CMYK
03
THUMBNAILS
A child dressed as Lord
Krishna during Janmasta-
mi at Bagbazar, in Kolkata
on Tuesday. � SNS
Dreaded criminal arrest-
ed: City police on Tuesday
arrested Seikh Vinod, a
dreaded criminal from
Regent Park area in con-
nection with running an
“extortion racket”, police
said. Sources close to the
officers in the anti-rowdy
section of the detective
department at Lalbazar
said Binod was picked up
from the Regent Park
area after police stations
were flooded with com-
plaints over extortion
racket run by persons
allegedly close to a Seikh
Vinod by committing
cyber fraud on the lines
of notorious “Jamtara
gang” of Jharkhand. SNS
Police vehicle hit: A youth
was arrested on Tuesday
morning from the Maidan
area for driving danger-
ously and hitting one
police vehicle. PTI
Partha gifts
Behala free
swab test
centre
KOLKATA,11 AUGUST
Trinamul Congress secre-
tary general,Partha Chat-
terjee today inaugurated
free swab test centre in his
Behala (West) Assembly
segment.
He said that he has taken
this move so that people can
get tested for Covid -19 pan-
demic.
He said,"This is the time
when we should not politi-
cise, rather I will ask the dif-
ferent political parties to
stand in support of Mama-
ta Banerjee and work for the
people."
He also said that some
political parties are already
on streets working for the
people. This is good sign."
But there are some polit-
ical parties who without
helping people engage
themselves in making slan-
derous remarks against the
government.
He also requested the
people to follow social dis-
tancing norms and not to
break lockdown. SNS
Somen Mitra’s successor will
reshape contours of Cong-Left ties
TIRTHANKAR MITRA
KOLKATA, 11 AUGUST
The future path and posture
of CPI-M led Left Front vis-
a-vis Congress is at a cross
roads even as the race for the
successor of late PCC chief
Somen Mitra gathers momen-
tum.
The choice of the next
PCC chief will be a pointer
whether the front leadership
will seek to drive a hard bar-
gain with Congress in the
choice of constituencies in the
run up to the next year's state
Assembly elections or follow
a consensual course it did in
Mitra's tenure.
Given their style of func-
tionalning, if leader of the
Opposition in the Lok Sabha,
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury or
his lieutenant, Manoj
Chakraborty gets the AICC's
nod to succeed Mitra, it would
trigger a rethink in the front's
game plan.
On the other hand, Rajya
Sabha member, Pradip Bhat-
tacharya who had once head-
ed the PCC is unlikely to
make the front reconsider its
stand as he too like Mitra
prefers a consensual course
with poll partners.
Both the Congress and the
front received a drubbing in
hands of Trinamul Congress
Mamata takes up Bengal’s Kolkata airport gears up to
financial dues with Modi tackle future emergencies
CM urges PM to issue guidelines on which vaccine should be used to tackle Covid
Mamata Banerjee during a Press meet at Nabanna on Tuesday.
��SNS
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
KOLKATA, 11 AUGUST
C
hief Minister Mama-
ta Banerjee today yet
again took up the
issue of the pending
Central funds and urged the
Centre to authorise and issue
guidelines on which vaccine
should be used to tackle
COVID pandemic.
The request was made dur-
ing the video conference
between Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and chief min-
isters of Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar
Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab,
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and
Bengal which was held to dis-
cuss the situation arising out
of the pandemic.
“The state is still to receive
Rs 4135 crore towards GST
compensation and overall
outstanding dues of Rs
53000crore from the Central
government,” said Miss Baner-
Pallishree locals stop Covid
crematorium, clash with cops
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
HOOGHLY 11 AUGUST
The residents of Pallishree, in
Arambagh, were involved in
a violent clash with the police
during their protest where
they attempted to thwart
authorities from setting up a
crematorium for Covid-19
victims along the Darkeswar
riverbank area.
The police resorted to lathi-
charge to disperse agitating
locals. Many were arrested in
the incident. It is learnt that the
local administration was in
search of a suitable area to set
up a Covid-19 crematorium for
some time. Hence, a meeting
was conducted at the Aram-
bagh SDO office where the
Arambagh civic body admin-
istrator, SDO and the police,
jointly agreed to set up a Covid-
19 crematorium along the
Darkeswar river bank area
under the Kalipur bridge at Pall-
ishree in Arambagh.
Today in the morning, the
local administration officials
reached the selected site for
the purpose and saw the res-
idents gathered in large num-
bers, protesting against the ini-
tiative. Agitators initially
when they went it alone in the
2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Joining forces, the two ide-
ologically divergent outfits
fared better in the 2016 state
Assembly elections with Con-
gress emerging as the principal
Opposition party.
While leading the seat
sharing talks with the front
leadership, the then PCC
chief, Adhir Ranjan Chowd-
hury chose to interact most-
ly with CPI-M leaders.
If it rubbed the other front
partners the wrong way,
Chowdhury stuck to his style
of functioning.
This is the time when we should
not politicise...and work for the people
jee.
“Central government has
raised the FRBM limit from
three to five per cent but only
0.5 per cent out of the increased
two per cent has been made
unconditional. We request
the Central government to
make the remaining 1.5 per
cent also unconditional for one
year”, she said.
Miss Banerjee also request-
ed the Centre to authorise
which vaccine is to be procured
and used as well as issue nec-
essary guidelines in this regard.
Further, she urged the Cen-
tre to provide more ventilators
and High Flow Nasal Cannu-
las.
Miss Banerjee gave a
detailed account of the ini-
tiatives taken by the state
government to handle the
situation while stating that the
GDP growth rate for India in
2019-20 is 7.21 per cent while
for Bengal it is 15.04 per cent.
“All treatment in state
blocked the Bankura - Aram-
bagh - Midnapore highway but
with the intervention of the
police, they withdrew the
roadblock and moved towards
the crematorium site. The
police tried to keep the agi-
tators at bay but a violent clash
ensued.
Few police personnel were
injured in the clash while a
police vehicle and an ambu-
lance were damaged. The
police and the RAF jointly
resorted to lathi charge and
dispersed the violent mob. The
police have arrested some of
the suspects who provoked
and instigated the violence.
Residents like Astami Dule,
Arati Sahu, Tapash Sahu,
Manoj Dule and others won-
dered how the authorities
could think of setting up the
Covid crematorium here
knowing full well that most res-
idents of Pallishree use the river
water for daily household
work and other purposes.
The Arambagh civic body
administrator Mr Swapan
Nandi is however not ready
to pay any heed to the
demands of the residents and
termed their agitation as
“baseless”.
After Mitra took over the
charge from Chowdhury, he
walked a path his predeces-
sor never did.
Always striving for con-
sensus, he pursued an acco-
modating mode of function-
ing with the front in 2019 par-
liamentary polls.
Ironically, Mitra's approach
failed to work out a mutual-
ly agreeable seat sharing
arrangement.
If intra-party squabbles
spoiled his efforts, it did not
ruffle any feathers in the front.
It may be recalled, neither
Chowdhury nor leader of the
Opposition, Abdul Mannan
accompanied Mitra in his
pre-poll talks with the front
leadership.
Obviously, the PCC chief's
choice of his delegation was
a pointer to his preference for
a person who would neither
antagonise the front leaders
nor upset the talks by a hard
stance.
Strangely enough, it was
thanks to this amity that
Chowdhury reaped the divi-
dend as RSP did not field a
nominee against him.
It helped him retain the
Behrampore seat on a straight
contest with the Trinamul
nominee, the absence of a front
candidate not denting his
vote bank.
WEST BENGAL EDUCATION MINISTER PARTHA CHATTERJEE
WHILE INAUGURATING FREE SWAB TEST CENTRE IN HIS CONSTITUENCY
government hospitals and
government requisitioned
private hospitals including
ambulance services are fully
free,” she said adding that
facilities of safe homes,
telemedicine services, tele-
psychological counselling,
Covid patient management
system, COVID warrior clubs
have been pressed into ser-
vice. This apart, Swastha
Sathi card has been provid-
ed to 7.5 crore and free ration
to 10 crore people.
Meanwhile, flights to
Kolkata from the six Corona
hotspot cities of Delhi, Mum-
bai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur
and Ahmedabad have been
extended till 31 August. State
home secretary Alapan Bandy-
opadhyay in a letter to Mr P
S Kharola, secretary of the Min-
istry of Civil Aviation dated 10
August stated: “I am directed
to inform you that that the sus-
pension of flight from Delhi,
Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Nag-
PRAYERS FOR PRANAB
Offering puja for quick recovery of former President Pranab Mukherjee at his Kirnahar village in
Birbhum on Tuesday. � RAJA BHAKAT
Burdwan (E), Bankura
grapple with rising
coronavirus cases
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
BURDWAN/BANKURA, 11 AUGUST
The district administration has
increased restrictions on
market operations and move-
ment of common people in
Burdwan (East) as the num-
ber of single-day infections
has scaled up further. Nine
policemen tested COVID-19
positive at a police camp in
the district last evening.
In Burdwan (East) 1444
positive COVID-19 cases were
recorded till Monday evening.
Nine policemen with the Pal-
sit police Outpost tested pos-
itive. Of them, six were con-
stables, one police driver
and two were civic police
volunteers. In the Burdwan
Municipality area alone, 43
new positive cases were
detected yesterday itself.
Thirty three persons died of
Covid-19 in the district.
In Kalna, a COVID-19 pos-
itive test report of a 75 year-
old woman was made avail-
able after her death at Purba
Satgachhia village. Swab sam-
ples of 22 persons, who took
part in cremation of the
woman, were collected today.
The woman had died at Kalna
Sub Divisional Hospital. Dr
Krishna Chandra Barai said
CMYK
pur and Ahmedabad to Kolkata
will continue till August 30,
2020.”
Earlier, the arrival of flights
to Kolkata airport was sus-
pended till 15 August and
flight operations at the city air-
port will also remain sus-
pended on 20 and 21 August
and 27, 28 and 31 August due
to complete lockdown. The
total case count in the state
crossed a lakh today with
2931 Covid positive cases and
49 deaths being recorded in
the last 24 hours.
Currently, there are 25,846
active cases though till now,
a total of 1,01,390 people were
detected Covid positive and
2,149 died due to infection. In
a single-day, 3,067 Covid
patients were discharged from
hospitals.
Kolkata alone recorded
711 fresh cases and 18 deaths
followed by North 24 Par-
ganas with 643 cases and nine
deaths.
In Bankura, 70 COVID-
19 positive cases
were detected at
ward no.: 18 of the
Bankura Municipality
area in the last two
days. The district
administration has
declared the entire
area as a containment
zone today.
“The elderly woman was
asymptomatic and for that her
body was handed over to the
family but a sample was
drawn following the health
department protocol.”
In Bankura, 70 COVID-19
positive cases were detected
at ward no.: 18 of the Banku-
ra Municipality area in the last
two days. The district admin-
istration has declared the
entire area as a containment
zone today.
The DM, Bankura, Arun
Prasad meanwhile was shift-
ed to the Sanaka Covid Hos-
pital in Durgapur last week
and later his wife also was
shifted two days ago. The
hospital authority said that
the health condition of both
was improving significantly.
KOLKATA, WEDNESDAY 12 AUGUST 2020
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
KOLKATA, 11 AUGUST
In a bid to enhance capabil-
ities to handle emergency
situations like aircraft accidents
inside an airport, in a more
efficient and coordinated
manner, the Airports Author-
ity of India (AAI) has com-
missioned a ‘Mobile Com-
mand Post (MCP) for the
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
International (NSCBI) air-
port in Kolkata.
The Kolkata airport author-
ities today informed that the
MCP is a customised, fully
equipped vehicle which is
outfitted with specialised
equipment to serve as an
“on-scene” command, and
as a coordination and com-
munication centre for air-
port emergencies. It is learnt
that the command post will
serve as a decision making cen-
tre where the heads and rep-
resentatives of the coordi-
nating agencies will assem-
ble to receive and disseminate
information, and subsequently
make decisions relevant to the
emergency operations such
as in aircraft crashes inside the
airport.
Commenting on the func-
tions of the Mobile Com-
mand Post, a Kolkata airport
official explained the MCP will
serve as a point where liaison
officers of the various coop-
erating agencies assemble to
plan and coordinate the res-
cue operations. It will be used
for establishing a staging area
for all ground service equip-
ment such as tow tractors,
coaches etc. Further, it will
establish an “Assembly area”
Sealdah station gets
swanky overhaul
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
KOLKATA, 11 AUGUST:
The ongoing unlock period
with suspension of regular
train services has given Seal-
dah Station a makeover like
never before.
A thorough renovation
and beautification work has
been carried out and the sta-
tion prepared to welcome
passengers in a new ambience
with state-of-the-art ameni-
ties and modern facilities.
Despite hurdles brought
forth by the coronavirus, the
redevelopment work at the sta-
tion during the lockdown and
unlock period, was carried at
a fast pace. Airport-standard
features, artistically designed
ceilings, escalators and a fam-
ily mall are some of the fea-
tures that will greet the pas-
sengers at the station. The
amenities have transformed
it into a world-class transit hub.
The walls and the pillars at
the station premises have been
aesthetically renovated with
depictions of the culture ofWest
Bengal.The recently added plat-
form number 9D is being
developed particularly for
shopping at branded retail
outlets without having to trav-
el to different parts of the city.
“The construction of the
for the uninjured survivors of
a flight accident.
It will be used to
secure/provide any assis-
tance required by doctors at
the “Triage Area” and arrange
speedy evacuation of injured
casualty cases in hospital.
The MCP will also liaise with
the airline concerned to trans-
port the uninjured casual-
ties to the Survivors Reception
Centre (SRC) and establish
communication with Crisis
Management Centre (CMC)
and Airport Operation Con-
trol Centre (AOCC).
The Kolkata airport official
pointed out that Airport Res-
cue and Fire-fighting Team Ser-
vices is responsible for the
deployment of the MCP as
quickly as possible at a dis-
tance of not less than 90
metres upwind from the air-
craft accident site.
The official explained that
the MCP vehicle comprise a
compartment from where
facilities are mounted for use
Submit financial
details: ED reminder
for TMC bigwigs
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
KOLKATA, 11 AUGUST:
Enforcement Directorate (ED)
today issued fresh reminders
to eight Trinamul leaders,
asking them to send docu-
ments relating to the details
of their bank accounts, income,
investments and assets for the
last seven years, to the agency’
s CGO complex office at Salt
lake by this week.
The move is in connection
with the Narada pay-off scam,
failing which would invite
legal action as per law, a
source in the ED said.
Confirming the develop-
ment, a source in the central
agency said that today’s notice
in the form of a “reminder” had
been sent to eight Trinamul
leaders out of the 11, against
whom notices had been issued
earlier in July asking them to
furnish details of their bank
accounts, income, assets and
investments through mail by
31 July, while exempting them
from being present in “person”.
Today’s development
assumed significance since the
family shopping mall with a
total square feet area of 14,500
has been done,” sources in the
Railways informed. “The
mall includes a mezzanine
floor of 11,500 square feet and
ground floor of 3500 square
feet. Two modern escalators
have been installed while a
bridge has been constructed
for passengers’ movement. For
now, the mall will not have any
food stalls as the station
already has such services
provided by the IRCTC. How-
ever, a provision for setting up
a food court, café or restau-
rant by international fast food
brands has been kept for a later
stage,” added an official.
According to sources in ER,
around 70 per cent of the work
at the station has been com-
pleted. The remaining work
will be completed soon. After
resumption of normal ser-
vices, renowned brand brands
will be invited for allocation
of spaces at the mall. The space
allotment is to be done in a
phased manner. The CPRO of
Eastern Railway, Nikhil
Charaborty said, “The ini-
tiative has been taken by
Eastern Railway to provide the
best amenities to passen-
gers. The lockdown period is
being best utilised to carry out
the work at a fast pace.”
on the emergency site as and
when required for rescue
operations or in “unlawful
situations”. The official,
describing the utilities of the
mobile command post, said
it has a space where a round
table conference can be held
and it can accommodate eight
persons. The space is equipped
with a digital board and a pro-
jector. The facility has a gen-
erator to provide electricity
back-up for four hours.
It was further learnt that
the MCP has a pan-tilt zoom
camera (PTZ) of 500 meters
of clear visibility that is extend-
able to one kilometre and
the footage can be seen inside
the compartment on LED
monitor. For inside cabin,
one dome camera has also
been provided. A utility power
supply has been installed for
extra two hours back-up. The
official pointed out that four
sets of noematic mast lights
(250 Watt each set) are pro-
vided along with a very high
frequency(VHF) sets to mon-
itor Air Traffic Control (ATC)
frequency and for proper illu-
mination of the emergency site.
Apart from these vital equip-
ment that will aid the team to
respond to the emergency
more efficiently, a walkie-talkie,
a public address system with
a cordless mike with Blue-
tooth connectivity were made
available along with a mega-
phone. Further, to support the
rescue team, night vision binoc-
ulars of 120 metre range, four
foldable stretchers, 10 sign-
boards and two tents were
made available to the mobile
command post. Three portable
shelter tanks were provided.
eight TMC leaders concerned,
had allegedly failed to com-
ply with its earlier notice sent
in July, and hence notices
reminding their “compliance”
regarding the submission of
the financial details, had been
issued and they were given
time till the end of this week,
the source informed.
Trinamul leaders who were
served notices for sending
details of their financial deal-
ings, are MPs Sougata Roy,
Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Prasun
Banerjee, Subhendu Adhikari,
Aparupa Poddar, Firhad Hakim,
Subrata Mukherjee and Trina-
mul turncoat and now the BJP
leader Mukul Roy. Sources how-
ever clarified that today’s notice
was sent to sixTMC leaders and
one IPS officer SMH Mirza,
who had earlier been arrested
by the CBI in the Narada pay-
off case. Interestingly, another
Trinamul turncoat and former
mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who
too was among the 11 accused
against whom an FIR was lodged
by the Narada CEO Mathew
Samuel, was left out of the list
to whom the notices served.
Minister
Swapan
Debnath tests
Covid positive
BURDWAN, 11 AUGUST
State MSME minister Swa-
pan Debnath has tested
Covid-19 positive and has
been shifted to the Belegha-
ta ID Hospital today.
Debnath, an MLA from
Kalna sub division in Burd-
wan East is both the state
MSME Minister and as well
as the Burdwan East district
president of the Trinamul
Congress. Debu Tudu, Saha
Sabhadhipati of the party said:
"He has tested positive and
immediately was shifted to
the hospital. His condition
is stable now." Tudu was
tested positive and was kept
in home isolation last week
following mild virus load, inci-
dentally. SNS