1. State’s New Name: Assembly Gives Go-Ahead To ‘Bangla’
The state assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution to change the state’s name from West Bengal to ‘Bangla’ in all languages. The decision to table the proposal during the assembly’s monsoon session came after the Union home ministry asked the state to propose one name instead of the three as it had proposed before — Bangla (in Bengali), Bengal (in English) and Bangal (in Hindi).
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: “The Centre sat on our proposal for two years and recently advised us to choose one name instead of three. We do not want any controversy on this issue and so we have decided to choose the name Bangla. So let the resolution be passed unanimously.” Referring to Gujarat and Odisha, she said “The name ‘Bangla’ goes with the state’s culture.”
(Source: The Times Of India)
2. Panel Suggests Bringing Back ‘Pass-Fail System’
Bringing back detention from Class V, three examinations in a year, holding annual examination in December and fixing pass marks at 30 are some of the proposals which have been drawn up by the five-member committee formed by the state government to examine the modalities of reintroducing detention in state schools.
The committee has submitted the report to school education department on Thursday. The state may continue with the no-detention policy or scrap it. A senior official of the school education department, however, said: “The detention system is set to be back from 2019-2020 academic session from Class V. This is one thing the state has agreed upon till now.”
(Source: The Times Of India)
3. After 13 years, State May Issue Over 1,000 New Liquor Licences
The Bengal government is moving towards issuing licences for new liquor off shops after assessing “changes in demography and the rapid urbanisation” that have taken place over the last decade.
If the move comes through, this will be the first time in 13 years that the state will get new off shops; the Left Front government issued licences for 1,400 new off shops through a lottery in 2005.
“Thirteen years is a long time and the state, especially it’s more densely populated areas, have undergone significant demographic changes and urbanisation. The state government is assessing that,” an excise department official said.
(Source: The Times Of India)
4. Robbed On Train After Sedation
A father and daughter travelling to Howrah by the Azad Hind Express woke up groggy and confused to find their empty train parked in the Santragachhi car shed, around 9km adrift of their destination, and their cash and some valuables missing.
Dentist Nishi Agarwal, 25, was in an AC 2-tier coach with her father Nawal Kishore, 52, on Wednesday morning when the last of many frantic calls from a cousin broke her stupor. She looked out of a window and realised that the train was in what looked like a maintenance shed.
Naval's gold chain, weighing 50gm, and two rings, one of them diamond-studded, were missing. Around Rs 8,000 in cash was gone from Nishi's handbag.
(Source: The Telegraph)
5. It's Raining Buckets Inside Airport
If Calcutta airport was waiting for a watershed moment in its long history of embarrassments, it came on Thursday morning through a leaking roof.
Even the business class lounge in the international section of the terminal wasn't spared the ignominy of buckets and baggage tubs laid out on the floor to catch rainwater dripping down the high ceiling.
As the intensity of the downpour increased, sofas in the lounge were pushed around as if they were players in a merry-go-round where one drop on the upholstery would lead to elimination.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Import Fraud Racket Unearthed, 2 Held
Four consignments of clothes of international labels were intercepted at the Haldia port on Thursday on the charge that the importers had made false declarations of their worth.
"The clothes are worth Rs 24.62 crore but the importers declared they cost Rs 1.86 crore," said an official of the department of revenue intelligence (DRI). A team from the DRI seized the consignments.
The labels of the seized clothes included Burberry, Dolce&Gabanna, Gucci, Armani and Louis Vuitton.
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. Last Metro Obstacle In Salt Lake Demolished
The four-storey Megacity Inn, the last building standing in the way of the proposed alignment of the Airport-New Garia Metro in Salt Lake's Mahishbathan, was razed to the ground on Thursday.
A pile of rubble and a dense mesh of iron rods lay at the spot where the building once stood.
The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation had started pulling down the structure a week ago, after the high court allowed the demolition and turned down an appeal filed by the owner of the building against a government order acquiring the plot.
(Source: The Telegraph)