QKolkata: Headlights On At 9 am; Salt Lake Food Sample ‘Unsafe’
Your daily lowdown of all things Kolkata.
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1. Headlights On At 9am, 33mm Rain In An Hour
A cloud-mass triggered by the resurgent monsoon currents and a cyclonic circulation plunged Kolkata into darkness at 9 am on Monday morning, precipitating a heavy spell of shower that slowed down rush-hour traffic, leaving office-goers and thousands of kids caught in the rain on a day most schools reopened after a short ‘heat-break’ last week.
While the city received 33 mm between 9.15 am and 10.30 am, the showers lost intensity as the day progressed. But it was enough to leave thoroughfares like Chittaranjan Avenue, JL Nehru Road, EM Bypass and Shakespeare Sarani waterlogged. Till 5.30 pm on Monday, Kolkata received 42.2 mm rain. The Met office has predicted moderate rain in the city for the next 48 hours, North Bengal is set to be battered by heavy showers over the next five days.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. Salt Lake Food Samples ‘Unsafe’
Meat and other food samples that were collected by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation over the last one and a half months from a number of eateries and restaurants in and around Salt Lake and Rajarhat have been found to be unsafe for consumption.
The civic authorities had earlier sent around 33 samples to the state food safety lab for tests. After more than a month, the civic authorities received test reports of 13 out of 33 samples on Monday. What’s worse, out of the 13 samples, eight of them have been found to be ‘unsafe’ for consumption.
(Source: The Times of India)
3. Fate Of Jadavpur University Entrance Tests For Humanities Hangs In Balance
An unprecedented uncertainty looms over the admission process in the blue-chip humanities faculty of Jadavpur University, Bengal’s most-sought-after general-studies undergraduate institute now, with the university yet to decide whether or not to have admission tests in some departments.
Members of the JU’s executive council, who met on Monday, said vice-chancellor Suranjan Das had informed them that the decision on admission tests for six subjects— English, Comparative Literature, History, Bengali, Political Science and Philosophy— would have to be postponed. He cited the need for legal validity for admission tests in select subjects as some members had raised a query.
(Source: The Times of India)
4. Bagdogra Bursts At Seams, Can’t Take More Peak-Hour Flights
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has turned down airlines’ requests for more flights to Bagdogra during the day, citing the overcrowding of the terminal building that is stretched way beyond capacity.
“The terminal building is bursting at the seams. During the peak holiday season when passenger loads shoot up, passengers cram the terminal with no place to sit or even move around freely. Officials at the airport are finding it extremely challenging to manage smooth operations. We have, therefore, taken a conscious decision not to entertain any more flights during busy hours,” said Airports Authority of India regional executive director (east) KL Sharma.
(Source: The Times of India)
5. Vigilantes Strike Over Suspicion Of ‘Affair’
A man and a woman were tied to a pole and beaten on Monday in West Midnapore's Chandrakona with sticks, shoes and brooms by a mob that accused them of having an illicit relationship .
Sources said a villager called up cops, expressing fears that the duo may be beaten to death, after which a police team rushed to the spot and rescued them.
The victims, both married, were kept at the police station for several hours and let off on Monday night with advice that they should spend a few days away at a relative's house in safety till the situation normalised.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. FIR For Felling Trees On Sunny Park Plot
The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has filed an FIR against unnamed persons for allegedly felling trees at 3/1 Sunny Park in Ballygunge.
"We have filed an FIR at Ballygunge police station. We do not know whether the owner of the plot is felling the trees or someone else is doing it. Police have to find that out," said Debashis Kumar, mayoral council member in charge of parks and squares.
A CMC engineer said three trees had been felled. Bhavesh Mazumdar, who owns the plot, said only two trees had been felled in recent times. "These trees were broken after the recent squalls and hence had to be felled," he added.
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. Assault Probes Draw A Blank
The government railway police and the city police are still to make headway in the assaults at Sodepur and Dum Dum stations.
On 20 June, a gang thrashed a man and tried to drag his wife on platform 4 of Sodepur station around 10 pm. The man later lodged a complaint with the Dum Dum GRP. Investigations have so far drawn a blank, though. "It can happen with anyone," a 34-year-old woman who works at a private bank in Nagerbazar and lives in Sodepur said.
"The thought of an assault on a platform when the station is still crowded is scary. Hundreds of women like me use local trains and return pretty late."
Preliminary investigations have revealed the men, in their mid-20s, were not drunk when they assaulted the couple from Jagaddal, North 24-Parganas, a Dum Dum GRP officer said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
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