31 May 2010

Salt Lake Shakes Off Violent Poll History

Suman Chakraborti & Debamoy Ghosh | TNN 


2000 municipal election, Salt Lake FD Block: CPM men beat up Trinamool Congress supporters and hurl bombs to capture Ward 16. 
2005 municipal election, Salt Lake, BK Block: Jyoti Basu’s confidential assistant Joykrisna Ghosh and former CPM MP Amitava Nandy heckled by Trinamool supporters and police. 
2010 municipal election, Salt Lake: No clash, no rigging, no booth jamming. Only police ‘excesses’. 

    Contrary to the fears of many that elections in Salt Lake will be violent this time, too, the entire polling process from 7am to 3pm was so peaceful that even police seemed apparently confused. After all they have been at the receiving end for years. 
    Even places where bombings were a common affair — Duttabad, Mahisbathan and the bheris — were unnaturally calm. Many voters, elderly and the young, came out freely to cast their votes. Polling in the township was as high as 70%. And this time, it was genuine voting. 
    “I did not have any trouble casting my vote,” said Kamalika Das of Duttabad, 
who walked the 3km from Purbachal with her three-month-old baby. 
    In most of the 126 booths of the township, voters preferred the early hours. There were long queues from 7am to 9 am, but booths were almost empty after 11am. Only a small section of people preferred to cast their vote in the latter half of the day. 
    With the state election commission (SEC) issuing tough prohibitory orders — any outsider was liable to be arrested and private buses and taxis were barred from entering the township — not many outsiders were seen in Salt Lake, a welcome change compared to previous occasions. The central forces ensured that those who had entered into the township in the past few days could not create any trouble. 
    What was also surprising was the bonhomie between contesting candidates at some places — a rare sight in Salt Lake. In Ward 8, CPM candidate Chandra Sarkar, Trinamool candidate Swati Banerjee and Congress candidate Arpita Chowdhury were seen chatting with each other. And in Ward 3, CPM candidate Sharmila Das and Trinamool candidate Anindya Chatterjee were having a pleasant talk. 
    The SEC had provided 60 companies of central forces in four layers of secu
rity. The Bengal police apparently did not have much to do after this. 
    The state police seemed to act overzealously on the administration’s direc
tive to arrest outsiders. At many places, police tried to nab every person they suspected to be an outsider, and ended up harassing many innocent locals. 
    Samir Kumar Dutta, a resident of AB-278, was on his way to market when he was accosted by a few police officers. They demanded to know who he was and where 
he was going. Dutta explained that he had cast his vote in the morning and was out to buy groceries but one of the cops asked him to leave the place. Dutta kept insisting that his rights were being violated. One of the senior Bidhannagar officers allegedly caught him by the neck and dumped him in a police van. 

In another case, 70-year-old N C Pal, a resident of BE-29, was left floundering as a relative he had called for help in an emergency was blocked by an election official. The College Street resident had reached Salt Lake Tank No 4 when a police jeep intercepted him. He managed to convince the police but an officer on election duty stepped in, and asked him to leave. Pal contacted police over phone and offered his voter’s ID card for verification but the poll official refused to budge. Pal had to go all the way to Ultadanga. “I was disappointed,” he said. 
    Another 70-year-old, Dilip Majumder, who had come from Dum Dum to Salt Lake on a ‘personal matter’ said he was harassed by police and Trinamool Congress men. “I did not go anywhere near a booth. I pleaded that I had some work but they did not listen,” he said. The CRPF finally defused the situation. 
    Police even stopped maids and vegetable and fruit vendors from entering Salt Lake.

26 May 2010

Beware Of Bullets On V-Day


Salt Lake, no stranger to poll bloodshed, is bracing for its fiercest political showdown. It’s a war where no quarter is given, none taken. The stakes have never been higher here 
Ward 13 (previously Ward 16): Blocks FC, FD, FE, FF 

This ward was the deciding factor in 2000. Re-polling was ordered with CPM and Trinamool Congress tied at 11 wards each. With a lot of heavyweights from both parties being local residents, all-out violence ensued. Several Trinamool leaders were attacked. Bombs were hurled to keep voters away and CPM candidate Gita Biswas emerged the winner. She retained her seat in 2005. 
This time, too, CPM will try everything within its power to hold on 


Ward 3 (previously Ward 12): Blocks AJ, BJ, AK, BK, CJ, DJ 
• In 2005, police caned CPM supporters who were trying to force their way into a polling booth. Trinamool men got into the fray. Amitava Nandy, former MP from Dum Dum, and Jyoti Basu’s confidential assistant Joykrisna Ghosh were injured. Sitting Trinamool councillor Tulshi Sinha Roy won the seat 
Ward 5 (previously Ward 9): Blocks AF and AG 
• In the 2005 elections, MMiC Nandogopal Bhattacharya’s followers allegedly roamed the streets, forcing residents to vote for him. Trinamool complained its polling agents were beaten up and thrown out of booths. Even locals alleged CPM cadres did not let them votes freely 
Ward 17 (previously parts of Ward 23): Bheri areas 
• Trinamool has never succeeded in gaining a toehold in this 
ward. Ever since Bidhannagar Municipality came into being in 1995, this has been retained by present MMiC Ila Nandy, wife of former CPM MP Amitava Nandy. The opposition has always cried foul here. This ward has witnessed severe violence, especially in Mollarbheri and Munshirbheri. With things not exactly looking up for CPM this time round, Trinamool is going flat out to upset the Left applecart. 
Ward 18 (previously parts of ward 23): Bheri areas 
• High chance of trouble on poll day as CPM will try its best to retain the seat while Trinamool will do everything to oust it. 
Wards 23, 24 and 25 (previously parts of Wards 19, 4 and 1): Duttabad 
• These areas of Bidhannagar along EM Bypass have always witnessed poll-related violence. Notorious criminals, many allegedly backed by CPM, have sought shelter in these slums. This is where bombs and guns are stored for poll-day violence. The opposition has always complained of violence and rigging in this CPM stronghold. 
Ward 19 (previously Ward 22): Sukantanagar 
• A Left bastion, CPM has always ensured that it retains this ward, which is slightly detached from the main township. Complaints of rigging and violence have been common here. 

04 May 2010

Abducted by pool car driver, 6-yr-old charts great escape


TIMES NEWS NETWORK


A spunky six-year-old schoolgirl used her guts and wits to escape from her kidnappers — her pool car driver and a rickshawpuller — in Salt Lake on Monday. Notwithstanding little Satwiki Chakraborty’s bravery, the incident will send a shudder through every parent that has a child travelling by pool car.
    Satwiki was not only tied up and gagged, but also slapped repeatedly while being held hostage in a shop in Falguni Market. After a half hour in complete darkness, she managed to undo the knots,
rip the plaster off her mouth and banged on the locked shutters until someone heard her. Both the suspects are in custody and have confessed to kidnapping her for ransom, say police.
    For two years, Satwiki, a Class-I student of Loreto House on Middleton Street, took the same pool car to school, driven by 22-year-old Vinod Singh Rathore alias Bunty. Her classes got over by 1pm and she would be home within the hour. She was always the first to board and last to get off.
    On Monday, Bunty dropped off all the other students and stopped the car in AJ
Block, saying the vehicle had run out of fuel. He then walked up to Kartick Mondal, a rickshawpuller.
    The child thought he had arranged for her to reach home and climbed into the rickshaw. But instead of pedalling towards her house, Mondal rode out of AJ Block. When Satwiki asked him why, Mondal said he was taking a shortcut. Instead, he took her to Falguni Market, where Bunty has a building materials shop by the name of Rathore Enterprises. The rickshawpuller dragged little Satwiki inside and tied her arms behind her back with a ‘gamchha’. There was
no one around in that deserted hour to help her. Mondal thrashed the child when she shouted for help and gagged her with sticking plaster. He then pushed her into the shop and pulled down the shutters.
    By then, Satwiki’s parents — mother Mithu and father Saurav Chakraborty, a zoology professor at Hooghly Mahasweta Devi College — had called up Bunty, who told them that he had dropped her near the house as usual. The parents panicked and called Bidhannagar East police.
Parents shocked at trusted pool car driver’s betrayal
Kolkata: As her parents panicked, little Satwiki Chakraborty was making plans to free herself from the Falguni Market shop. Bruised from being beaten by rickshawpuller Kartick Mondal, the six-yearold flexed and unflexed her wrists to loosen the knot.
    In the darkness and stifling heat, the six-year-old kept her wits and started looking for a way to draw attention. A thin sliver of light told her there was a small window, but it was locked and barred. Satwiki kept pushing till the window opened a little and then she screamed. But no one heard her. Then, she turned to the shutter and started banging on it.
    Sailendra Chowdhury, a local resident, and veterinarian Pankaj Banerjee, who has a chamber in the market, heard the noise and went to inquire. They were stunned to hear a
little girl’s voice. They broke down the lock and rescued Satwiki. She seemed unruffled. After applying first-aid, they took her to Bidhannagar South police station, where police got in touch with her parents.
    Satwiki told police every detail of the ordeal and then the hunt started for her pool car driver Vinod Singh Rathore
alias Bunty. Police got his address from her parents and arrested Bunty. He initially claimed a white car had picked up the girl after he dropped her near the Chakrabortys’ residence. Grilled further, he confessed that he had hatched the kidnap plot with Mondal. The rickshaw-puller was arrested.
    “The two are not history sheeters. It seems that they hatched the plot to make some quick money. Had they been hardened criminals, it may have been difficult to track down the girl,” said Rahul Srivastava, SP, North 24-Parganas.
    The shocked parents have asked police to find out if the pool car agency was also involved. “We could never have believed that Bunty would do something like this. We had lost all hope when Satwiki did not return home. Fortunately for us, she was smart enough to free herself,” the child’s mother said. 

02 May 2010

Greenpeace to celebrate Earth Day fest

TIMES NEWS NETWORK


Kolkata: Environmental crusaders Greenpeace, supported by The Times of India, will celebrate World Earth Day fest on May 1 at City Centre, Salt Lake

A host of activities has been planned for students by Greenpeace, which believes that children are the ones who would replenish our natural resources. The programme will begin with a painting workshop, where students are expected to paint a big scroll on the theme of the environment, under the able guidance of an artist. The painted scroll would form the backdrop when the bands perform later in the evening. 

Poster-making, photography and recycling are some of the other activities in the pipeline. In the ‘recycling’ section, students will be taught how to make paper bags from newspapers. 

Activists Ekta Kothari and Subhash Datta will address the students. Next up is a mesmerising musical evening with some of the hottest acts in town: Five Little Indians, Ibn Batuta O Tatar and Cassini’s Division. 

Some of the participating schools are La Martiniere For Girls, Birla High School, MP Birla School (Behala), Frank Anthony Public School, DPS Megacity, Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan, Salt Lake School and Calcutta international School. Participants are expected to be from classes V to XII.