1. ‘Visionless’ Budget To Hit Common Man: Mamata
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has said the Union budget is “visionless” and hike in fuel prices will affect the daily lives of common people.
Mamata took to Twitter to issue a short statement calling out Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget.
“#Budget2019 is completely visionless. In fact, the total vision is derailed…. This is Election Prize!!” posted Mamata on the microblogging site.
The Bengal chief minister also attacked the increase in the prices of petrol and diesel — something she has always been strongly opposed to, expressing her concerns over the cascading impact it would have on the daily lives of the masses. “On top of it, not only have they imposed cess but also special additional excise duty on petrol and diesel leading to price increase by nearly Rs 2.50/litre for petrol and Rs 2.30/litre for diesel,” she said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
2. Jai Shri Ram Chant… Recent Import To Wage War Says Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen
The “Jai Shri Ram” chant is not a part of traditional Bengali culture and a "recent import" being used to "beat up people", Nobel laureate Amartya Sen said at Jadavpur University on Friday.
Hundreds of students, teachers and enthusiasts, who had packed the Gandhi Bhavan auditorium, broke into applause as Sen said what he thought of the chant that has become Bengal’s talking point.
Sen was at the university, where he began his teaching career and started the economics department at the age of 23, to give a public lecture titled "Kolkata after Independence: A personal memoir".
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. Trinamool MLA Blasts State Government
The Trinamool Congress’s Rajarhat-New Town MLA and Bidhannagar mayor Sabyasachi Dutta yet again rubbed his party the wrong way on Friday by participating in agitation against the Mamata Banerjee government and daring the organisation to act against him.
Dutta, who joined a protest programme of a Trinamool-backed labour union in the state-run power sector in Salt Lake, condemned the government for not fulfilling the longstanding demands for increase in salaries and clearance of pending dearness allowance in the sector.
The MLA delivered an address directly attacking state power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay and, indirectly, the Trinamool government.
“The department is called power. But the minister has no power,” said Dutta.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. City Cops Impose Fresh Ban On Waste Burning
The city police has decided to ban waste burning within the city limits from 3 July to 31 August. Kolkata Police was the first state agency to respond to the unprecedented pollution in Kolkata last winter and imposed a ban on waste burning from 1 January, 2019 to 27 February. Under a recent NGT order, police can slap a fine of Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000 for violations, claimed sources.
Among the items that cannot be burned are refused derived fuel (RDF), which includes plastic, wood, tyre, pulp or organicwaste, garbage andbiomass. Among other itemsthatcan’tbe burned are hazardous waste like discarded paint drums, pesticide cans, CFL bulbs, tube lights, expired medicine, broken mercury thermometers, usedbatteries,used needles and syringes and contaminated gauge. Dry waste like inert street sweepings, combustible waste, sanitary napkins and diapers also feature on the ban list.
(Source: The Times Of India)
5. Nusrat’s Husband Gets Cheated In Quest Of VIP Mobile Number
Trinamool MP and actor Nusrat Jahan’s husband Nikhil Jain was duped of Rs 45,000 by fraudsters who had promised to get him a phone number of his choice. Jain, the director of Rangoli Sarees, had lodged a complaint just a day prior to his reception party. The cyber cell of Kolkata Police has lodged an FIR after receiving the complaint but is yet to make any arrest.
Not only Jain, police have received complaints from several Kolkata residents who have fallen prey to the gang that has been sending bulk messages and inviting potential victims to buy VIP numbers at an exorbitant cost. The complaints came four years after a team of Delhi Police busted a gang from Salt Lake that duped customers with the promise of offering fancy numbers.
(Source: The Times Of India)
6. Actor Claims Harassment By Drunk Drivers At Patuli
Actor Jeetu Kamal has alleged that he was harassed at Patuli while returning home to Panchasayer around 1.30am on Friday. He also claimed that despite being guided by the Lalbazar control room, officers at at least one police station asked him to go to another, while a second told him to contact Panchasayer police.
Eventually, it was Panchsayer cops who responded to his call and arrived at the spot almost 30 minutes later.
The east division police has denied the claims and said that action was taken within three hours of receiving the complaint — they claimed to have seizedtheoffending vehicle and registered a FIR. However, the main accused is still at large. “Lalbazar control room asked all three police stations — Purba Jadavpur, Patuli and Panchasayer —to call Kamal andt hey did so. He has accepted that he did not have to go anywhere and our men reached him at the spot,” claimed an officer.
(Source: The Times Of India)
7. Trinamool, BJP Now Clash In Asansol And Ranaghat
The faceoff between BJP and Trinamool continued in West Bengal on Friday, with two such instances reported from Asansol and Ranaghat.
In Asansol, members of BJP’s youth wing clashed with police after they laid siege to Asansol Municipal Corporation demanding better civic services and elimination of corruption. Police said they had not given permission for the protest by BJP.
Around 12.30pm, a procession of BJP workers tried to reach the corporation office via Girija More and breached two barricades, among several police set up in Asansol city to deter protesters.
(Source: The Times Of India)
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