1. Mamata Plays Hindi Translator in Asansol
Mamata Banerjee played harbinger of development and translator for the largely Hindi-speaking electorate as she addressed a mixed audience at a rally in Asansol’s Jamuria on Thursday, 29 November.
The chief minister listed the achievements of the Trinamool government first in Bengali and then translating them in Hindi.
During her 35-minute speech, Mamata kept switching from Bengali to Hindi besides explaining in details how she has tried to stand by the Hindi-speaking people of Bengal in an attempt to connect with the audience.
“We have set up a Hindi-medium college in Asansol and Hindi-medium schools will also come up in the areas where Hindi speakers make up at least 10 percent of the population. We have also introduced Urdu and Alchiki-medium schools in Bengal,” she told the gathering to stress her commitment to the linguistic minorities.
(Source: The Telegraph)
2. Surjya Kanta Mishra Attacks Mamata Over Jobs, Industrialisation
Bengal CPM secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra on Thursday, 29 November, renewed a call to end Mamata Banerjee’s rule in Bengal for the government’s “failure” on the industry front that has created joblessness, and also revived a game-changing slogan of former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
“As long as she (Mamata) remains chief minister, no industrialist will dare to set up shop in Bengal, post the Singur episode,” Mishra told a gathering of 50,000-odd people, including farmers, agriculture workers, youths and students.
The meeting at Rani Rashmoni Avenue was the culmination of a Singur-to Raj Bhavan march the Left organised to highlight “agrarian distress” in Bengal.
Although many wondered why Mishra was stressing on industrialisation at a congregation of people primarily involved in agriculture, the CPM state secretary iterated former chief minister Bhattacharjee’s slogan before the 2006 Assembly elections: “Krishi amader bhitti ar shilpo amader bhabishyot” (agriculture is our base and industry is our future).”
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. Kolkata Mall's Apology After Stinker for Breastfeeding Mom Provokes Anger
A Kolkata mall was forced to issue what it called an unconditional apology after its social media team rudely asked a woman to do her "home chores at home" as she complained about the lack of a place to breastfeed her baby, provoking a huge backlash online.
Abhilasha DasAdhikari, a new mother who had gone shopping at South City Mall, gave the mall a poor review on its Facebook page for allegedly being asked to breastfeed her seven-month-old daughter in the toilet on Sunday.
A social media executive for the mall did not appreciate the feedback. "Funny you found this to be an issue because breastfeeding is not allowed on the floor for a number of reasons," South City Mall wrote from its official Facebook page. "With all due respect madam, please make sure you do your home chores at home and not in the mall," the post added.
As the indignation and anger swelled, the mall issued an apology, saying that the offensive response had been written by an executive of an agency that had been commissioned to handle their social media pages.
(Source: NDTV)
4. Over 50,000 Farmers Converge in Kolkata, Demand Remunerative Prices
Thousands of farmers, sharecroppers and agricultural workers on Thursday converged in the heart of the city at the end of a two-day long 52-kilometre march from Singur in West Bengal’s Hooghly district. The ‘Singur to Raj Bhavan’ campaign, which culminated at Rani Rashmoni Road, pressed for a eight-point charter of demands that included remunerative prices for farmers and industrial jobs for rural youth.
Communist Party of India-Marxist peasant bodies in West Bengal All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) organised the march that began on Wednesday from Singur. “Around 50 thousand farmers took part in the march,” said a CPI-M leader.
CPI(M) West Bengal state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) state Secretary Amal Halder, All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU) State Secretary Amiya Patra, AIAWU State President Tushar Ghosh addressed the gathering at Rashmoni Road.
(Source: Financial Express)
5. West Bengal Hooch Tragedy: Toll Rises to 12; Mamata Says Liquor Came From Outside
The toll in the hooch tragedy in West Bengal's Nadia district rose to 12 with the death of five more people, an official said on Thursday, 29 November.
The condition of 25 other people, who were undergoing treatment at a hospital, was quite serious, District Magistrate Sumit Gupta said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the spurious liquor was being supplied from neighbouring states and asked the police to take strict action in this regard. She also asked the excise department to be proactive and conduct regular raids throughout the year and not just after an incident is reported.
Eleven excise department officials have been suspended following the liquor tragedy at Shantipur area of Nadia.
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. West Bengal to Pay Rs 5 Crore Fine for Failing to Curb Air Pollution
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has slapped a Rs 5-crore fine on the West Bengal government for "failing to comply" with its two-year-old directive to improve air quality in Kolkata and Howrah.
The NGT Eastern Zone principal bench comprising Judges SP Wangdi and non-judicial member Nagin Nanda on Tuesday said the fine should be paid within two weeks of the order to the Central Pollution Control Board, failing which, the government will have to pay an additional Rs 1 crore as fine for every month's delay to the CPCB.
The order was given in the wake of West Bengal government not enforcing several measures recommended by the NGT in an earlier order in 2016 to check air pollution, the bench observed.
(Source: NDTV)
7. LPG Vapour Cloud Behind Kasba Blast
A gas leak resulting in formation of a vapour cloud inside a very small room led to the blast at the Kasba building on Wednesday night, said the forensic team. The explosion was reported from the ground floor of the five-storey apartment, which is a few yards away from the Kasba police station.
The explosion was a result of the ignition of a cloud of flammable vapour, gas, or mist in which flame speeds accelerate to sufficiently high velocities to produce significant overpressure. In this case, there was a leak of LPG that mixed with the air. The vapour cloud got accumulated in the extremely small living room of security guard Abdul Rezzak. The pressure of the cloud was higher than the atmospheric pressure outside,” explained a source from the forensic unit.
(Source: The Times of India)
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