1. Dear Water Now Dearer, Thanks To Disease Scare
Architect Samir Chandra usually uses a water purifier at his Santoshpur Lake Sixth Road home to filter the KMC-supplied water. But, since the last couple of days, he has been drinking only bottled water. So is Rajat Barik, a daily labourer who lives in a slum along Santoshpur canal, not far from Chandra’s house. For Barik and many others like him, bottled water is a luxury. Yet, such is the panic over the enteric outbreak that even those who can ill afford it are being forced to buy it.
The scare over drinking water contamination along the city’s south-eastern belt — spread across Jadavpur, Santoshpur, Baghajatin, Madurdaha, Mukundapur, Kalikapur, Nonadanga, Kasba and Garfa — is hurting the poor the most, with many having to even compromise on their daily diet so that they can buy safe water.
(Source: The Times Of India)
2. Court Allows Psychological Test on Class 2 Girl Who Was Allegedly Molested
A special Pocso court on Monday allowed the police to conduct a psychological test on the Class II student who was allegedly molested by her dance teacher. A detailed medico-legal test of the girl will also be conducted.
The cops will visit the school “at the earliest” to recreate the crime scene and identify the exact spots where the accused — Soumen Rana — molested the girl multiple times. A few school officials, teachers and non-teaching staffers might be asked to record their statement. Judge Chandrajeet Chatterjee on Monday instructed the school to help police probe the case.
“The court has also granted the permission to record the confidential statement of the girl along with her mother. We will complete the process at the earliest as this statement will form the crux of the case,” said Radhakanta Mukherjee, public prosecutor.
(Source: The Times Of India)
3. Bengal Green Cover Up By Just 21 Sq Km, Aided By Plantations
Bengal has barely managed to hold on to its forest cover, even though green cover in forest areas has actually depleted, states the India State of Forest Report, 2017.
The total forest cover in the state has gone up by 21 sq km, from 16,826 sq km in 2015 to 16,847 sq km in 2017. Most of it is owing to spurt in plantation activities outside forest areas.
Green cover inside forest areas, including the wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forest zones, has dipped from 7,136 sq km to 7,134 sq km in two years.
While very dense forest cover in the state has grown by 51 sq km during this period, moderately dense forest cover and open forest cover have gone down by 20 sq km and 1 sq km respectively. Bengal forest minister Binay Burman said patrolling inside the protected areas was being intensified to check illegal activities like tree felling. “We can’t plant trees inside protected areas. Hence, we undertake such activities under social forestry schemes outside recorded forest areas,” he added.
(Source: The Times Of india)
4. Video Shoot On Tracks Turns Tragic For 3 Friends, 2 Die
One frame, shot on a mobile phone, shows two first-year college students sitting and chatting on the railway tracks. The next frame is blurred and there is a deafening noise as the cell phone falls from someone’s hands. The last frame is that of stone chips that you see on railway tracks. Then there is silence — and darkness — as the video ends abruptly.
Two first-year college students, both 19 years old, died in those couple of seconds that were recorded by their friend on a mobile phone. Saisab Dolui and Sunil Tanti ended up as two more lives lost to the senseless craze of taking pictures with a train in the background. Their friend, Soumyadip Santra, was admitted to R G Kar Hospital with serious injuries.
Dolui, Tanti and Santra, all residents of Patbari Lane in Panihati, North 24-Parganas, went to neighbouring colleges — Surendranath and Bangabasi — near Sealdah station.
(Source: The Times Of India)
5. Lens On Dog Deaths
A storm is brewing in this neighbourhood on the southern fringes over a resident allegedly poisoning six strays over the past three days.
Milan Sardar, the accused, fled his house on Sunday evening after some neighbours reported him to police. The complainants alleged that a crow and two other birds died after eating the poisoned food he had given the strays.
A preliminary police investigation revealed that Milan had been seen offering the dogs food. "One of the strays who used to roam around near Milan's house bit his goat. He was seen chasing the dogs whenever they came near his house after that. Some residents later found the carcasses of the strays beside the road. Milan's neighbour suspects he poisoned them," said an officer at Maheshtala police station.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Students Injured In Bus Crash
Seven students returning home in a packed school bus were injured when their vehicle crashed into another bus that had braked suddenly to avoid an autorickshaw picking up a passenger in the middle of VIP Road.
Two of the injured girls required stitches on the head and the rest had multiple cuts and bruises in the accident at Joramandir on Monday afternoon.
Soma Mondal, a student of Class VII at Lake Town Government Sponsored Girls' High School, was advised a CT scan to rule out any internal injury.
"The auto had stopped in the middle of the road near Joramandir, forcing the drivers of both the government bus and the school bus right behind to slam the brakes. The collision happened because the school bus was travelling at speed," said a police officer in the Baguiati Traffic Guard.
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. Teen Killed, Father Injured After Jumping Off Train
An 18-year-old girl was killed and her father injured when they jumped off the Howrah-bound Coromandel Express at West Midnapore's Belda on Monday after realising they had boarded the wrong train.
Debasmita Bhuniya was declared dead at hospital. Her father Gajendra Bhuniya, 45, is admitted to Belda rural hospital.
The father-daughter duo, residents of Balasore in Odisha, wanted to board a local train to travel from Balasore to Jaleswar, a Kharagpur GRP officer said.
"They panicked when the train did not stop at Jaleswar. At Belda, the train slowed down as there was no green signal. They thought they could jump off the train on to the platform," the officer said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
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