1. KMC To Raze Vulnerable Portions Of Bagri Market
A team of 25 KMC workers armed with shovels, spades, chisels, claw bars and hammers have been waiting outside Bagri Market, all set to pull down the precarious portions of the building the moment they get a police team to escort them inside.
The KMC workers waited the whole of Friday morning and afternoon in two mini trucks parked outside Bagri Market but they could not get inside the sealed building as the cops were busy escorting Muharram processions.
“Our job was to pull down the portions of the building that are hanging dangerously or are too weak and might collapse at any point of time. We are not here to demolish the structure, but only to pull down the hazardous parts. But we could not start our work in the absence of a police team,” said an engineer of the KMC buildings department.
(Source: The Times Of India)
2. Pause Despite Mamata Nod
Metro Railway has been kept waiting for official clearance to resume the Majerhat portion of the Joka-Esplanade project despite chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s announcement in Frankfurt earlier this week that there was no need to keep work suspended any longer.
Senior police officers said they hadn’t received a directive from the government to give Metro Railway the green signal to resume construction, which was stalled by the Majerhat bridge collapsing on 4 September.
The delay has apparently been caused by government officials awaiting a formal communication from Mamata, who is visiting Europe to market Bengal as a business destination, before contacting the railway authorities.
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. Somen Made Bengal Congress Chief
The central leadership of the Congress on Friday appointed Somen Mitra — who is known for his political flexibility — as the chief of the party’s Bengal unit amid murmurs that the change of guard was aimed at sending out a signal to Mamata Banerjee ahead of Lok Sabha polls.
While the outgoing Congress president Adhir Chowdhury is known as a bete noir of the Trinamul supremo, Mitra, 76, is not as vehemently opposed to an alliance with Mamata as the Behrampore MP.
“Somen-da is a pragmatic leader and we need someone like him to retain the organisation in Bengal,” said a Congress leader.
Chowdhury has been made the chairman of the Congress’s campaign committee. He had been at the helm of the Congress since February 2014.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. More Road Muscle For Alipore Avenue
Alipore Avenue, maintained by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, has been found to be less durable than required to bear the traffic load of Majerhat.
PWD workers have started digging up the road to make a concrete base before relaying the surface with a thicker layer of bitumen.
Engineers have done away with the usual practice of adding a layer of bitumen over the existing surface. Instead, the entire road will be done afresh.
On Friday, engineers dug up a portion of the road and found the present thickness of bitumen to be 300mm.
It has been decided that the thickness would be raised to 850mm with layers of sand and broken brick pieces for thorough compaction.
The PWD will strengthen the 500m existing road on the other side of the railway tracks in New Alipore’s G Block.
(Source: The Telegraph)
5. Body In Tolly’s Nullah Is Of Mother Of Two
A body inside a gunny bag fished out of Tolly’s Nullah near Anandapur on Thursday has been identified as that of 35-year-old Archana Palangdar.
The mother of two had stepped out of her Ultadanga home on Wednesday morning, saying she was going to her maternal uncle’s house near Jadu Babu’s Bazar in Bhowanipore. She had been reported missing since.
Archana was identified by her family after seeing a picture of the body in a newspaper, police said.
The preliminary post-mortem report suggests she was strangled and smothered to death, an officer said. No other injury was found except a cut mark between her neck and chin.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Accidents Decline But Roads Remain Unsafe
The number of road accidents under Bengal police’s jurisdiction in the first six months of 2018 declined by 15 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year, according to a study by the traffic department.
Between January and June last year, 6,247 road accidents had been reported in the state, excluding most of Calcutta. The cumulative figure for the same period this year is 5,326.
Statistics might offer some comfort but enforcement continues to be a challenge for the police in terms of vehicle and victim demography. The road behaviour of goods vehicles remains the biggest concern while pedestrians are the most vulnerable.
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. Hi, Hello, I Luv U: Msgs Clog Minister Helpline
Hi, hello, good morning, good afternoon, apni kemon aachen (how are you?) and even I love you.
If this isn’t all, the rest of the messages sent to a minister’s mobile number were seeking jobs, spiritual enlightenment and enquired about ways and means to attain peace. And senior minister Firhad Hakim isn’t amused.
The urban development minister on Thursday made public one of his personal mobile numbers urging people to WhatsApp him about faulty bridges, clogged water, poor solid waste disposal and anything that is under his department’s domain for prompt action. On Friday morning, he received over 3000 WhatsApp pings — only two related to faulty bridges.
(Source: The Times Of India)
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