1. Are These Clothes Good or Evil: Mamata
Caustic sarcasm was the theme of Mamata Banerjee’s speech during her second march in Calcutta on Tuesday against the amended citizenship law and the National Register of Citizens.
The Trinamul Congress chief took out the procession attended by thousands from Jadavpur’s 8B bus stand to Jadubabu’s Bazar.
“Ei poshak bhalo, na kharap, bolun dekhi (Are these clothes good, or evil, tell us),” asked the Bengal chief minister repeatedly, pointing at clothes of various people, including herself, on the dais in Jadavpur, to loud cheers.
(Source: The Telegraph)
2. Farmers Forced to Sell Vegetables at Low Price
Farmers are forced to sell their produces at half the market rate as road and rail connectivity was disrupted in the violent protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
The vegetables include cabbage, cauliflower, beans and eggplants.
“I sold my produce at Rs 18 a kg on Tuesday, but today I was forced to sell the eggplants at Rs 9. The wholesalers in Berhampore market said they would not buy the vegetables as trucks stopped coming from Orissa and north Bengal and trains are cancelled,” said, Hannan Sheikh, a farmer of Isherpara village in Murshidabad’s Islampur.
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. Bandel Cake Stress Before Christmas
Widespread disruption in rail and road traffic across Bengal, along with panic over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, has hampered availability of labourers to make cakes at Bandel’s famed bakeries ahead of Christmas.
Owners of several bakeries said the labour shortage was the result of disenchantment within the local Muslim community.
“The cake industry here is over three centuries old. For the past few decades, it is seasonal labourers from the Muslim community in Howrah and Murshidabad who help us keep the tradition alive,” said a bakery owner in Bandel.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. Nine Trains to Run via North
The railways will run nine long-distance passenger trains which will connect Calcutta and north Bengal on Wednesday.
But the railway traffic from north Bengal to Calcutta and south India remained suspended for the third day on Tuesday.
“We need to carry out repairs at some stations along the New Jalpaiguri-Malda stretch under the jurisdiction of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) and it will take time. But some goods trains were operated on Tuesday using the manual signalling system. But for passenger trains, we need to assess law and order and then take a decision as the safety of passengers is our priority,” NFR chief public relation officer S. Chanda said over phone from Maligaon in Assam, where the zonal headquarters is located.
(Source: The Telegraph)
5. Russia Theme Country at Book Fair
Five Russian titles will be translated into Bengali and released at Calcutta Book Fair starting January 29. The theme country of the 44th edition of the fair is Russia.
A similar number of Bengali books will also be translated into Russian as a part of an agreement between Russian and Bengali publishers.
“We are looking for translations of some of our contemporary literature so that book lovers here get a feel of the body of work that is going on in my country,” said Alexey M. Idamkin, the consul-general of Russia in Calcutta.
(Source: The Telegraph)
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