28 September 2012

Baby girl dumped in Salt Lake



TIMES NEWS NETWORK 


A newborn was found abandoned in a bush near the CA block crossing in Salt Lake on Thursday morning. 
All the fingers in her right hand had been gnawed off, possiblyby a rodent, said sources. 
Two green police personnel, who were on footpatrol, heard the frail 
whimpers of the baby. They tracked the sound and found a child wrapped in a cloth. 
 
The baby was immediately taken to Bidhan Nagar hospital and then to NRS Hospital after preliminary care. 
The body of another newborn was found last week from a bush in Salt Lake. The child was, however, found dead.

12 September 2012

Salt Lake civic body gets 10lakh for battling outbreak



TIMES NEWS NETWORK 


Kolkata: The urban development department on Tuesday approved Rs 10 lakh for Bidhannagar Municipality to carry on with its anti-dengue drive in Salt Lake. 
The municipality has already sent notices to 225 houses in the township for not following the civic body’s instructions of keeping the surroundings clean and not letting stagnant water to accumulate. Civic authorities have found that blocks like BG, BJ, CK, AE and FD are the worst affected by dengue. 

According to the latest figures with the civic authorities, which they have collected from the health department, the number of dengueaffected people in the township stands at 197, though unofficial numbers are much higher. 
The civic authorities are spraying oil and bleaching powder in all blocks. Rapid action force teams that have been formed for inspection in the township have so far checked about 7,600 houses, out of which mosquito larvae was found within the surroundings of over 2,700 houses. The civic authorities are sending them notices and asking people to remove stagnant water within the next seven days, failing which the authorities will impose a fine of Rs 1,000. Also, a team of 208 nurses are making rounds in the township. 
In neighbouring Rajarhat, anti-mosquito oil and bleaching powder are being sprayed. Special teams have been formed to contact people, generate awareness and get feedback. Atemporary medical camp has been set up on the main arterial road in Action Area-II and an ambulance is also in place for any emergency situation to take patients to hospitals.

04 September 2012

More water for Salt Lake


TIMES NEWS NETWORK 


Kolkata:Here’s some good news for residents of Salt Lake. From next week, Bidhannagar Municipality will receive another 2.5 million gallon water daily from Tallah. 
Bidhannagar Municipality chairperson Krishna Chakraborty met state urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim and mayor Sovan Chatterjee at Writers’ Buildings on Monday where Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose and other civic officials were also present. “Salt Lake is facing a water supply shortage. It gets about 4 million gallon water from Tallah. Within seven to 10 days, the amount will go up to about 7 to 8 million gallon per day,” said Hakim. 
Chakraborty said the civic body will soon install meters to measure the amount of water the township gets every day. At present, the rest of the water is collected from deep tube wells. “Though we will receive about 7.5 million gallon per day from Tallah soon, there will still be a deficit as the number of residents living in the township has increased over the last few years. The requirement is about 10 million gallon per day. 
In an attempt to increase revenue earnings, the civic authorities are also planning to impose water tax on commercial establishments. “It has already been announced that no water tax will be charged from residents. However, we are now thinking of charging water tax from commercial establishments, as they are running for commercial purposes and a huge amount of water is being consumed by them daily,” said a civic official. 
The state government is working on an arrangement in which the areas of Salt Lake, Sector V, areas under South Dum Dum Municipality and Rajarhat will receive water from the treatment plant that is being set up in Rajarhat New Town. It will have a capacity of 100 million gallon per day. 
After the Trinamool Congress came into power at both KMC and Bidhannagar Municipality, mayor Sovan Chatterjee had met the Salt Lake civic authorities where discussions were held to solve out the water supply problems.


03 September 2012

Tax collection to resume in Salt Lake



Suman Chakraborti TNN 


Kolkata: The Bidhannagar Municipality is all set to restart the process of collecting property tax. The civic body had started collecting taxes in March, but the process had to be stalled a couple of weeks later after some confusion over tax calculation surfaced. 
“We are going to restart collecting property tax soon. Tax rates will be based on the old, 2005 rates as directed by minister Firhad Hakim,” said Bidhannagar Municipality chairperson Krishna Chakraborty. 
 
According to the old tax structure, those who have an annual valuation of their property between Rs 1 and Rs 999 will have to pay a tax of 3.5% of the annual valuation. The tax rate will go up to 10.5% for property that has an annual valuation of over Rs 10,000 (See chart). The civic authorities are expecting to collect around Rs 9 crore in the form of property tax this fiscal. 
Officials said that bills of those who have already paid their taxes will be adjusted and fresh bills will be sent to those who did not pay their bills in March. According to sources in the civic body, Bidhannagar Municipality had collected a total of Rs 6.57 crore in the form of taxes 
in a couple of weeks in March. “We have almost completed the process of calculating the tax rate based on pre-2005 rates and will start dispatching the bills soon,” said a civic official. 
Tax collection in Salt Lake remained suspended for a few years in the past. On February this year, the civic body sent a notice to the residents that the municipality will start collecting tax for fiscal 2010-11, 2011-12 and arrears from 2007 to 2010. There was a mad rush to pay taxes after the bills were dispatched. But many residents started complaining that the tax bills they received were not matching pre-2005 rates. The civic authorities then sought intervention of urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim. The tax collection process was stopped after the minister admitted that there was confusion over the tax bills. There were some miscalculations in the tax bills that was prepared.