1. Darjeeling Unrest: Mamata Orders High-Level Probe into Violence
A high-level probe was ordered into the violence in the hill-town of Darjeeling in West Bengal and a compensation was announced for the families of those killed after the second round of meetings between hill parties and the West Bengal government. Darjeeling has been in a state of lockdown for a little under 90 days , and a resolution to the impasse was not reached at the meeting.
“The next round of meeting will be on the 16th of October at the State Secretariat. The issue of a tripartite meeting with the central government was raised and will be discussed then”, said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. She also categorically mentioned that tripartite talks were not possible in the present scenario.
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2. Meeting Helps Mamata Keep Gurung Isolated
Mamata Banerjee may have failed to bring normality back to the hills till now, but her primary objective of isolating Bimal Gurung and causing a rift in the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha seems to have succeeded.
Binay Tamang, who attended the meeting with the chief minister at Uttarkanya — the north Bengal branch secretariat — here on 12 September and led the Morcha delegation, said he was in favour of withdrawing the strike and would appeal to the people of the hills to lift the shutdown.
However, Morcha president Gurung said he was in favour of continuing the strike, unless tripartite talks started on Gorkhaland. Gurung was quick in his reaction and spoke to the media over the phone.
Source: The Telegraph
3. 'Moved' by Plight, Shah Makes a Plea
BJP national president Amit Shah on 12 September requested "champions of human rights" to visit people afflicted by violence in Bengal. Shah said he felt the need for such a statement after being "overwhelmingly moved" by tales of torture BJP supporters had suffered in the hands of Trinamool cadres across the state.
The BJP leader hosted a lunch for 93 people, the alleged victims of Trinamul violence, at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations building here. “I would like to appeal to the champions of human rights to find some time and report the political violence in Calcutta or Basirhat or Birbhum nationally," said Shah.
Source: The Telegraph
4. Narada: CBI Summons Suvendu, Madan
CBI has summoned Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari and former Minister Madan Mitra for recording their statements in the Narada case. Sources said while Adhikari was summoned sometime back, Madan has been summoned first time in the Narada case by any central agency.
Source: Times Of India
5. Dengue Claims Another Life, This Time an Infant
A six-month-old infant died of dengue in Karaya on 12 September evening, taking the toll to three in the city in last one week. Mohammad Ayaz Khan, who was shifted to the Institute of Child Health from a local nursing home late on 11 September evening, was immediately put on life support since he was also suffering from pneumonia and septicaemia along with dengue.
“The medical reports the family had submitted showed that the child was already suffering from dengue. His platelet count was very low and he was under severe respiratory distress. We tested him again for dengue and put him on life support immediately . He was administered blood too,“ said a doctor at ICH.
Source: Times Of India
6. CBI Arrests Provident Fund Official for Taking Bribes from Employees
The Central Bureau of Investogation (CBI) arrested a Provident Fund (PF) official on charges of taking bribes. Samiran Mondal, who according to the probe agency, had been under the scanner for quite some time for alleged discrepancies in employees’ PF account, has been caught red handed while taking bribes amounting to Rs 40,000.
According to sources in the CBI, the accused, who is said to be from the enforcement wing of the PF department, had allegedly threatened some employees of severe consequences should they not part with the money he had demanded.
Source: The Statesman
7. 48-Yr-Old Woman Fights Bus Bullies
A 48- year- old woman helped get a fellow bus passenger arrested on 11 September night after she and her daughter were manhandled for protesting an attack on the conductor. The incident occurred shortly after the woman, who teaches in a Howrah school, had boarded the bus along with her 22- year- old daughter around 9.30pm. They were returning to their Bhowanipore home after some Puja shopping in Gariahat.
The trigger for the assault was apparently the conductor asking the men to vacate the footboard and make way for passengers boarding or and alighting from the bus.
Source: The Telegraph
8. Close Shave: Touch-and-go for CCU patients
A team of three doctors and six nurses pumped manual resuscitators for more than 10 minutes to keep eight critical patients on life support alive after a sudden power cut shut down eight ventilators in the Critical Care Unit at SSKM Hospital on 11 September evening.
The power outage, for which hospital officials and CESC blamed each other on Tuesday , threw the female surgical ward and the CCU on second and third floors of SSKM's main building into darkness from 6.45pm. It forced doctors and nurses to scurry for AMBU-bags using mobile torches and kept on pumping the valve mask to provide manual positive pressure ventilation to the patients attached to eight of the 19 ventilators whose power backup system had malfunctioned. A medical officer, two house staffers and six nurses were on duty at that time.
By operating the mechanical ventilation, they succeeded in saving all the patients, including five who could not even live a minute without life support.
Source: The Times Of India
9. Howrah Youth in Blue Whale Grip
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A Class 9 student from Howrah is being questioned by the police and his school authorities after he confessed that he was participating in the Blue Whale Challenge. Prita Bhattacharya (20) is a student of Ashariya High School.
Abhijit Das, headmaster of the school, said: “He has been detained in several classes due to his poor academic performance. We are keeping a close watch on his activities. On Tuesday morning, some teachers informed me that there were scars on his left wrist with Blue Whale written on it.We immediately alerted the cops.”
Source: Times Of India
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