1. Trinamool to Protest Durga Puja Income-Tax Notices
Mamata Banerjee on Sunday announced an eight-hour Trinamool dharna on 13 August to protest income-tax notices to several Durga Puja committees.
“It is not clear whether Didi will join the dharna… We think she will take a call at the last-minute after assessing the response,” said a source close to the chief minister.
In a series of three tweets, the chief minister — who has been critical of the tax notices — made it clear she would make it an issue in the run-up to the biggest festival in the state.
“The Trinamool Congress Banga Janani Wing will sit on dharna on Tuesday, 13 August at Subodh Mallik Square (Opp Hind Cinema) 10am-6pm. Organisers, participants and all people who love #Bangla may please join,” Mamata tweeted.
(Source: The Telegraph)
2. Zomato Delivery Personnel In Meat Protest
Home delivery executives on food delivery platform Zomato said they have suspended service in parts of Howrah, alleging they were being compelled to deliver beef and pork.
One of the delivery executives taking part in the agitation alleged that the company was forcing them to deliver beef and pork against their will and that some of their demands were not being met.
A news agency report, however, said some delivery executives had claimed they have long been demanding a revision in payment and that the company should immediately stop playing with religious sentiments.
“We have been forced to carry beef and pork items despite repeatedly telling the company that it was hurting our sentiments,” Sujit Gupta, a delivery executive, told Metro on Sunday evening. “It hurts us to take the same delivery bag home. We have said there should be separate executives to deliver beef and pork.”
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. BJP Lines Up ‘Graft’ Agitation
The Bengal BJP plans to launch protests across Bengal against cut money allegedly collected by Trinamool leaders.
The decision was taken on the second and concluding day of the state BJP’s chintan baithak (strategy session) in Durgapur.
“The protests against cut-money started spontaneously after Mamata Banerjee’s comments on the issue on June 18. But the protests have waned following the Didi Ke Bolo campaign…,” said a BJP source.
Sources in the state BJP said a meeting on August 16 would chalk out the agitation programme.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. ‘Pakistani’ Wins Hugs, Not Slaps, After 8-Hour Experiment on South Kolkata Street
A “social media experiment” by a young YouTuber, who stood on a Kolkata street holding up a poster proclaiming: “I AM FROM PAKISTAN... PLEASE HUG/SLAP ME”, has got only hugs — and not a single slap — over eight hours on Saturday.
Arifuddin Molla, a first-year student at Bhangar Mahavidyalay, situated about 25km east of the Ruby Crossing on the EM Bypass, came up with this experiment “to understand the public perception of Pakistan” after the Centre’s Article 370 downgrade. “There seems to be widespread support for the move, and so I wanted to find out whether our perception of Pakistan, too, had changed,” he told TOI.
(Source: The Times Of India)
5. Teleserial Actors Complain About Hacked FB Accounts
Facebook accounts of at least five actors of a popular teleserial were hacked and some were permanently deleted over the past month. Concerned over the security of their social networking profiles, the actors have now lodged a complaint with the Lalbazar cyber cell.
It started with actor Pallabi Sharma who spotted a fake Facebook account in her name. Though Sharma was not very active on social media, she felt a need to counter the fake account. “Initially, she didn’t notice any activity on the fake profile apart from some regular posts. But several performers were sent friend requests from the fake account,” said Payel Dey who works with Sharma.
(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.)