1. SC Declines To Stay Bengal Dole
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the Bengal government’s grants of Rs 10,000 each to puja committees, but issued a notice to the state on the larger issue related to the constitutional validity of doles for religious festivities.
“We are not granting any stay but are issuing a notice,” a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said after briefly hearing advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya. The state has been given six weeks to file its response.
Bhattacharya appeared for two petitioners who have appealed a Calcutta High Court order two days ago upholding the grants to around 28,000 puja committees amounting to Rs 28 crore.
The high court had observed that it had no jurisdiction in matters related to expenditure incurred by governments and such questions could only be raised on the floors of the Assembly.
(Source: The Telegraph)
2. Titli Peters Out, Moderate Rain On Radar
Not heavy showers as predicted, the city is set to get only moderate rain under the influence of Titli.
“A drizzle started in Calcutta on Friday afternoon, while Titli was moving towards Bengal over Odisha. The rain is likely to gain in intensity and continue till Saturday afternoon,” an official in the weather department said.
The weather system was supposed to arrive in Calcutta as a deep depression but it had already degenerated into a depression by Friday afternoon. By the time it passes over the city and its surrounding areas, expectedly early on Saturday, the storm is likely to weaken further and become a well-marked low-pressure area.
The Puja days will be sunny, according to the forecast.
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. Varsity Offers Job To Sacked Teacher
The Kalyani University has offered to recruit as “guest faculty” a man whose job it had terminated on a day’s notice saying the appointment was a “clerical mistake”.
Sudipto Mandal, however, has turned down the offer and filed a case seeking Rs 5 crore from the university as compensation.
Vice-chancellor Shankar Kumar Ghosh had said, during a recent visit to Raj Bhavan, that Mandal had been told that he could join the department of molecular biology as guest faculty and hold the position till the university created a post for him and inducted him as a permanent employee, an official at Raj Bhavan said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. Muted Symptoms: Dengue Turns Silent Killer Of Kids In City
More than half of those who succumbed to dengue in Kolkata this year were children below the age of 13, and their condition deteriorated very sharply, often without symptoms that seemed threatening.
Unlike the previous two years when most young victims suffered a haemorrhage or had very high fever, this time most have fallen prey to either dengue shock syndrome or a sharp platelet drop that were preceded by muted warning signs, pointed out experts. According to experts, while an altered dengue strain could be a reason most parents reacted late due to the mild symptoms. Fluid overload has also been a factor, it has been claimed.
Of the six to succumb to the virus since last week, four were children aged between 10 and 13. Four more have died since early August. The youngest to fall prey so far is Sahida Khatun, an eight-month from Park Circus. Other than Sahida who had been admitted to hospital for a long period, the rest died within 48 hours of hospitalization.
(Source: The Times Of India)
5. Pandal That Celebrates Freedom
Abin Chaudhuri, the man whose design studio is behind architectural landmarks in the city such as Nazrul Tirtha and The Newtown School, is debuting on the Durga puja stage this year.
“We were trying to convince him for the last five years. Finally, he has agreed,” said Sandipan Banerjee, convenor of Behala Nutan Dal.
The puja was inaugurated by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday. Two days later a call came from Karnataka for the pandal to be replicated in some form at the Bengaluru By Design, India’s first design festival dedicated to the public, in end-November.
“I had multiple offers but once I decided to take the plunge I chose the trickiest location to work in — a patch of land inside an alley surrounded by buildings,” smiled Chaudhuri, showing Metro around the site on Thursday.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Crowds Take Over Roads Before Police Switch To Festive Mode
An early start to festivities caught the cops unawares on Friday, resulting in traffic snarls in several parts of the city for better part of Tritiya. By the time cops could increase deployment on some of the key stretches, the damage was already done and it took hours for commuters to reach their destinations.
In the morning peak hour, a repair work on Maa flyover’s height barrier suspended traffic movement for close to an hour. The shutdown forced citybound cars to crawl through the Park Circus connector that was already choked by lined-up cars on Darga Road and Suhrawardy Avenue because of a parent-teacher meeting at Don Bosco School and South Point School.
In the evening, the ordeal was complemented further by cosntant drizzle and thousands of revellers queuing up outside major puja pandals like Suruchi Sangha and Chetla Agrani in southwest Kolkata, Ekdalia Evergreen and Singhi Park in south, Mohammed Ali Park and College Square in central and Bagbazar Sarbajanin and Sree Bhumi sporting in north Kolkata.
(Source: The Times Of India)
7. Bailey Bridges Open, New Route A Hit With Behala Commuters
Since early morning on Friday, the crowd had begun to swell — eagerly waiting for the alternative route connecting New Alipore and Alipore to be thrown open to commuters. When it finally happened — exactly at 3.10pm — hundreds who had lined up on the streets of New Alipore’s F block and Alipore Avenue and waited patiently heaved a sigh of relief.
The route, lying about 400 metres from the Majerhat bridge and consisting level crossings near New Alipore F block across the Sealdah-Budge Budge rail tracks and a 25-metre Bailey bridge, is now officially the shortest functional road connecting Behala residents to Mominpore.
Made ready in 38 days, it is expected to ease pressure from the Chetla Central Road-Alipore Road-Durgapur Bridge stretch that’s witnessing heavy traffic ever since the Majerhat bridge collapsed. This stretch is also hosting two of the biggest south Kolkata Pujas — Suruchi Sangha and Chetla Agrani. The road will now connect south to north — one-way traffic from Behala to south and central Kolkata.
(Source: The Times Of India)
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