A NOVEL THEME WITH NEW IDEAS

“ARJUNA PIERCING THE BULL’S EYE”

The conflict between the deity and the demon and the struggle between the good and the evil are in principle indistinguishable. Kurukshetra rests deep inside our heart where the coexistence of the good and the evil has always kept the character of the battlefield alive. The great warrior Arjuna had come down on the Kurukshetra with the objective of upholding the spirit of virtue over vice. The grandeur of Ma Durga and the pomp of Arjuna are two sides of the same coin. Both seem to aim at the annihilation of the evil and sustenance of the good.

A part of this pandal in the form of the sharp edge of an arrow signifies the triumph of the good over the evil. Tin, the metal used on the top of the pandal, metaphorically represents the weapons used in the battle of the Kurukshetra. In the world fraught with inequality and disharmony, let the worship of Goddess Durga usher in a world of equality and unity. Let all conflicts, troubling our heart constantly, disappears for ever. Let Arjuna’s single-minded pursuit and ultimate triumph in piercing the eye of the revolving fish give us strength and impetus to make our India great and triumphant.


Let us all, at an individual level, be Arjuna ourselves; declare war against the dark cloud of evil crowding our heart; let all disharmonies vanish; let happiness, joy and peace overwhelm the great earth. At this auspicious hour, we pray for you all – be happy and enjoy yourselves.

Jayabrata Kar

Joint Coordinator
DL Block, Salt Lake

IT union plans crèche in Sector V

Sobia Khan | TNN

Kolkata: An IT union, often criticised for just being there, intends to set up a crèche in Sector V, the first such in the city’s tech hub, for the benefit of young mothers employed in the various infotech companies operating in the electronics complex.
West Bengal Information Technology Services Association (WBITSA) — whose establishment in November 2006 ruffled quite a few local IT honchos — has already held preliminary talks with Webel and Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NITA) about being allotted space to set up such a facility.
“We heard that quite a few people were leaving their jobs in the absence of such facilities, and being a responsible body, we felt that if no one else was doing it, we should come forward and set up a crèche ourselves since our goal is to promote the cause of IT in Bengal,” WBITSA general secretary Somnath Bhattacharya said.
However, Bhattacharya declined to comment on why local IT companies, which project themselves as progressive employers and have a large number of women employees, had not set up a crèche till date in Sector V. “We are willing to work with companies for ensuring that the crèche benefits as many IT sector employees as possible,” he said, adding that modalities on size and timing are still being worked out.
NITA chairman S A Ahmed said his organisation supported the crèche initiative. “We will provide all possible help to make it a success,” Ahmed said.
Incidentally, Bangalore and Hyderabad have quite a few crèches dedicated to the children of IT employees. Over 200-odd IT/ITES companies function in Sector V, which includes the likes of India’s No. 1 software exporter TCS, No. 3 exporter Wipro, as well as global biggies like IBM and Cognizant.
Both TCS and Wipro, though, are examining the benefits of having independent crèches for the benefit of their staff. Even the merits of a shared facility are being explored. “We may come up with one or share a common facility,” TCS human resources head Ajoyendra Mukherjee said.

Salt Lake planner revisits town

Prithvijit Mitra & Suman Chakraborti | TNN Kolkata:

Dobrivoje Toskovic’s tryst with Salt Lake began 40 years ago when it was just a blueprint. The Yugloslavian architect was flown down to draw up the masterplan for Kolkata’s first satellite township. He gave shape to a township that has grown manifold over the years and inspired several more in and around the city. More than four decades later, 81-yearold Toskovic revisited Salt Lake on Tuesday to check out if it had grown according to plan. And, he came back impressed. “It has grown into a lovely garden city, just as I had planned. There are community housing, parks, clean roads and the traffic management seemed fine. I did feel a bit nostalgic today. But more than anything else, I felt proud that the city had developed just the way I had wanted it to,” Toskovic said. He visited Central Park, several blocks in the township and was elated to see the greenery all around. “The roads are nicely lined with trees, which is a wonderful sight.” Toskovic arrived in Kolkata a few days ago to attend a prize distribution ceremony and decided to visit the township on Tuesday. “He was happy after visiting the township, saying that much of his plan had materialised,” said Bidhannagar municipality chairman Biswajiban Majumder. The Belgrade-based architect had emphasised greenery, which he had wanted in 50% of the township. “He visited Central Park and was happy that his wish for greenery in the township had been implemented,” said a civic official. Toskovic said he had planned to use the central patch of greenery (Central Park) to hold cultural programmes and to set up a treasure hall. He was happy to learn that various cultural programmes and fairs were being held there. He was also pleased that most of the blocks had community halls of their own, as planned. However, he lamented the absence of landmarks. In his masterplan, he had earmarked all the corner plots for institutions that could serve as landmarks. Besides, the islands in the middle of the roads were much bigger in his plan. And, he had kept highrises completely out of it.

Water crisis haunts Salt Lake

When it comes to water supply, Kolkata is way ahead of other metros. But the posh satellite township of Salt Lake on the eastern fringes of the city is an exception.

Salt Lake residents have a tough time every summer when taps run dry. Come 2009 and their suffering is only going to get worse. A survey by French consultant Seureca has predicted that water supply to the township will fall far short of the increasing demand. The state urban development department had engaged Seureca to conduct a water management survey at Salt Lake and its adjacent areas. The survey was aimed at exploring the feasibility of outsourcing water supply, sewerage, drainage and solid waste management of the township through public-private partnership.

The experts have pointed out that the projected demand for piped water in Salt Lake area - excluding Sector V - would far exceed the supply capacity by end-2008, The daily demand of water that stands at 9 million gallon a day will touch 20 million gallon by then. At present, the municipality receives around 6 million gallon from Tala and the civic body pumps in around 3 million gallon every day.

Salt Lake residents can easily understand the gravity of the situation as they already have to bear with shortage during the summer. Civic officials conceded that the township does not have a water treatment plant. It has to depend on the daily supply of filtered surface water from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. According to an agreement, the municipality can get a maximum of 10 million gallon of filtered water per day, but receives much less now.

There exists an underground reservoir with a capacity of five million gallon per day for emergency. But the report predicts that it will be of little help in tackling the crisis. Seureca has proposed that a new underground reservoir be built. The report warns that unless this is done, water supply may have to be slashed to six hours a day in the future to narrow down the demand-supply gap. But the Bidhannagar Municipality is working on several plans to improve the water supply system. The municipality's chairman-in-council, Tapan Talukdar, who looks after the township's water supply system, said they have started working on increasing the capacity of the water tanks.

"We have started working on increasing the capacity of water tanks 1, 3 and 13. Gradually, capacity of all the water tanks will be increased. We have also submitted a proposal to KMC to increase the supply of water from Tala," he said.

At present, the 17 water tanks at Salt lake have a capacity of 20,000 gallon each. The capacity would be increased to 25,000 gallon, Talukdar said. Besides, the civic body is trying to introduce water service charges to earn revenue with which it can pay for additional water supply from Tala.

The civic authorities are also trying to extend the duration of supplying filtered water from seven to 12 hours a day. The state urban and municipal affairs department also plans to introduce 24-hour surface water supply to all municipality areas under KMA with the help of JNNURM funds.

Source: TOI

Sec V won’t be flooded this year

Techies may no longer have to wade through knee-deep water in the coming monsoon. “Sector V will not be inundated this time,” Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NITA) chairman S A Ahmed told TOI. “Work on the damaged roads and sewerlines will be completed by July,” he added. NITA is the authority responsible for Sector V.
Drain water from Sector V drains into Bagjola canal. With drain water from New Town also being channelised through the canal, it invariably overflows during the monsoon as it is illequipped to flush out water from both sides.
Companies at Sector V, also called Nabadiganta Township now, said they would wait to see what happens when it actually starts pouring in June-July. “As we are the worst sufferers whenever it rains, we are keeping our fingers crossed on this. However, the NITA initiative is a welcome development,” Wipro senior manager (administration and facilities) Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya said.
Incidentally, state urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya has also said in the recent past that improving drainage and sewerage systems of Sector V would be accorded top priority. Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority has been asked to prepare a master plan in this regard.
“Beautification of Sector V will be completed in 18 months,” Ahmed said. NITA has signed agreements with Encon and Selvel for improving the IT hub.
Ahmed said easing traffic in Sector V would also be given importance. “Work on building a flyover in front of Wipro and J K Saha junction is in progress. Also, two bridges are expected to come up near Kestopur canal by mid-2009,” he added.

Sobia Khan | TNN

In good books?

Is Book Fair 2008 a hit or a miss? Arshad Ali finds out the answer to the big question While booksellers and stall owners of the 550-odd stalls at the 33rd Book Fair, now christened Boi Mela, complain of poor business and slumping sales, organisers are happy that the fair has finally taken place. The last minute cancellation of the Kolkata Book Fair at the Park Circus Maidan and a change in its venue has proved to be a bane for some and boon for others. Most booksellers complain of unprecedented losses this year. “On an average, we sell books worth Rs 4 lakh every year but going by the trend this year, I doubt if it will touch the 1 lakh mark,” said Ajay Kumar Shaw of Kwality Book Stall. He said more lovers than book lovers were visiting the fair. “Most people come in pairs, eat and hang around rather than buy books,” he said. According to some, the real season of holding the fair has been spent in political bickering. “We are bearing the brunt at the end of the day, losing at least 70 per cent of normal business. The mela season is over and now it is time for board exams. ICSE and CBSE are in progress whereas higher secondary is knocking at the door,” pointed out Samit Banerjee of Education Forum, a publisher and bookseller adding that many parents have opted out for the same reason. People, like the owner of Madina Publications, attribute the loss to the delay in completion of stalls. “The lights have been put up this morning and there are still no provision for fans. This place has become a furnace and visitors have chosen to stay away,” he told this EKP correspondent on Tuesday (March 3), pointing at the bundled books that were still to be put up on display. Some stall owners, however, look at this fair more like an annual ritual that should be organised irrespective of earnings from it. “We have suffered losses but are happy that all the senior members of the fraternity have met in this huge get together,” said Debashish Bhattacharya, a member of a little magazine that has put up its stall in the Little Magazine Corner. Organisers admit there had been impediments. “The success of the fair lies in the fact that it happened and the secretary of the guild is solely responsible for the inconveniences caused. The fair almost got called off and if that happened it would have been like Durga Puja not happening in Kolkata,” said Anil Acharya, secretary of one of the sub committees of the Boi Mela. He admitted there had been a delay and businessmen have incurred a loss. “Another huge fair was being held on these grounds and everything had to be dismantled before we could put up the fair and it is true that we couldn’t do justice to all, but I request booksellers to be a bit patient and hope that business will pick up in the remaining days of the fair,” he said. Others however believe it is only a matter of time before people get acclimatised to this new format and venue. “We have had reasonable footfall in spite of the board exams being on. If the book fair continues here and is held at the right time, people would happily accept it,” claimed Soumitra Lahiri, PRO.

Source: Times of India

Goons raid Salt Lake flat, loot jewellery

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Yet another case of robbery in Salt Lake, four armed youths broke into a house in Baisakhi Abasan on Sunday night, tied up a woman and looted cash and jewellery worth Rs 2 lakh.

The four armed goons raided the house of Pranab Dey, a promoter, around 9.30 pm when he was out for work. The robbers asked his wife Debi to open the door, saying they had come to meet her husband to discuss something important. But Debi was reluctant to open the door as she did not know them. When the four failed to convince her, one of them sprayed chilly powder into her eyes. As she was temporarily blinded, the four barged into the house.

The gang then tied up Debi with a rope and gagged her. They also beat up her physically challenged son. The domestic help engaged by the Deys was also not present in the house when the incident occurred. She had just left for the local market to shop for Saraswati Puja. The robbers then opened the almirah, looted the cash and jewellery and left.

Neighbours complained that this was not the first time such an incident had occurred in the housing complex. They said robberies are frequent in the locality and numerous attempts to draw the police’s attention have gone in vain.

The area falls under the Bidhannagar east police station. Police suspect the gang had been tracking Dey’s movement and came to his house when he was not around.
“Our officers have reached the place and we are trying to nab the criminals as soon as possible,” said a police officer.

This is the third incident of robbery in Salt Lake in the past four weeks. In January, burglars broke into the house of a 72-year-old widow and robbed her. Last week, a gang of robbers broke open the door of a flat in BB Block and looted jewellery worth nearly Rs 15 lakh.