QKolkata: Cong MP Mausam Noor Joins TMC; Bengal Sex Ratio Dismal

Your daily lowdown of all things Kolkata.

Mausam Noor.

(Photo courtesy: Facebook/Mausam Noor)

1. Cong MP Mausam Noor Joins TMC

Capping months of speculation, Congress MP from Malda North Mausam Benazir Noor joined Trinamool on Monday in the presence of CM Mamata Banerjee at state secretariat Nabanna. Noor, the nephew of former Union minister and Congress leader ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury and a lawyer in her late 30s, is likely to contest from Malda North as a TMC candidate, Banerjee said.

Noor has been entrusted with campaigning and consolidating Trinamool’s prospects in the three adjoining districts other than Malda — North and South Dinajpur and Murshidabad — all Congress bastions with a sizeable minority population. Speaking to reporters, Noor said she wanted to see Mamata Banerjee as the Prime Minister. “The charisma of Mamata Banerjee was quite clear from the January 19 rally at Brigade,” she added.

(Source: The Times Of India)

2. At 911 Girls To 1,000 Boys, State Birth Sex Ratio Turns Dismal

Bengal’s sex ratio at birth has dipped to 911 girls born for every 1,000 boys in 2016, the second-lowest figure in the 10-year period from 2007 to 2016, the last year for which records have been made available.

But Bengal’s ratio of 911 was substantially higher than the all-India average of 877 and the sex ratio in Kolkata (931) was much better than the state average.

Data collected by the office of the Registrar-General of India from the Civil Registration System show Bengal’s sex ratio in the 2007-2016 decade was best in 2010, when 931girls were born for every 1,000 boys. The worst year was 2014, when the ratio dipped below 900 — only 897 girls were born for every 1,000 boys that year — before things improved significantly in 2015, when the sex ratio was 919.

(Source: The Times Of India)

3. Poser Before HC: Mom’s Quality Of Life Or Foetus’s Right To Life

A 39-year-old woman’s plea for abortion of her 26-week foetus, even after an SSKM Hospital medical board’s advice against it, has put the Calcutta High Court in a situation without precedent in its 157-year-old history.

The court on Monday sought specific details from the hospital’s medical board on the woman’s condition after her lawyers insisted that she be allowed to go in for an abortion. She would be financially unable to raise an ailing child — her second — and it would take lifelong physical and mental toll on her as well as the child’s well-being, her lawyers, Kallol Basu and Preetha Bhowmik, told the court. The plea came three days after the medical board said the child would be born alive — though with mental and physical ailments — and advised against abortion.

(Source: The Times Of India)

4. Hawkers Take Over Crossings As KMC ‘Relaxes’ 50ft Norm

In a classic case of the tail wagging the dog, mayor Firhad Hakim on Monday evening ‘relaxed’ the 50ft rule, which bars hawkers from doing business at important crossings, but not before they had already returned to Gariahat pavements four days after being displaced from all four ends of the intersection.

“It is not possible to enforce the 50ft rule at this moment. Our focus is now on the rehabilitation of the hawkers whose goods and stalls were gutted in the fire. However, we will implement the rule in the coming months,” Hakim said while unveiling the demo cart for hawkers at the Gariahat crossing on Monday evening.

The 200-odd hawkers — 108 of whom had been displaced from the crossing on Thursday — rejoiced in unison as soon as the announcement was made.

(Source: The Times Of India)

5. Fresh Troubles For BJP In Bengal: PM Rally Venue Shifted, No Nod Yet For Shah’s Chopper

Weeks after it failed to get permission for its rath yatras, the BJP continues to have a tough time arranging venues for rallies of top leaders in West Bengal at a time when Lok Sabha elections are round the corner.

On Monday, the party’s state unit had to change the venue for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2 February public meeting in Thakurnagar in North 24 Parganas after TMC MP Mamata Thakur claimed she had already obtained permission to hold a religious programme at the site the same day.

Meanwhile, at Contai, organisers planning BJP president Amit Shah’s Tuesday rally faced opposition from a section of land owners.

“This is not new. Trinamool Congress is scared and that is why they are putting hurdles. By any means they are trying to stop our rallies. But the people are with us and we will conduct the meetings successfully,” said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.

(Source: The Indian Express)

6. Unions Get 24 Hours To Decide On Model Stalls

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Monday came up with a stall on wheels model for Gariahat hawkers who had lost their makeshift stalls that were gutted in a midnight blaze eight days ago. A group of KMC officials took the 8x4-ft stall, made of corrugated sheet fitted with fibre wheels, to Gariahat as a specimen and showed it to the hawkers, seeking an approval for the design.

Mayor Firhad Hakim reached the spot around evening and held a meeting with members of the Gariahat Indira Hawkers’ Union and Ballygunge Hawkers’ Association. “We have given them 24 hours to decide if the new model is acceptable to them. If they accept our model stall, we will manufacture more and distribute them among the hawkers in phases,” Hakim said.

(Source: The Times Of India)

7. Morcha Signals Break From Past On Election

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha thanked chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday for speaking out on the identity issue of the Gorkhas and said the “Third Front” candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat should be a “son of the soil from the hills”.

“The demand for the identity of the Gorkhas is 112 years old and this is the first time a chief minister has spoken about the issue in public. We thank chief minister Mamata Banerjee for her remarks that she would look into the issue,” Morcha general secretary Anit Thapa said at a public meeting in Kurseong.

Thapa was referring to a demand raised by the erstwhile Hillmen’s Association in 1907 when it had submitted a memorandum to the British demanding a separate administrative unit for the hills.

(Source: The Telegraph)