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)

Forged bank drafts put businessmen in spot

Several businessmen, dealing in information technology components, were found to have been defrauded with forged bank drafts.
The forged drafts bear such a striking resemblance to the originals that even banks cleared those without expressing any doubt. The incidents of forged draft have a larger ramification with bank draft being the only trusted tool for any major bulk transaction.
The racket seems to be well organised. “The person, who came to me on December 6, was suave, fluent in three languages and presentable in every sense of the word. He introduced himself as Amulya Acharya (50), a doctor from Raniganj and attached to the statewide immunization campaign. Acharya said he needed to buy a few laptops to present to some doctors at a workshop. I found his words very convincing. Besides, he told me a few things that only a doctor could say,” said Koushik Mukherjee of Junction IT at Salt Lake, one of the victims of the forged draft.
Only a few days later, Acharya placed an order for
three laptops with Mukherjee. But he did not turn up on December 16, the day he was supposed to come. He told Mukherjee over phone that he could not come, but his man would definitely be there with the bank draft the next day. Again, Acharya called up that day to say that his man had reached Howrah.
“The person said he was carrying only a draft for Rs 90,000 while the three laptops cost Rs 1,80,000 (Rs 60,000 each). But the person (Acharya) asked me to deliver only one laptop to his man and he would come personally to collect the other two by paying a draft for the remaining Rs 90,000. That led me to believe that he was a genuine customer. But I still checked out the draft in detail and found no fault with it,” said Mukherjee.
“The next day, even my bank — Syndicate Bank — cleared it for encashment. The draft, however, was returned to me as forged from the service branch of the State Bank of India,” he added.
Later, Mukherjee found out that several other businessmen, two from Asansol and three more in Kolkata, had also been defrauded. In every case, the draft No. was the same. It appears that the racket has the technology and the tools to produce near perfect fake drafts.
“We have found similar complaints from some other parts of the state। So, we are looking into it,” said a senior CID officer.

Source: Times of India

Miss-Utilization of Legal System in India by female named Sushoma:-

Again, we’re publishing news about a female who had taken Indian legal system as granted and molested the value of Indian cultures. We’ve always raised our voices against such activities where women are taking undue advantage of laws and bringing their male counterparts to the court. Women got such right due to the Legal system of India. This law was to protect them from humiliations, but unfortunately this law is getting molested and utilized against men time to time and these female are taking undue advantage of this kind of one sided legal system in India. Even, police had to arrest the man first without any interrogation and send them to the court after few days vide act 496 if a women lodge a case against her husband in the local police station. This harassment is not limiting only surrounding the man; it entangles his family and others against whom the women reported in the PS.

Sushuma Howlader (26) fled with a man named Ranjan Srivastav after getting married for more than 2 years. Suroth Howlader (29) filed a charge of adultery in the local PS and applied for a divorce suit at Nadia district, Kata Gunj, Kalyani.

Police didn’t act on that case, but when she brought the case against her husband on molestation, police arrested Surath from Nadia. Sushuma was found residing with another man in Sukanta Nagar. She brought allegations under different sections against her husband under the section e.g. 498, 302, and 506. These allegations comprised of kidnapping, attempt to murder and inhumanly tortures on wives. These are all un-bail able cases.

Cat’s Eye Investigations took up this case as always and started their investigations and found evidences which proves that, she’s guilty and carried away with her extra marital affairs. She is also guilty with polygamous attitude, because when she was found by the investigators at Sukanta Nagar, she was not staying with Ranjan, with whom she fled her in-laws. The case is still under sub-judice and Suroth received temporary bails to fight the cases at Court to get the divorce without any compensation.

Kali Puja in Salt Lake City

Diwali, celebrated as the festival

Following close on the heels of the Durga Puja, the Bengali equivalent to Dussehra, this festival celebrates the dark and bloodthirsty goddess Kali, conqueror of time and consort of Shiva. Icons are painted, religious pujas or ceremonies are performed and there are pilgrimages to local holy sites devoted to Kali, of which there are 51 throughout Bengal.

Kali is one of the most perplexing and mysterious figures of the Hindu pantheon. She is the supreme warrior-goddess, the very manifestation of female rage, bloodthirst and frenzy. She is usually represented wearing a necklace of severed human heads, with weapons in her six arms and drinking the fresh blood of her enemies from a cup. Her skirt is woven from severed human hands and she is depicted as standing on the prostrate body of her consort Shiva, or on a corpse (possibly one of her enemies). This represents her dominance and conquest of all enemies including time and entropy: she is the only force who can tame the inexorable power of Shiva, the Lord of Destruction.

Kali is also worshipped by her devotees in her aspects of Dark Mother, the fiercely protective female who unleashes her rage only to clear away obstacles and protect her offspring. She has also been associated to human sacrifice, orgies, demonic worship and unpalatable quasi-legal blood rituals, hence her devotions are often conducted with the utmost austerity and solemnity, partly to deflate her horrific reputation.

Kali is certainly an interesting and deeply symbolic religious figure, worth investigating, though don't go overboard: we wouldn't recommend impaling your boss on a pike to drink his blood next time you hit the glass ceiling.

The webpage of Online Durga Puja coverage is already viewed by our millions of our readers. This page was built in such a way that our viewers could click and vote the best pujo of Salt lake City.

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Posted By Dibyendu Choudhury to Salt lake City