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QKolkata: TMC Leader Shot At; Durga Immersion Passes Green Test

Your daily lowdown of all things Kolkata.

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1. TMC Leader Shot At & Hacked

The Khoirasol block committee president of the Trinamul Congress in Birbhum was shot at and hacked with a sharp weapon by unidentified men while he was on his way to inaugurate a football tournament on Sunday afternoon.

Amid speculations on the reasons for the attack on Dipak Ghosh, Trinamool sources and police said his recent appointment as the block party chief could have been the trigger.

Ghosh, 48, had survived a daring attempt on his life in December. He suffered a bullet injury when some miscreants opened fire. He was in hospital for three months. A Trinamul office in the area was blown away last month and the blast was linked to the party’s internal strife over control of illegal coal mining.

After Sunday’s attack, Ghosh was admitted to The Mission Hospital in Durgapur. Doctors said his condition was “critical”.

(Source: The Telegraph)

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2. Immersion Passes Green Test

The immersion seems to have been well managed so far this year, going by the condition of some of the Hooghly ghats.

At least half of Calcutta’s Durga idols have been immersed but the ghats have remained more or less clean, thanks to a fast response system put in place by multiple agencies.

Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) officials said around 4,500 idols had been immersed till Sunday night, leaving only a handful to be immersed over the next two days. The ritual has to be wrapped up by Tuesday.

Over the years, environmental concerns have changed the way idols are immersed. Metro saw at Baje Kadamtala and Judge’s ghats on Sunday evening that civic workers were not allowing the idols to float in the water for more than a couple of minutes.

The men immersing an idol were tying a rope to the wooden frame. Once the idol was in the water, a crane came up and lifted it with the rope.

(Source: The Telegraph)

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3. Cracks Found, Bridge Closed

Traffic has been stopped on the Bengal-bound flank of Barakar bridge on NH2 on the Jharkhand border after cracks were detected in a pillar of the four-decade-old structure and concrete slabs fell from its footpath.

The bridge is over the Barakar river and near the Duburdihi check-post in Asansol subdivision. It is maintained by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The bridge was constructed by the Bihar government four decades ago before Jharkhand was carved out.

At present, the other flank bound for Jharkhand is being used for up and down traffic.

The bridge connects Bengal and Jharkhand and is used by all Calcutta and north India-bound vehicles. The other lane is now used by the Bengal-bound vehicles, resulting in bottlenecks on the busy highway. Sources said at least one lakh vehicles, including trucks and light vehicles, plied on the bridge daily.

(Source: The Telegraph)

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4. Rogues Run Riot In Assault Zone

Drinking by the roadside, harassment and brawls are a regular occurrence in Baranagar, the BT Road neighbourhood where a woman and her husband were assaulted on Dashami night after they confronted some youths who had allegedly teased her.

Residents of Baranagar’s Mallick Colony, where the couple were assaulted, say local youths and outsiders start drinking by the roadside soon after sunset. Some continue drinking till midnight.

“The drinking dens sprout up behind tea stalls,” said Arindam Dey, a resident of Mallick Colony and a friend of the assaulted couple.

“The boys start shouting once the drinking session is over and often get involved in brawls armed with bamboo sticks. They also pass lewd comments at women.”

Many residents of Mallick Colony echoed Dey’s allegations but said they were too scared to protest fearing attacks on them and their families.

The couple, residents of Bangalore, had visited Dey’s house for dinner and were assaulted on their way back to the house of the husband’s parents in Rathtala, near Dunlop.

(Source: The Telegraph)

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5. Festive Fallout: City Chokes On Pollutants

The air quality in the city has deteriorated over the past few days and experts put some of the blame on the festivities. With about a month or so to go for winter, Kolkata’s ambient air quality has already started nosediving. In the last few days, the finest particulate matter (PM2.5) count in the city has doubled. The Puja drew heavy traffic, both vehicular and human, particularly at night. Experts said the pollution level of the city was likely to rise in the coming days, with no prediction of rain in the recent future.

On Sunday evening, the air quality index at West Bengal Pollution Control Board’s air quality monitoring station at Victoria Memorial Hall showed a record high of 227, which, according to the PCB website, may cause “breathing discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure”. The PCB website on Sunday said the real-time PM2.5 count rose to 311µg/m3 (microgram per cubic metre), which was more than five times the permissible limit.

(Source: The Times Of India)

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6. ‘Heritage’ Building Demolition Raises Conservation Hackles

Heritage conservationists in the city are angered over the partial demolition of a house with a history. The house, in south Kolkata, belonged to renowned Sanskrit scholar Gurupada Haldar, an authority in Sanskrit studies whose texts are studied in leading universities around the world.

The house, near Kalighat’s Basusree cinema, started to be demolished on October 12, when courts were on Puja vacation. The youngest heir of the family has now alleged that a developer, to whom other family members illegally sold off their portions, embarked on the demolition although he had won a case at a lower court for retaining the house that was willed to the family in perpetuity.

The case is now in Calcutta High Court.

(Source: The Times Of India)

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7. Dengue Claims 53-Yr-Old On Bijoya Dashami; State Toll Crosses 15

When the city was bidding adieu to Goddess Durga on Saturday night, a family from Kanchrapara was busy preparing for the last journey of one of its members, who died of dengue. Fifty-three-year-old Laxmi Banerjee died at a city hospital on the night of Dashami — five days after being detected with dengue.

Banerjee’s death certificate mentions dengue hemorrhagic fever as one of the causes of death.

The vector-borne disease has claimed more than 15 lives in the state this year so far. The death toll includes at least eight children. Virologists fear the dengue menace may continue for some time till the mercury starts dipping.

(Source: The Times Of India)

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