1. Ultra-Left Group Damages Syama Prasad Bust
The politics of vandalism reached Kolkata on Wednesday, 7 March, when seven members of ultra-left students’ organisation Radical damaged and sprayed black paint on Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s bust, near the Keoratala crematorium in Kalighat, before being overpowered by local residents and cops.
Wednesday’s move, which caught cops off guard and took Bengal’s political mainstream by surprise, was in retaliation to the recent vandalism of Lenin’s statues in Tripura after the BJP came to office, radical members said. The ultra-left group has a presence in Jadavpur University’s Arts faculty and has engaged cops in anti-government movements, most recently during the Nonadanga anti-land acquisition stir.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. Wife Accuses Shami of Infidelity, Assault
Team India pacer Mohammad Shami’s wife, Hasin Jahan, has accused him of infidelity and physical assault over several months.
On Wednesday, 7 March, a day after she posted a series of screenshots that she claimed were conversations between Shami and other women, she went to Lalbazar with her lawyer to meet senior cops but didn’t lodge a complaint. In the evening, Shami’s woes spilled over with the BCCI withholding his revised annual contract.
Jahan, 26, a former Kolkata-based model and cheerleader for an IPL team, had met Shami in 2011. They got married a year later. The couple has a four-year-old daughter.
Since Tuesday morning, she started posting a series of photographs of Shami with different women, alleging they were his girlfriends. She later posted seven screenshots of a text conversation claiming they were between Shami and a woman, dating back to October 2016, naming the album “Shami’s enjoyment”.
(Source: The Times of India)
3. Night Shelter, Wi-Fi And Cafeteria to be Part of Bus Depot Upgrade
The bus depots at prime locations in Kolkata and the districts will soon boast of night shelters, electronic displays and cafeterias. The transport department is in the process of upgrading depots with modern amenities at Joka, Karunamayee, Garia, Jadavpur, airport, Howrah and Baruipur.
“We have upgraded 20 such depots in the districts and are upgrading 70 more this financial year,” said Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari in the Assembly while tabling the transport Budget. Depots situated on massive plots of land, partly used, have so far been out-of bounds for commuters and the state is planning better utilisation of the properties.
(Source: The Times of India)
4. B.Tech Student Gets 5 Years in Prison for Revenge Porn
A court in Tamluk, East Midnapore, sentenced a third year B.Tech student from Panskura to five years imprisonment and slapped him with a fine of Rs 9,000 for uploading objectionable photographs and videos of a girl he knew through the internet. In this case, being touted as one of the swiftest deliveries of justice in India, third judicial magistrate Gautam Kumar Nag directed the state to treat the girl as a rape survivor and pay compensation accordingly.
Advocate Bivas Chatterjee said, “The complaint was lodged and the accused – Animesh Boxi – arrested on 21 July 2017 and proceedings got over on 28 February 2018. While the CID took up the investigation, I was appointed the special public prosecutor. The girl complained she knew Boxi for three years and trusted him. With a promise to marry her, Boxi obtained some private photographs and videos from her. He threatened to upload them if she didn’t have physical relations with him. When she refused, he uploaded the photographs. I told the court that this was revenge pornography and the girl underwent virtual rape every time somebody clicked on one of her photographs.”
(Source: The Times of India)
5. Sen Screen Test in Friday Plex Splash
A new star joins the box-office cast this Friday: Amartya Sen.
The Argumentative Indian, a documentary on the Nobel laureate by Suman Ghosh, is set to have a commercial release at INOX and Nandan like a feature film does. It is common in the West for a documentary to get a commercial release – Fahrenheit 9/11 grossed more worldwide than many feature films – but The Argumentative Indian will be a first for Calcutta in terms of scale.
The documentary, shot in two parts in 2002 and 2017, chronicles the life and work of Sen.
Ghosh is "pleasurably curious" about how many people will turn up to watch his film. "I am not expecting a huge turnout because it is an esoteric documentary. But then, it is a documentary on Amartya Sen," he said. "I have never seen this happen (a documentary being screened at a multiplex). I hope it is a sign of the changing times."
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Search Panel for Presi VC
The state government will form a search committee to recommend three names for the post of vice chancellor of Presidency University, Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said on Wednesday, 7 March.
VC Anuradha Lohia's tenure ends on 1 May. She was appointed in 2014.
The tenure of a full-term VC is four years and those above 65 aren't eligible to become VCs. Lohia is now 62.
"We have decided to appoint the next vice chancellor at Presidency. We will soon issue a notification," Chatterjee said.
The search committee will have three members, a nominee each of the university, the government and the governor, who is the university's chancellor.
The department is in the process of finalising the names of the chancellors and government's nominees, a Higher Education Department official said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. Salt Lake Hawkers Evicted
At least 50-odd hawkers, who had returned after being evicted and set up stalls on the footpath and divider in front of the CGO complex in Salt Lake, were evicted again on Wednesday, 7 March.
The eviction drive was smooth as a team of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation officials, along with cops, walked up to the hawkers and asked them to leave.
A tea stall owner said the officials asked every shop owner to leave or be prepared to have the stall razed.
"We didn't want to take any chances... we gathered our things and left. I had several customers waiting for tea to be served but I asked them to leave," Subal Mondal, the tea stall owner, said.
A civic official who visited the area described the experience as "very surprising".
"We did not have to do anything. They went away on their own and in record time," the official said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
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