North East Rising

West Bengal, 17th November: The CBI has booked a BSF commandant, his son, and three others, including an alleged kingpin of the illegal cattle trade, over cattle smuggling on the India-Bangladesh border.

Satish Kumar is currently posted at Raipur. He had served as the commandant of the 36 BSF Battalion in Malda district of West Bengal between December 2015 and April 2017.

Kumar has been booked under IPC section 120B and Sections 7, 11, and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The central agency had earlier sealed Kumar’s residence in Kolkata following a raid.

West Bengal, 17th November: There is a sharp drop in the number of active Covid cases in Bengal. According to the reports, only 3,012 new infections were recorded on Monday while the number of people recovered was 4,376. The discharge rate moved up to 91.81 percent and the active caseload declined by a massive 1,417 to 27,897 cases.

According to the state health bulletin, 53 deaths occurred in 24 hours, taking the death toll to 7,714.  Among the deaths, there was a Kolkata Police officer who was a sub-inspector in the Special Branch. Manab Bandyopadhyay, in his forties, was recently diagnosed with the disease.

The Kolkata Police tweeted, “We deeply mourn the untimely demise of Sub-Inspector Manab Bandopadhyay, who was posted in the Special Branch. He was affected with Covid-19 and was at the forefront of our fight against corona.”

We deeply mourn the untimely demise of Constable Kamal Krishna Bal, who was posted in the Reserve Force.

He was affected with #COVID19 and was at the forefront of our #FightAgainstCorona.#SaluteBraveheart#RIP@CPKolkata pic.twitter.com/8WZzLeVeBh

— Kolkata Police (@KolkataPolice) November 17, 2020

Kolkata and its adjacent districts, however, have continued to report a major share in the caseload. 728 persons tested positive in Kolkata and 718 tested positive in North 24 Parganas.

Although the recovery rate has brought down active Covid cases in both Kolkata and North 24 Parganas that are the heart of the pandemic’s epicenter in the state. The other districts like Hooghly reported 190 positive cases, South 24 Parganas reported 185 positive cases and Howrah reported 119 positive cases.

West Bengal, 17th November: At least five persons were injured in an explosion in a house in the West Midnapore district of West Bengal on Monday.

Police suspect that crude bombs were being made in the house. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that the house belonged to a Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporter and crude bombs were being made to spread violence in the area of West Midnapore, the TMC has rubbished the allegations saying that miscreants had attacked the house and hurled crude bombs.

“Five persons have been injured. We have collected samples from the spot. It appears that crude bombs have exploded. The investigation is going on,” said a senior police officer.

This is however not the first time that such explosions have taken place in Bengal, which is heading towards crucial assembly polls. West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had alleged in September this year that the state has become home to illegal bomb-making factories.

In October, an explosion in a local club located in the midst of a crowded residential neighborhood in eastern-suburban Kolkata had sent shockwaves among the residents.

Police said that explosion ripped the roof of the house. The injured were initially rushed to a health center from where they were referred to a state-run medical college and hospital in the district.

Even though the owner of the house, Reyazed Mullick, was not injured in the blast, he was later beaten up by the locals and had to be admitted to the hospital.

Bengal, 16th November: Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh on Monday asserted that his party if voted to power in the next assembly polls, will emulate the Gujarat model to develop this state, and slammed the successive governments for not doing enough to create jobs.

Reacting to Ghosh’s assertion, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has time and again trained guns on the BJP over the 2002 communal strife in the western state, claimed that Gujarat is known for riots and encounters and not for development.

Criticizing the erstwhile Left Front dispensation for alleged politicization of the education system, he said Bengal, which once produced the finest scientists, doctors, and engineers, is now churning out migrant laborers.

The CPI(M)-led Left Front turned the state into a hub of migrant workers who would have to go to states like Gujarat for work, Ghosh claimed during a ‘chai pe charcha’ session at Barasat in North 24 Parganas.

“Didimoni (CM Mamata Banerjee) often says that we (BJP) are trying to turn Bengal into Gujarat, but I would like to say that we will certainly do so and turn it into a developed state. Our men and women don’t have to go there to work. We will ensure employment opportunities are available here,” he said.

Dilip said that Bengalis do not make it to merit lists of competitive exams anymore.

“The likes of Biman babu (Left Front chairman Biman Bose) and Buddha babu (former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya) have politicized the people of the state in a way that we (Bengal) now produce migrant workers who move to Gujarat for jobs, and not doctors, engineers or professors,” the BJP state president said.

On the other hand, TMC‘s Firhad Hakim said, “It’s not a development that we associate Gujarat with. Over 2,000 people were killed, encounter deaths of people like Ishrat Jahan have occurred. If Bengal is turned into Gujarat or UP, then here, too, people will get killed in encounters. We want our state to remain the way it is.”.

Hakim, to drive home his point, also said that the Tata Nano factory which was set up in Gujarat has closed down, while the MSME sector in West Bengal was making good progress.

The Nano plant was moved to Sanand in Gujarat from Singur in West Bengal in 2008, following a prolonged agitation led by Mamata Banerjee, alleging forced acquisition of fertile land by the then Left Front government.

“Industries will come up in Bengal as the situation is favorable and the state has a stable government,” Hakim said.

Echoing him, state panchayat minister and senior TMC leader Subrata Mukherjee contended that the BJP will never be able to realize its dream of winning Bengal polls, likely to be held in April-May next year.

“It is good to dream, but one should see to it that the dream does not turn into a nightmare,” Mukherjee said.

West Bengal, 16th November: Kolkata and Howrah saw marked improvement in the post-Diwali air quality this year compared to 2019 following the ban on fire-crackers imposed by the Calcutta High Court.

With fewer crackers this year, the noise level in the two cities were also much less compared to last year.

Data available with the West Bengal Pollution Control Board revealed that while the level of pollutants had shot up nine to 13 times above the daily permissible limits in Kolkata on Diwali night earlier, this the year it was around three times above the permissible limit.

The level of PM2.5 (pollutants which are at least 30 times finer than a human hair) had shot up to 768 micrograms per metre cube around midnight on Diwali in 2019. This year it reached a peak of 185 micrograms per metre cube around 12 midnight. The daily permissible limit is 60 micrograms per metre cube.

The Calcutta High Court had banned the use of fireworks during Kali Puja, Diwali and Chhath Puja in November this year across the state. The Supreme Court has refused to reverse a ban on sale or use of firecrackers in West Bengal during the festive month of November, saying that preservation of life should be the top priority in a country faced with a pandemic.

Similarly, in Howrah where air quality remains equally bad, pollution levels had shot up 11–15 times above the safe limits post-Diwali last year. This year it has shot up around three to five times.

Environment and health experts have warned that chronic exposure to air pollutants is associated with severe infections and higher mortality. They feel that lungs compromised due to pollution could lead to complications like pneumonia during Covid-19.

hat fewer crackers were used this year following the High Court ban was also evident from the fact that noise levels were also less this year. The average noise level was at least two decibels less this year in Kolkata.