1. Faint Hope For Howrah Family Of CRPF Man, Then The Worst
When Bablu Santra called wife Mita on Thursday morning, it seemed like any other day, another customary call.
The 38-year-old CRPF head constable from Bauria in Howrah told Mita he was leaving with other troopers for Srinagar.
“Raakchhi (ending the call),” he said before hanging up.
The next call on Mita’s mobile came on Friday morning. This time, it was a senior commandant of Bablu’s CRPF battalion on the line. He informed her that her husband was among the 38 killed in the suicide blast in Pulwama.
Bablu and Mita have a four-year-old daughter, Piya, who joined kindergarten recently.
(Source: The Telegraph)
2. Broken Deam: Nadia Son’s Wish For A Brick House To Replace Hut
Sudip Biswas had told his sister to look for a bride and, on Thursday afternoon, called up his father in Nadia saying he wanted to gift him a pucca house this year-end.
A little over two hours later, the 27-year-old CRPF constable’s bus was hit by the car bomber in Pulwama.
“Around 1pm, Sudip called when I was working in a field. He asked me not to work under the sun as I have not been well. He advised me to take it easy and told me about his plan to come home on long leave by the end of this year to complete the construction of our new house. He asked me to quit working and be ready to enjoy our new home,” said Sanyasi Biswas, 56, a farm labourer.
At present, the family lives in a mud-walled and tiled-roofed house here in Tehatta. Construction started last year on the new house on an adjoining plot, with the family building it in phases whenever funds could be rustled up.
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. Declare 72-Hour Mourning For Martyrs: Mamata
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee wants the Centre to announce a 72-hour mourning in memory of the CRPF jawans killed in a suicide attack at Pulwama in Jammu on Thursday 14 February.
She spoke to one of the two bereaved families from West Bengal and also sent a minister to meet both families.
Banerjee didn’t hide her displeasure over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagging off of the semi high-speed Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express the day after the tragedy. “Today even the PM has inaugurated a railway project. These kinds of programmes should be avoided at this moment. Why will there not be 72 hours’ national mourning for these jawans? Why will there be national mourning only on the death of a politician? We should be more sensitive towards these brave soldiers who laid down their lives for the country,” she said.
(Source: The Times Of India)
4. Filtered Water Supply To Every House, KMC Promises In Budget
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has taken up a comprehensive water augmentation scheme to supply filtered water to every corner of the city. While presenting the KMC Budget 2019-20, mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday announced that Rs 406 crore will be spent to produce filtered water and laying of pipelines to every household that depend on ground water at present.
The KMC authorities were asked to make a blueprint for providing filtered water to residents living in ‘ground water’ zones after chief minister Mamata Banerjee had asked Hakim to adopt extensive projects to provide safe drinking water to Kolkatans. Banerjee had particularly pointed out the plight of those living in the Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt and the areas off EM Bypass. Dependence on ground water in these parts of the city has often led to an outbreak of enteric diseases. Besides, extensive withdrawal of ground water has, in many places, led to the possibility of arsenic contamination.
(Source: The Times Of India)
5. Roads Blocked In Birbhum After BJP Man's Daughter Is Abducted
Residents put up roadblocks and demonstrated at Labhpur police station on 15 February after the 28-year-old daughter of a local BJP worker had allegedly been kidnapped by three miscreants at gunpoint on Thursday night.
Police have detained a youth in connection with the kidnap and started a probe. The woman is yet to be rescued. She had completed MA in English and is presently pursuing a master’s degree in education while working as a temporary vocational teacher.
According to family members, around 8pm on Thursday evening, three men came on motorbikes, entered the BJP worker’s house and held all five family members at gunpoint and kidnapped her.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Plastic Factory Fire: Five Charred Bodies Found On Second Floor
More than 72-hours after a massive fire gutted a three-storey chair factory at New Barrackpore’s Jugberia on Monday afternoon, the charred remains of the five persons trapped inside were recovered from the second floor. The burnt bodies were identified by the victims’ families and have been sent for post-mortem.
Ananda Roy, DCP, Zone II, Barrackpore Commissionerate told TOI, “All five bodies were found severely burnt. They were lying under the charred iron rakes. Preliminarily, we suspect that after they failed to get out of the burning building, they had tried to hide under the iron rakes. Though their families identified them by their wristwatches and other accessories, it may require DNA analysis to ascertain the proper identification.”
(Source: The Times Of India)
7. Madhyamik Paper ‘Leak’ For 3rd Day In A Row
For the third day in a row, the question paper of Madhyamik examinations was allegedly circulated on WhatsApp within 20 minutes of the start of the test. After the history paper “leaked”, several teachers’ organisations turned to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education for a redress and demanded the resignation of board president Kalyanmoy Ganguly.
Moreover, several students claimed that the subjective questions of history were “long” and “difficult”, though the allegation was refuted by a section of board officials.
(Source: The Times Of India)
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