1. Bengal Minister Sovan Chatterjee Quits
What began as a bad hair day in office has cost Sovan Chatterjee his job as minister and set the clock ticking on his tenure as Calcutta mayor.
Sovan, whose association with Mamata Banerjee since he was a “thin boy” is often recalled by the chief minister who calls him “Kanan”, has resigned as the minister of housing, and fire and emergency services. He has been asked to quit as mayor, the chief minister said.
The purported flashpoint was an “unsatisfactory” reply Sovan gave in the Assembly, which was apparently followed by a round of admonishment by the chief minister in private.
(Source: The Telegraph)
2. Bengal Grabs 30% Seats at NUJS via Local Quota
The Assembly on Tuesday, 20 November, passed a bill that guarantees 30 per cent of the seats in the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) to local students.
Till the bill was tabled, reservation for students “domiciled in West Bengal” was limited to 10 out of 125 seats. Now, 37 seats will be reserved for local candidates.
The increase in quota significantly raises the chances of candidates from Bengal making it to one of the top law schools of the country without being in the top percentile of performers in CLAT (Common Law Admission Test).
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. Burdwan City Gas Project Kicks Off
A consortium of Indian Oil (IOC) and Adani Gas will invest Rs 1,200 crore in building infrastructure for city gas distribution in towns of east and west Burdwan. Groundbreaking for the work will start on November 22 and the initial infrastructure will be ready in two years.
An IOC official said the venture has a target to set up 80 CNG stations to dispense natural gas for public transport and supply piped natural gas to 2.5 lakh households over eight years.
“We have the exclusive right to distribute and market natural gas in Burdwan districts for eight years. We will set up CNG stations or convert some of the existing retail outlets and also lay the pipeline to supply PNG to homes,” Dipankar Roy, executive director of IOC (Bengal), said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. Woman Judge Assaulted During Jagadhatri Puja Immersion Procession, Say Cops
A woman judge was allegedly assaulted by a group of puja committee members during an immersion procession in Chandannagar Sunday, police said.
The incident took place when Chandrani Chakraborty, third judicial magistrate of Chandannagar Court, was travelling in her official car with her husband and two security guards.
The car got stuck in traffic on G T Road during an immersion procession as part of Jagadhatri Puja, police sources said.
“When the security guards tried to clear the way, those part of the procession allegedly abused them,” said an official.
(Source: The Indian Express)
5. WB Govt Asks BJP to Meet, Finalise Rath Yatra Schedule
West Bengal government on Tuesday, 20 November, asked the Bengal BJP leaders to join a meeting to finalise the schedule for rath yatra.
Home secretary Atri Bhattacharya is likely to meet Bengal BJP leaders at Nabanna here within two days. “We have submitted detailed routes with the state secretariat and they have informed us that they are ready for talks. We are waiting for the home secretary to finalise the dates,” said state BJP president Dilip Ghosh.
The revised routes were submitted with the state government after the yatra schedule was finalised last week. The 7,000 km yatra, scheduled to start from 7 December, will roll across 294 Assembly constituencies and 42 Lok Sabha constituencies with the party’s top leaders leading the rallies.
(Source: The Times of India)
6. Pillion Rider Dies, Kite String Slashes Biker
A biker got seriously injured and his pillion rider was killed when they fell off the Deulti flyover in Howrah's Bagnan after their throats were slashed by a kite string.
The deceased has been identified as Zeeshan Ali (28). The biker, Sheikh Sahidul (30), is currently admitted to Uluberia State General Hospital.
Ali and Sahidul work for a pathological laboratory at Bagnan and were returning from Kolaghat, after collecting blood samples from a patient.
(Source: The Times of India)
7. KMDA Cleans Vivekananda Park 12 Days After Bazi Bazar
Nearly 12 days after the Bazi Bazar was held at Vivekananda Park, the ground was finally cleaned on Monday, 19 November, and its iron fences were restored. But, the ground may need a month or so to get back its green cover.
However, the custodian of the ground, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), and not the Bazi Bazar organiser Burrabazar Fireworks Dealers’ Association, engaged labourers to clean the ground. Vivekananda Park became the venue of the city’s biggest fireworks fair after the Army initially denied the organiser permission to hold the fair at Shahid Minar ground.
The organisers desperately looked for an alternative site and finally got clearance for Vivekananda Park in south Kolkata. But KMDA asked them to restore the ground once the fair was over.
(Source: The Times of India)
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