QKolkata: HC Halts BJP Rath Yatra; Dilip Ghosh’s Convoy Attacked
Here are the top stories from Kolkata.
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1. HC Halts BJP’s Rath Yatra, Asks it to Put Plan On Hold Till 9 Jan Hearing
The Calcutta High Court has denied permission to the 41-day, statewide BJP rath yatra that was scheduled to begin from Cooch Behar on Friday, 7 December. The HC on Thursday, 6 December, chose to go with the state government, which held that the yatra might affect communal harmony in the district bordering Assam. It directed BJP to put the yatra on hold till the next hearing on 9 January.
“I am not giving any relief to the petitioner at this stage. It will be difficult for the police to comply with my order in a short span of time. I, therefore, direct to defer BJP rath yatra till 9 January,” Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty said. It directed SPs of all districts to submit law and order reports to the court by 21 December.
(Source: The Times Of India)
2. Bengal Govt in the Dark About BJP Plan After High Court Blocker
The Bengal government remained clueless about the security arrangements required to be put in place in Cooch Behar after the high court refused to give permission for a 41-day-long rath yatra that was scheduled to start from Cooch Behar on Friday, 7 December.
“We are still not clear what the BJP will do on Friday after their plan to kick start the Rath Yatra hit a roadblock. Had there been a planned programme, it would have been easier for us to plan security arrangements,” said a senior state government official.
Sources at Nabanna said the top brass of the administration had tried to find out the plan of the BJP till late in the evening on Thursday, 6 December, after the party’s rath yatra plan was hit, but there was no intelligence input till late in the evening.
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. Dilip Ghosh Convoy Waylaid, Attacked In Cooch Behar
Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh’s convoy, including the car he was in, was attacked in Cooch Behar’s Mathabhanga on Thursday, 6 December.
Ghosh was in the north Bengal district in connection with the party’s rath yatra, now blocked by the high court, slated for Friday, 7 December.
“While we were heading to (social reformer) Thakur Panchanan Barma’s birthplace, our convoy, including my car, was attacked and windowpanes smashed by Trinamool goons in the presence of police, who were mere spectators,” Ghosh said.
He claimed this was the ninth attack on him in recent months. “People will give a befitting reply in the 2019 Lok Sabha and the 2021 Assembly polls, uprooting Mamata Banerjee’s party from power.”
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. Polluted North Kolkata Air Equal To Smoking 22 Cigarettes A Day
At 9pm on Wednesday, 5 December, north Kolkata residents unwittingly smoked an equivalent of 22 cigarettes each just by breathing in the foul air with the PM 2.5 count as high as 500 g/m3. The pollution-laden air was potent enough to cause as much damage to the lungs as puffing on 22 cigarettes.
Reeling under the worst spell of pollution in recent years, the PM2.5 count in the city continues to hover around the 400 g/m3 mark, making every gulp of air we breathe as toxic as smoking 18 cigarettes. Yet, unlike the cigarette packets that contain graphic warning messages, there is no alert to warn unsuspecting citizens beyond the haze that envelops the horizon. PM 2.5, the deadliest among all pollutants, is an extremely fine particulate matter that can enter the lungs and the blood stream.
(Source: The Times Of India)
5. City Needs Immediate Action, Warn Experts
Environment scientists and green activists have called for an immediate action plan to tackle the dangerous level of air pollution in the city instead of failing to even recognise it as a problem.
Speaking to TOI, Centre for Science & Environment Senior Research Associate in the air pollution team Palash Mukherjee said it was critical for the civic authorities in Kolkata and its neighbouring areas and the state government to quickly formulate an action plan and start implementing it at the earliest.
Though a draft report was prepared last year by the high-level committee set up by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), it is yet to be finalised.
(Source: The Times Of India)
6. Airport-Barasat Metro Line Back To Life
The jinxed Airport-Barasat Metro project has received the kiss of life with the Railway Board approving underground construction along a technically challenging 3.5 km stretch and sanctioning an additional Rs 1,622 crore.
The original plan was to have elevated tracks from the airport till New Barrackpore but “technical reasons” forced an alteration.
Metro Railway sought additional funds to cover cost escalation from the Railway Board more than a year ago. A series of communications since then culminated in the board approving the additional requirement on 4 December, a senior railway ministry official said on Thursday, 6 December.
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. 'Gabbar' Calls Realtor From Alipore Jail
A realtor in the Burtolla area has alleged that Gabbar, a convicted criminal, called him from Alipore jail on Wednesday, 5 December, demanding Rs 5 lakh.
Rashid Alam, alias Gabbar, in jail since 2001, used to be a “terror to traders” in central Calcutta, a police officer who had worked in the area for years said.
Chetan Singh, the realtor, told cops on Wednesday night that the caller identified himself as Gabbar and said he would be shot dead if he did not pay.
The caller apparently texted Singh when he stopped taking calls from a particular number.
Singh lodged an FIR with Burtolla police station on Wednesday night against Gabbar and his suspected associate Ramesh Mahato, another criminal in the same jail. He alleged that Mahato, too, threatened him after Gabbar had spoken.
(Source: The Telegraph)
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