1. ‘Admit’: Doc's Dengue Shield
A 12-year-old girl diagnosed with dengue three days ago had a platelet count of 1.3 lakh per microlitre of blood. The girl's doctor verbally assured the parents that their daughter's condition did not warrant immediate hospitalisation, only to write “admission advised” on the prescription.
He isn't the only medical practitioner playing safe. Doctors across the city are invariably advising hospitalisation to people testing positive for dengue, irrespective of their condition. In any case, most patients ask to be admitted for fear of medical complications.
The result? Private hospitals don't have beds to spare while state-run institutes like the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Beleghata make patients share beds.
(Source: The Telegraph)
2. Bengal Civil Service Test Age Raised
The Bengal government has raised the upper age limit for civil service job applicants by four years to 36, reports our special correspondent.
Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates will be eligible to sit for the West Bengal Civil Service ( WBCS) exam till the age of 41.
The state government had earlier raised the age limit for applicants for other state jobs, such as Group D and clerical, to 40 years.
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. Singer Crew Gheraoed
Singer Lopamudra Mitra has alleged that a team of dozen-odd crewmembers, accompanying her on the way back from a concert in East Midnapore on Tuesday night, was gheraoed by villagers and could only be rescued after she informed an IPS officer in Nabanna.
Police sources said hundreds of villagers had stopped two cars with crewmembers and instruments, claiming some of them had not shown up for a programme a year ago despite taking advance money.
Although the singer's car wasn't stopped, she found out that the villagers had been threatening to take some of the team members to a kangaroo court.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. Retired Professor Found Murdered At Home
A 66-year-old former professor of Kalyani University was found murdered at her house in Bandel's Kazidanga on Thursday morning.
Sulekha Mukherjee, who had retired as head of the university's mathematics department, was found lying on the floor of a ground-floor room, between a bed and a dining table.
"A piece cloth was tied around her mouth. Her throat was slit and her head was bludgeoned," an officer of the local Chandernagore police commissionerate said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
5. Three Die Trying to Evade Cows On New Town Road
Three persons on a bike, including a six-year-old girl, were killed after the bike they were travelling on skidded at New Town on Rajarhat Expressway on Thursday evening. The accident took place as the rider tried to avert collision with a group of cows.
Prabhat Chakraborty (35), his daughter Deepshika and one of his colleagues Goutam Patra (34) were travelling towards Airport when a cow suddenly came on the main road near Akansha crossing.
Witnesses said Chakraborty lost control of the bike and hit a road divider beside a Metro pillar, and the trio were flung off the bike and fell on road bleeding from head injuries. The helmets of both Chakraborty and Patra came off and Deepsikha, who was sitting in front, had no helmet, the witness added.
“They were riding at a very high speed when a herd of 5 to 6 cows crossing the road came in front of the bike and the vehicle skidded. All three were dead on the spot. None of the cows were hurt,” said Babai Das, a daily labourer, who was waiting for a bus on the road at the time of the accident. The bike – an Apache RTR 200 – was brand new and it did not have a registration number.
(Source: The Times Of India)
6. Parsi Community Celebrates History And Culture
It's a community of just 650 people, but the zest with which the Parsis in Kolkata keep the bond strong and the heritage alive, is worth cherishing. A special exhibition ‘Threads of Continuity’ began on Thursday at the Olpadvala Hall, that is run by the Calcutta Zoroastrian Community's Religious and Charity Fund, in association with Delhi based foundation Parzor, that has been working for the revival of Parsi culture and heritage with the support of the Unesco. The exhibition, which traces the history of the Parsis back to their beginnings in 1800-1600 BC, will be on till Sunday.
It traces the community's antiquity right from the time of Zarathustra from the Spitama family in Persia, who was at once a prophet and a priest, when Iran entered the bronze age from the stone age, till the more recent times, 700 years ago, when the Parsis fled Iran and landed in Gujarat to avoid persecution. Different plaques showing pertinent scenes from Parsi history are mounted at the exhibition, stressing on the linguistic similarities between the Gathas of Zoroastrianism and the Rigvedic Trishtubh mantra.
(Source: The Times Of India)
7. Japan Kangaroos Find New Home In Alipore
Four grey kangaroos, a gift from Yokohama zoo to Alipore zoo, arrived in Kolkata in the early hours of Thursday.
“After a journey of more than 13 hours – from Tokyo's Narita airport to Dum Dum via Bangkok on a Thai Airways flight – the kangaroos arrived in the city airport around 12:30am. After necessary clearances from Customs, they were brought to the zoo around 3:30 am,“ said VK Yadav, member secretary of state zoo authority.
The last kangaroo in Alipore zoo, a red one, died in October 2015. Officials said the new kangaroos will be kept in quarantine for a month before being put on public display .
So, how did they spend their first day in the zoo? “We initially kept them in the ched night shelter inside their enclosure. Three to four hours later we released them in the open, the newly built enclosure spread over two acres,“ said zoo director AK Samanta.
(Source: The Times Of India)