All-women booths for Salt Lake

Two-Day Training For 600 Officers Who Will Conduct Elections At 150 Booths

Suman Chakraborti TNN 

Kolkata: For the first time, all polling booths in Salt Lake, which falls under Barasat parliamentary constituency, will be run solely by women. More than 600 women will be posted as poll officers at 150 booths. 

    Guided by the election commission, the Bidhannagar subdivisional administration is organizing a training programme for women poll officers who will be on duty at these booths. The first phase of the programme was held on Sunday. “These women officers are mainly being trained on how to handle the entire polling process. This involves two issues — handling the normal procedure of election and how to deal with special situations,” said an official of the Bidhannagar subdivisional administration. Another round of training will be conducted in the first week of May. 

    Handbooks have been circulated among all women officers where all issues — crisis that may arise on the poll day and ways to tackle them — have been addressed. 

    According to sources, the administration chose Salt Lake booths for all-women deployment as they have proper infrastructure — including toilets and washrooms — for women officers. Special attention is being given to ensure foolproof security and other logistics — like pick-and-drop facility — so that these women officials do not face any trouble on duty. 

    “The response has been very good. These women officers are being encouraged by their families as well. It is a very positive step towards women empowerment,” said the official. The authorities have organized for Powerpoint presentations oninstructions that the officers should follow to handle the poll procedure and also giving live demonstrations on the functioning of the EVM. 

    Women government employees who attended the first phase of the training programme on Sunday said they were excited over the prospect of handling poll booths all by themselves. “The training was also very informative and helpful,” one of the officers said.

Women officers at Sunday’s training programme organized by the Bidhannagar administration

Acid attack by sacked help

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Kolkata: A 48-year-old homemaker in Salt Lake was seriously injured after her domestic help threw acid for sacking her. 
    Shampa Sinha, a resident of Shyamali Abason, has suffered injuries in her eyes. 
    Her husband, Gautam Sinha, is a government employee posted in Behrampore. Last month, Gautam’s mother had come to stay at the couple’s flat to spend a few days, for whom he had hired a fulltime nurse, Subhra Das, from a nursing centre from nearby Sukantanagar. 
    After a few days, however, Gautam discontinued her because he was not happy with her work. A new nurse was hired in her place. 
    According to Shampa’s complaint lodged with the police, Das came back to the flat at 11.30am on Friday, saying she had left behind some clothes, which she wanted to take back. She was carrying a bag with her. She entered the bathroom and suddenly came out wearing gloves and carrying a mug in her hand. She reportedly said she wanted to play Holi with Shampa and approached her. Suddenly, Das brought out a bottle of acid from her bag and sprinkled the acid on Shampa’s face. 
    As Shampa screamed out, Das tried to snatch her gold necklace. As the two scuffled, Das even tried to bite her. 
    Neighbours rushed in to help after hearing Shampa scream. Das was caught red-handed and the Bidhannagar South police station alerted. 
    Officers came to the spot and arrested Das. “The motive behind the act is yet to be clear. A probe is on,” said a senior officer.

Shampa Sinha was attacked by the domestic help whom she had sacked

Power bill goes up third time in a year

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Kolkata:For the third time in 12 months, households in the city will feel the pinch of a power tariff hike. Brace for a 20% rise in electricity bill as the unit cost that was at Rs 5.09 last December has shot up by Re 1 with hikes in March, May and now December. Since the hike is effective from April 2012, consumers will feel the burden of arrears, too. 
    

But power consumers in Salt Lake and the rest of the state won’t feel the bite of a 22% hike, thanks to a queer equation in which arrears and variable costs have been absorbed in the increase. 
    

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is averse to any kind of tariff hike that burdens the common man. So, although West Bengal State Electricity Development Corporation Ltd (WBSEDCL) raised the unit rate from Rs 4.96 to Rs 6.07 (with effect from May 2012), there will be minimal change in the actual bill. 
    

No such luck for Kolkatans. The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) on Monday allowed CESC an average tariff revision of 1%, taking the per-unit cost from Rs 6.03 to Rs 6.09. The hike has not spared ‘lifeline consumers’ (the base slab), who use less than 25 units amonth. They will have to pay 2 paisa per unit more (Rs 3.20 to Rs 3.22). In the other slabs, the hike will be from 2 to 4 paisa per unit. But with the revision effective from April 2012, arrears of eight months will be collected in eight instalments. That means bills from December to July will go up by 2% on average. No change in state power utility’s dues 
    

The tariff revision will increase CESC’s revenue from Rs 5,500 crore to Rs 5,555 crore, said an official. 
    

In the rest of Bengal, the basic tariff went up by Rs 1.11 as SERC allowed the utility to convert the variable charges and arrears that it has been collecting since May 2011 into actual tariff cost. Only the monthly variable cost adjustment that had not been done for eight months (April 2011 to November 2011) will be added to the bill along with the eight months this year (April to November). Since the payment has to be made in 48 installments, consumers are unlikely to feel the pinch, say WBSEDCL officials. 
    

Price of electricity consumed in domestic households had shot up from Rs 4.96 to Rs 5.38 in December 2011. In February, it was further hiked to Rs 5.76 and then to Rs 6.07 in May 2012. “Since the overall bill value does not go up, our revenue will remain Rs 10,000 crore and there will be no change in dues that stand at Rs 21,000 crore,” a WBSEDCL official said.

"A father's desperate call" - An Open Letter

ClickSaltlake.info  received a distress call from a father and wants to help. We are not disclosing the name of the person who wrote this mail to us for security reason. 

Respected Sir ,

I am very sorry to say that the college NIH (National Institute of Homeopathy), Salt Lake, Kolkata , which is under Government is promoting heavy ragging to the new students. I beg your pardon but this year my children get admitted and now facing heavy tremendous ragging by the seniors. It is also surprising that the college authorities also promoting this. Inside the college campus, the professors leave classes and handed over the the senior students and they started ragging heavily. All the new students are now facing life and death problem. They are in such a panic that they request us not to discuss anything with anyone. Because as soon as the college authorities know about ragging they first inform these stupid senior students and the new students are heavily insulted. Kindly help sir. We are very common people and if anything can be done by you We will be obliged. Thanking you in advance. 

Please do not disclose our identity or my child have to face anything bad. THOUGH THIS IS NOTHING RELATED WITH YOUR DEPTT BUT I AM TRYING TO SEND IT EVERYWHERE TO SAVE MY CHILD

Lakhs stolen in Salt Lake burglary

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Kolkata:Burglars broke into a house at Salt Lake’s FD Block and fled with cash and jewellery worth several lakhs. The Bidhannagar North police have started a probe. 

The complaint lodged by businessman Shambhu Kedia, who lives in a three-storied building at FD Block, says that on Wednesday morning he found one of the almirahs on the second floor broken open and about 300gm gold jewellery and Rs 1 lakh in cash missing. 

Police suspect that the burglars climbed up the water pipes to the second floor. The window grilles of the room next to the pipes were broken open. The family was present in the house as the burglars broke into it and operated silently. 

The family said they had employed a domestic help from Bihar who left the job a few days back. The police are trying to track him. Incidentally, the police had last year arrested an inter-state gang that had come from Bihar. The gang had been involved in a daring robbery in CF Block.

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.

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.