Goons raid Salt Lake house, rob 72-yr-old

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata: A gang of robbers sneaked into a Salt Lake home in the wee hours of Wednesday, tied up a 72-year-old widow and her maid, and looted cash before fleeing. Police were yet to arrest anyone. Raids are on to nab the gang.
Aparna Basu, who stays with her domestic help at her AH Block residence, said a gang of four cut through the window grille on the ground floor around 2 am on Wednesday. However, finding nothing on the ground floor, the four barged into Aparna’s bedroom, where she and her maid Sabita were sleeping.
“When I woke up with a jolt, the goons, their faces covered with shawls, asked me to keep quiet and threatened me by brandishing a revolver. They then tied me and my maid and asked me where I have kept my jewellery. When I said I did not have any jewellery at home, they ransacked the room and took away about Rs 1,700 that I had,” Aparna said. The gang was inside the house for around two hours, she said.
They locked up Aparna and Sabita before leaving the house. The neighbours got to know about the robbery only after Sabita screamed for help. They rushed to the house and opened the door with the help of police and rescued the duo.
Police are looking into all possible angles. “We have started an inquiry into the case,” said a senior Bidhannagar police officer. Police were also trying to ascertain whether Sabita, the domestic maid hired three months ago, had a hand in the robbery.
Aparna, a retired government employee, had been living in the house since 1992. Her husband Sivaprasad Basu, a former PWD employee, had passed away long ago. Both her daughters are married. The elder daughter now lives in the US and the younger daughter stays in Mumbai. “I have been living here for many years but have never had such an experience. I am now feeling very insecure and wondering whether
I will continue to live here or shift to my relatives’ house elsewhere,” she said.
Aparna’s relatives rushed to her house as soon as they got the news in the morning. “It seems that the gang was keeping an eye on the house for some time and attacked only after being sure that my aunt stays alone,” said Aparna’s nephew PN Dutta.
Incidentally, Aparna claimed to be a cousin of former chief minister Jyoti Basu. But Basu’s personal aide Joykrishna Ghosh said the former chief minister’s relatives denied this claim.

No Parking

Even as another shopping mall and multiplex readies to open its door in Salt Lake’s CK block, residents fear that this will make living in the area difficult

Archisman Dinda, Salt Lake

If mall hopping is a habit that you have mastered, then in a few months time you will have one more venue to hangout in. What with a 300-seater multiplex, along with a 90,000 sq feet of shopping area all set to open its doors in CK block. But this, as the saying goes, is just one side of the coin. The shopping complex which is expected to draw an average footfall of 2,000 people daily has just 30 car parks. The mall that opens into the 2nd avenue in CK block has very little road clearance. This would mean endless traffic snarls in the area and residents have already hit the panic button, even as authorities indulge in an endless blame-game.
“How can the municipality allow an eight-storied commercial building to come up within such a thickly populated residential area?” asked Pinakiranjan Mukherjee, a resident of the area. Indeed, once the shopping mall becomes functional, the large volume of vehicular traffic will make it difficult for residents of the area to drive in and out of their own block. “The plot that has been earmarked for this commercial activity and we had lot of difficulty in accommodating all these facilities,” reasoned Anjan Dutta, the architect of the building.
The ground floor and the first floor of the mall will house a retail chain, while the second floor is expected to address the fashion needs of the city with many international brands setting shop, along with a multi-cuisine food court at the third level. The complex will also house an exclusive club and an array of other facilities. The expected footfall on weekends in expected to touch 4,000 people with at least 300 cars rolling in. And in the absence of proper parking space, a large chunk of the battery of cars will spill over and block arterial road that leads to the block, say residents. And it is not just the probable traffic congestion that is bothering them. “Not only will our block get congested, but the security will also become a major concern as places like these attract a host of people from outside the township,” says Arun Chackraborty, a resident of CK block.
“I am not aware of the parking problem but I will surely find out,” was all that chairman of the Bidhanangar Municipality, Biswajiban Mazumdar was ready to say when asked. However, municipal officials blame the Urban Development (UD) department for this problem.
“The plot has been earmarked by UD as a commercial plot, we were bound to sanction it, and when we sanction the building plan it never states what amount of crowd it will draw. So, we didn’t know it would have a footfall of 4,000 people,” said an official.
PK Pradhan, principal secretary, UD, refutes these allegations. “Irrespective of land pattern, it is the sole right and responsibility of the municipality to decide as to what type of commercial complex it will sanction in accordance to the building laws,”added Pradhan. “Car parking space is allotted not on the basic of footfalls but on the basic of built-up-area and we have sanctioned accordingly,” added another official. Saswati Mondal, councillor, ward No. 13, promises to look into this matter. “It was sanctioned much before I was elected but I will definitely put forward this complain to the chairman,” she assured. As the blame game continues, residents feel that their complaints will fall on deaf ears as all parties involved stand to gain from the entire project.
“While the builder will use maximum space for commercial activity forcing people to use road space as parking lots from which the municipality will collect parking fees,” pointed out a resident.

Source: Times of India

Salt Lake civic body in tax row

Piling up garbage, lack of maintenance of roads and street lights - it's the same old story in Salt Lake. The imbroglio over realisation of property tax from residents has put the municipality in a soup. The municipality has no funds to run the daily amenities.

Nearly eight months after the Supreme Court scrapped the property tax structure and asked Bidhannagar Municipality to stop tax collection, the matter is still pending before the court.

The municipality had planned to upgrade civic amenities with the fund. However, the plan hit a roadblock after the apex court's verdict. According to the civic body's estimates, it could have earned Rs 10 crore to Rs 12 crore this year from property taxes only. The municipality is already running losses of about Rs 7 crore since tax collection stopped. "Had we been able to collect taxes in the last seven months, we could have earned nearly Rs 6 crore to 7 crore more," said municipality's finance officer Somnath Mukherjee. According to records, the civic body had earned nearly Rs 10 crore from tax and other revenue collections in 2005 and nearly the same amount in 2006.

However, Mukherjee said their plea to get Rs 5 crore fund to make up the loss of not being able to collect taxes has gone to the finance department. "The money is likely to be sanctioned soon," he said.

The municipality spends about Rs 75 lakh per month for maintaining basic civic services, which means it has already spent Rs 5.25 crore from June last year. Besides, it has to pay Rs 1 crore to KMC every year for getting water from Tallah. The civic body spends around Rs 20 lakh on salaries, Rs 30 lakh on streetlight bills, Rs 10 lakh for maintaining the water reservoirs and pumping stations and about Rs 10 lakh for solid waste disposal.

The civic body had also lined up several projects to develop civic amenities, using the tax money. It had allocated Rs 7 crore for road repair that was supposed to be completed by 2007. For water supply, it had allocated Rs 5 crore. The civic body had also allocated Rs 5 crore for parks, Rs 3 crore for markets and Rs 3 crore for drainage and streetlights. All these projects are slated to be completed by 2009.

Source: Times Of India

Poor signal

Installed traffic lights remain idle in Sector V even after fatal accidents on the Sector V-Newtown stretch

The high-speed corridor connecting Sector V and Newtown with E M Bypass is a drivers’ nightmare with 15 accidents in the past six months. The North 24 Parganas police reacted by installing traffic lights at the government’s expense at the Bowlers’ Den crossing and at College Moore. But the lights remain unused. “We aren’t able to use the lights because the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) has not been able to provide us with a connection,” said Ashok Biswas, additional SP Salt Lake.
Anindo Banerjee of Enkon, the organisation that installed the traffic signals, disagreed. He said that the posts at Bowlers’ Den do not have an electricity connection but the lights at Sector V’s College More had a connection. “It’s one of the busiest traffic junctions, but the lights remain unused as the police are not ready to take charge,” he added.
Authorities are passing the buck on why it is taking so long for the traffic lights to work. Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NITA), the civic body in charge of maintenance, has been trying to upgrade infrastructural facilities for some time but said that bureaucratic apathy made their job difficult. Enkon is also in charge of beautification of Sector V. They are supposed to upgrade the user facilities by installing new bus stands, landscaping of the boulevard. Unfortunately, none of these developments are visible. Banerjee blamed other governmental agencies for destroying their work. “We did install railings at certain pathways but it was uprooted by WBSEDCL workers for laying cables,” he said.
The image of the township has taken a beating due to overhead wires. “It is an eyesore and makes the city look so untidy,” said Moushumi Das an engineering student.
“We have been trying to pursue the local cable companies to cooperate with us as it is our duty to dismantle all overhead wires but they did not respond,” complained Banerjee.
He also blames water logging as another primary factor for destruction of greenery. “Everything was destroyed by water-logging,” said Pinaki Halder, executive officer, NITA, “We are conducting regular review meeting and the work is in the initial stage hopefully it will take concrete shape after few months”.

Archisman Dinda, New Town

Look East

Salt Lake and Sector V are turning out to be the new commercial hubs even as more people are turning away from the traditional hangouts to the eastern fringes

Basundhara Ghosh, Salt Lake

It was not many years ago that the perfect long drive out of the city was towards the airport. But, today, to reach the eastern fringes of the city, one has to negotiate fearful traffic at various junctions of the EM Bypass because of the increased flow of cars to and from that area.
In fact, while the chunk of the IT workforce of a few thousand people travel to sector V everyday, a large number of people are now going their to shop, catch films and eat out. Rahul Dasgupta, a resident of Bansdroni in fact voices his preference for City Center and Inox in Salt Lake vis-à-vis its counterpart in Forum. “It’s far more spacious and chilled out and a true hangout place,” he explains. Needless to say then that businesses are growing and those involved in it are positive of future growth trends. “Since our inception in 2004, we have seen a 40 per cent compounded annual growth in terms of footfall with our current average footfall (per day) being about 4000-5000 patrons on weekends and 2500+ patrons on weekdays.
Earlier our patron profile was mainly predominated by residents of Salt Lake and the surrounding catchment areas but now patrons are coming in from as far as Behala, Alipur, Diamond Harbour, Barasat, Thakurpukur and even Barrackpore,” says Subhasis Ganguli, regional general manager, Inox, City Centre.
The area is also flourishing in terms of food joints - both restaurants and coffee outlets have opened up aplenty across the area. Anand Puri whose family owns Trinca’s on Park Street and BB’s in Sector V, has a positive outlook on business in this area. “There is a lot of prospect here. As soon as the Rajarhat township is built, we expect business to flourish,” said Puri. In fact people like Debanjan Niyogi, who resides in Tollygunge feel that it would great if Salt Lake and Rajarhat is connected via the metro soon, because conveyance still is an issue if one does not have private transport. Indeed, if these loose ends can be tied, East Kolkata will emerge as the favoured commercial destination of the city.

Source: East Kolkata Plus (Times of India)