was cleaned up,” an official said.

Earlier, mayor Firhad Hakim held a meeting with solid waste management, parks and squares, sewerage and drainage and water supply departments to chalk out a conservancy plan to clean up the ground and areas across the city where the rally supporters had stopped.

(Source: The Times of India)

ADVERTISEMENTREMOVE AD

5. Morcha Dumps BJP

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has “officially” announced its decision to end its decade-old association with the BJP-led NDA, which could affect the poll arithmetic in at least four Lok Sabha seats in north Bengal.

Among them is the prestigious Darjeeling seat, which has provided the BJP with a toehold in the region since 2009, and which no party can hope to win without the Morcha’s endorsement.

Morcha president Binay Tamang has handed over a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee informing her of the decision and expressing willingness to join a “third party” alliance. Tamang, along with Morcha general secretary Anit Thapa, had attended the Opposition rally at the Brigade on Saturday.

(Source: The Telegraph)

ADVERTISEMENTREMOVE AD

6. Ramua Murder: Wife’s Paramour Hired Son’s Friends for Rs 1 L, Arrested

The Barrackpore police detective wing on Sunday nabbed an insurance agent in connection with the murder of Howrah-based gangster Rammurti Dewar alias Ramua, taking the total number of arrests to six. Khardah police on Saturday had arrested Ramua’s wife Kajal, son Samir and Samir’s friends – Prashant K Singh, Vishal Menon and Shyamsundar Rao – who have reportedly confessed to the killing.

Police said the insurance agent, Kartik Jadav, from Howarah’s Shibpur was Kajal’s paramour. He had masterminded the shooting by hiring Samir’s friends. “After being instructed by Jadav, Samir – an MBA student of a Visakhapatnam college – contacted his three friends to have his father killed. The trio demanded Rs 4 lakh supari. Jadhav paid them Rs 1lakh,” an investigating officer said.

(Source: The Times of India)

ADVERTISEMENTREMOVE AD

7. ‘Sick’ Girl Tied for 15 Years

A 20-year-old mentally challenged woman has been tied to bamboo poles for the past 15 years at her home by her bidi-worker parents over “water mania” and frequent dash to ponds despite an inability to swim.

The parents said the girl, one of nine siblings in the family in a Murshidabad village, hasn’t been taken to a doctor for follow-up treatment in the past eight years since a government hospital confirmed she had a “congenital condition.” Her father and mother earn around Rs 5,500 each month rolling bidis.

As a toddler, her parents said they noticed something “unusual” in her affinity for water. By the time she was five, she would often go missing, only to be found playing by a pond.

(Source: The Telegraph)

(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)

Read Latest News and Breaking News at The Quint, browse for more from news and india

Topics:  News Wrap   kolkata news 

Speaking truth to power requires allies like you.
Become a Member
3 months
12 months
12 months
Check Member Benefits
Read More
×
×