1. Privacy Infringed? No, It’s Awareness Drive, Say Cops
A new initiative by Kolkata traffic police on social media to discipline motorists has sparked a debate on the internet. While the response to the police move — asking netizens to upload photographs and videos of those on the phone while driving — has been overwhelmingly positive, a section is worried over “public shaming”. Still, others have asked cops to tread with caution.
On an average, 20-25 videos and photographs are getting uploaded on police’s WhatsApp numbers each day. On Tuesday night, the cops uploaded five such photographs on Facebook. They have challaned another 50-odd motorists. The process to temporarily suspend licences of some of them is in progress.
“Some of them blatantly flout rules. These men put lives of all those who are on road at risk. It is time traffic laws were taken seriously,” said an IPS officer. “We are now uploading only those photographs where the action has been completed upon verification. It is not at all a case of public shaming. It is an awareness exercise,” another IPS official added.
(Source: The Times Of India)
2. JU, CU Slip In Times Asia Varsity Rankings
Jadavpur University has slipped from 101-110 rank in the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings to 127 this year. The rankings were released on Wednesday.
Among the five parameters on which JU was adjudged by the body were citations, industry income, international outlook, research and teaching. Incidentally, popular perception was a sub-criterion in at least two of these five parameters.
Sources pointed out that much like the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), which has a separate parameters on peer perception and popular perception, Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings has popular perception as a sub-criterion.
(Source: The Times Of India)
3. Injection Administered Thrice Daily Led To Child’s Death In Hospital: Expert
An injection administered on two-and-a-half-year-old Oyetri Dey over three days led to her death, stated a 11-page report by an independent forensic expert that the girl’s parents submitted to the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission on Wednesday. The commission heard the case of Oyetri’s death at AMRI Hospital Mukundapur on 17 January for two hours. The report indicted the hospital’s paediatrician-in-charge of negligence and dereliction of duty.
While AMRI chose not to react to the report, Oyetri’s parents sought the commission’s leave to submit the report, which lend credence to their medical negligence charge. In the report, a former forensic medicine professor, Ajay Kumar Gupta, stated tallying the hospital records with the postmortem findings, he concluded the child’s death was because of intravenous administration of the injection, Augmentine 400mg, thrice daily. The adverse and hyper-sensitive reactions, which were evident in the postmortem findings in her lung, heart, brain and stomach, only validated it, the report indicated. According to Gupta, this was due to the paediatrician’s negligence and dereliction of duty.
(Source: The Times Of India)
4. Bharati, Three Cops Took ₹45L From Me, Alleges Businessman
Former West Midnapore SP Bharati Ghosh landed in more trouble when a Swarupnagar resident, businessman Euenus Ali Mondal, filed a petition at the Midnapore chief judicial magistrate’s court on Wednesday, alleging that Ghosh and three policemen took Rs 45 lakh from him. They also allegedly took away an SUV and two trucks, which they later returned.
Midnapore CJM Prasun Ghosh asked Kharagpur police station to treat the petition as an FIR and start a case.
“We have asked the court to start a case against the four on IPC 409/ 403 and 166A and the court has directed the police to initiate a case,” Euenus’ lawyer Samit Bhanja said.
On the same day, CID again raided on Ghosh’s Madurdaha residence. CID officers took the caretaker, Rajmangal Singh, to the Madurdaha flat for identification. Another CID team has left for Bihar.
(Source: The Times Of India)
5. Fire FIR In Belur Gas Leak
The fire department on Wednesday lodged an FIR with Belur police station against three owners of the factory from where a gas leak on Monday had left 70 people ill.
A seven-member medical team led by the deputy chief medical officer, health, visited Belur on Wednesday to assess the situation.
People of the area gheraoed them, demanding they set up a medical camp for the people. Five people on Wednesday reported they were feeling sick, apparently from after-effects of the leak. On Monday, workers at the factory, along Girish Ghosh Road in Ghusuri were cutting discarded gas cylinders when one of them started leaking.
The pollution control board has sought various documents from the owners to verify if they had necessary environmental clearance to run the business.
"We will summon the owners of the factory for questioning shortly," an officer of Belur police station said. "The statements of some of those who had taken ill will be recorded."
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Plan To Plug Gaps Beyond Boom Gates
If putting up boom barriers synchronised with traffic signals to prevent jaywalking was a brainwave, police are bracing for a challenge when it comes to making pedestrians pass only through those gates.
The first two boom barriers were being installed at the Exide crossing on Wednesday when Metro visited the area to find out how the police proposed to implement the idea.
One of the barriers will be on the edge of the pavement in front of the Haldiram restaurant on AJC Bose Road. The other one is meant for the opposite side of the road. The barriers, once in place, will open and close in sync with the traffic signal so that pedestrians can cross the road only when it is safe for them to do so.
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. Blind Judoka Gets Gold
A teenager from Canning has won the lone gold for Bengal in the just-concluded national blind and para judo championships in Lucknow.
The state's kitty of 10 medals includes four silver and five bronze medals – all won by students of the Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys' Academy, Narendrapur.
The state's contingent of 15 had 13 students from the academy. An institute for deaf and mute boys in Uluberia had sent two students. The meet was held in the Uttar Pradesh capital from 1 to 5 February.
Santanu Mondal, 13, won gold in the sub-junior (under 40kg) category. His opponent in the final was a judoka from Delhi, almost a foot taller.
"I was trailing at the start... but I hung on," Mondal, who's been taking judo lessons at the institute for more than a year, said. "As the match progressed, he gave away crucial points in penalties."
(Source: The Telegraph)
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