1. 99.99% Partymen Honest, Says TMC Amid Bribe Stir
Desperate to stem the fallout on party workers after chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s “return cut money” diktat, Trinamool Congress on Sunday, 23 June, said “some from different political parties are sullying the name of the party by indulging in corruption and unfair practices”.
After the CM’s statement, Trinamool leaders and workers are facing the brunt of agitations demanding they return “cut money.”
In a bid to address growing anxiety and restiveness among the party’s lower-level functionaries – who also hold the key to any political turnaround – Trinamool on Sunday came out with a statement saying Banerjee had “emphasised that 99.99 percent of Trinamool functionaries and elected representatives are honest, hardworking and committed to work for the benefit of the people”.
(Source: The Times Of India)
2. Ex Gratia Plan For Political Clashes In Bengal
The Mamata Banerjee government has decided to frame a policy to provide compensation to the next of kin of people killed in political violence in Bengal, the move coming at a time turf wars between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP have intensified in the state.
Trinamool has claimed that 10 of its supporters died in the past three weeks.
“The government is working on the policy. A sum of Rs 2 lakh is proposed to be given to the next of kin of any victim of political clashes,” said a senior government official.
So far, the state has policies to give compensation to the victims of natural calamities and accidents. Besides, the Centre has a policy to give compensation to the victims of Maoist and terrorist attack and communal violence.
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. 'Why Was My Son Fired At?' Asks Mother Of Teen Injured in Bankura TMC-BJP Clash
Manju Bauri has been crying inconsolably since Saturday evening.
The mother of 14-year-old Soumen Barui, who was hit by a bullet on Saturday evening when workers of the BJP and Trinamool clashed at Patrashayar, lost consciousness several times in the last 24 hours.
“Why was my son fired at?” she has been asking after getting consciousness.
Soumen – a Class VIII student of local Hat Krishnagar High School – had stopped by at a bookstore while he was on his way back home from tuitions. Suddenly, a stray bullet hit him.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. Road Blocked In Raiganj Over ‘Rs 3.46 Cr Embezzlement’
Villagers blocked NH34 in Raiganj for an hour on Sunday, alleging that the chief of a Trinamool-run gram panchayat had misappropriated around Rs 3.47 crore which had been allocated for various social welfare schemes.
The protests have prompted Laila Khatun, the pradhan of Bindol gram panchayat near here, to stay away from the village.
The agitators, numbering around 100 from 18 villages in the panchayat, disrupted traffic at Siliguri More on the highway from 11am to 12pm.
Gopal Malakar, a resident of Krishnapur village in Bindol, said Khatun had siphoned around Rs 3.47 crore from the 100-day job scheme and the rural housing scheme.
(Source: The Telegraph)
5. Silent Rally to Mourn GD Birla Teen Who Allegedly Killed Herself
A group of parents of students studying at GD Birla Centre for Education in Tollygunge, where Class X student Krittika Paul allegedly committed suicide inside the washroom last Friday, took out a silent march on Sunday morning, mourning her death.
The procession also propagated a message – not just children, but even parents need to undergo counselling to understand their kids and help them in need.
“Times have changed. It is difficult for most parents to understand what’s going on in the minds of our children and what may have hurt them and thrown them into depression. Krittika’s death should be a lesson for all parents who should immediately undertake counselling sessions to realise the symptoms of depression in their children and also to ensure that the kids are not pressurised from any sphere, which may lead them to harm themselves,” said Sanjay Bhattacharya, father of a Class V student, who was part of the rally on Sunday.
(Source: The Times Of India)
6. South Kolkata’s First Real-Time Air Quality Monitoring Station Goes Live On National Index Grid
South Kolkata’s first automatic ambient air quality station at Indian Association of Cultivation of Science (IACS) has gone live on the national air quality index grid.
This will enable south Kolkata residents to track the quality of the air they are breathing on a real-time basis.
This was the second of the five continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) commissioned by West Bengal Pollution Control Board to have gone live, preceded by the one at Fort William earlier in the month.
The three other continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations – at the Administrative Training Institute in Salt Lake, Birla Institute of Technological Museum in Ballygunge and Rabindra Sarobar in Dhakuria – will also go live shortly, said a senior WBPCB official.
(Source: The Times Of India)
7. ‘Tollywood Will Not Accept Any Politicisation Bid’
On Sunday morning, all shootings were suspended while Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India (FCTWEI) held an “extraordinary general meeting” at the ITI Tollygunge ground, that brought together not just technicians but heads of general entertainment channels, a couple of producers and some representatives of Eastern India Motion Pictures Association and All India Confederation.
The meeting was also addressed by two state ministers, Arup Biswas and Indranil Sen, who insisted on the need of not allowing any political party to enter Tollywood and break the unity of the artists and technicians.
(Source: The Times Of India)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)