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.

Dengue makes deadly comeback

Salt Lake Worst Hit But Civic Body Yet To Take Action, Docs Blame Uncertain Monsoon For Outbreak

Sumati Yengkhom TNN 

Kolkata: Dengue is swarming the city this season. Doctors agree that it may be the worst outbreak since 2005. 
    The actual intensity is still being assessed, but the indications are grim. Hospitals on the fringes have admitted scores of dengue patients in the last four weeks but the actual number of victims is many times more because only about 20% cases need hospitalization. 
    Salt Lake has taken the worst hit, so far. If the number of patients being treated at hospitals in the township and along EM Bypass is any indication, it 
is high time for the civic body to press the panic button. 
    “Forty-six patients have tested positive for dengue in the laboratory attached to our hospital alone in the past four weeks,” said a source at aSalt Lake hospital. Dr Soumitra Dutta, principal consultant (paediatrician) at Columbia Asia Hospitals, said at least 15 children affected with dengue were admitted to the hospital in last week alone. 
    The sporadic rain pattern this monsoon, accompanied by high humidity, has triggered the comeback of dengue, say dengue. 
    The advice from doctors is that if you have high fever with severe headache and body pain, don’t ignore it as just another viral fever. It could well be dengue and you should go for a blood test. 
    Take the case of Ranjeeta Chakrabory. The young home maker from BS block had high fever and body pain for a few days and it was a while before she went to a doctor. A blood test confirmed dengue and she was immediately hospitalized. After five days of treatment, she was discharged on Monday. 
    “Apart from her, I know of at least five persons in mySalt Lake neighbourhood who have tested positive for dengue in the past few weeks. The muncipality seems to be sleeping over this menace. We have barely come across any mosquito- controlling measures. I have not seen any fogging in the locality in the last two years,” said Ranjeeta’s husband Shantanu Chakraborty. 
    Accumulation of stagnant water, high humidity, uncleared bushes, piling up of garbage and absence of mosquito management exercises have aggravated the situation, said sources. 
    “I come across at least one dengue patient every day, having treated about 10 patients per day in the past 10 days in the hospital. If anyone is suffering from fever as high as 103/104 degrees Fahrenheit, along with headache, body pain, dehydration and nausea, it’s best to consult a doctor right away,” said consultant physician (internal medicine) Dr Subhasis Ganguly. 
    Fever triggered by the dengue virus does not respond to the normal dosage of paracetamol, say doctors. If left untreated, the viral attack could lead to secondary infections affecting organs like the liver, kidney and the heart. 
    “After the dengue outbreak in 2005, there have been sporadic cases every year. But this year it seems to be higher, particularly in Salt Lake and its vicinity, where I have treated about 15 patients in last three weeks. But the severity of the attack is less than the one in 2005,” said paediatrician Dr Subrata Chakraborty. 
    “But there is no reason to panic. We have treated about 29 dengue patients in our hospital so far this year. The positive note is that diagnosis through the blood test can be done in two hours and hence the treatment can be started early,” said Dr Rupali Basu, CEO, Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals. 
    Dr Basabbijay Sarkar, consultant physician of Fortis Hospital, has seen about 14 patients in his Salt Lake clinic in the past month apart from treating an equal number of patients in the hospital. “If we count Day 1 as the onset of dengue, all complications will appear in the next seven to eight days. There is a tendency for the blood platelet to go down in the patient. Timely treatment is very important,” said Dr Sarkar. 
    Even as health officials tried to project the situation as not alarming, doctors practising in and around the township and hospitals are flooded with dengue patients. Sampurnaa Saha (11), a Class-V student from GC block in Salt Lake, was admitted to Columbia Asia on Wednesday night. “Since there weren’t enough beds, my daughter was in the emergency ward all of Wednesday night. She got a bed only on Thursday,” said the girl’s father Sujay Saha. 
    “Out of 10 children affected with dengue, only about two need hospitalization, the rest are advised treatment at home. I practise mainly inSalt Lake and my chamber is flooded with dengue suspects, mostly children. I have admitted at least 15 children in the past one week. Therefore, one can well imagine the magnitude of the dengue menace,” said Dr Dutta of Columbia Asia. 
    Health department spokesperson Dr Asit Biswas said that the they are monitoring the situation closely. “Cases of dengue are being reported from different localities, including Salt Lake. We will soon meet the hospitals and representatives of Bidhanagar municipality,” said Biswas.

Govt mulls legal stamp on Salt Lake plot sale

Suman Chakraborti TNN 

Sale of leasehold residential property in Salt Lake is going to be legalized soon. 

    The Mamata Banerjee government plans to allow transfer of lease in the township for a fee. Most of the land in Salt Lake belongs to the urban development department and the government will fix the fee. 

    The state Cabinet meeting is likely to discuss the proposal on Tuesday. Salt Lake residents had been waiting for this for a long time. 

    If things go according to plan, plot-holders in Salt Lake can legally monetize their property by paying the government stamp duty, registration fees or some other levy. 

    “Leasehold land won’t turn into freehold land. We are mulling allowing transfer of lease but only with the permission of the government,” urban development minister Firhad Hakim said. 

    The government will continue to enjoy ownership rights and also earn revenue that it had missed out on earlier when property changed hands in Salt Lake under cover. 

    The Bidhannagar Municipality could never stop the under hand deals unless the original lessee walked up to register a formal complaint. 

    The proposal was doing the rounds since the days of the Left Front government but was allowed only for commercial properties. A case is pending in the court over the change of a commercial property into a residential highrise in HB block.Govt to fix lease fee per cottah 

    Once the proposal to legalise the sale of residential plots in Salt Lake gets through in the state Cabinet on Tuesday, the government will evaluate the plots in the township and fix a price for the transfer of lease per cottah. 

    Illegal sale of plots in Salt Lake caught the notice of the Mamata Banerjee government soon after the Trinamool Congress came to power in May, 2011. The government has been trying to find a way out since then. 

    Plots in Salt Lake were leased for a 999-year tenure in the 1970s to enable middleclass people to settle in the township on the condition that the leaseholders cannot transfer their plots. 

    According to the present rules, residential plots cannot be sold or transferred as the plot holders are actually lease holders and not owners. But later, some genuine problems cropped up. 

    The family increased at least by two-fold within a span of 50 years and the lessee could not do justice to all his/her children, because leasehold property can’t be partitioned and distributed among the heirs. 

    This prompted some to sell out the property illegally for a huge amount of money. According to estimates, out of the 12,000 plots in the township, almost 35% of the plots have been transferred or sold illegally. Plots measuring a cottah, which were originally leased out for about Rs 5,000, have been sold illegally for lakhs, say sources. Many such transfers are in the process with the help of touts and many houses have been illegally sold more than once.

Salt Lake Rabindra Bhavan plot ready Suman Chakraborti TNN  Kolkata: Salt Lake will get its own Rabindra Bhavan very soon. Bidhannagar Municipality will start building the structure this year on a 36-cottah plot cleared by the state government. The building, to be located at Salt Lake’s FE Block adjoining Central Park, will be the municipality’s tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on his 150th birth anniversary.      Bidhannagar Municipality chairperson Krishna Chakraborty said the plot has been finalized and the civic authorities will start work very soon. “We will kick off the project very soon,” she said. The municipality plans to foot the estimated Rs 10 lakh project cost from the revenue it earned from the Bidhannagar Fair it organized at Salt Lake’s Central Park last winter.      The building will be either a three- or four-storied structure with a statue of Tagore in front. Besides an auditorium for cultural programmes, it will have an exhibition room, art galleries and a library to showcase and display the works of the bard. The Bhavan will also have rooms for use by students and scholars researching Tagore, along with a cafeteria. The civic body will appoint architects to prepare a building plan.      The project had been on the anvil for quite some time. Residents ofSalt Lake had, for long, been demanding a centre on Rabindranath Tagore to facilitate research on the bard. Residents had also suggested that the centre have a stage for performing Tagore’s plays and musical repertoires.      Following the demand, the previous Left-run municipality had come up with a plan to set up a Rabindra Bhavan and had asked the urban development department for a plot. The civic authorities had got a triangular plot, but the then civic engineers had said that it was not suitable for construction of the Bhavan. The project got delayed after civic authorities requested the government to earmark another plot.      It was only after Trinamool Congress took over the reins of Bidhannagar Municipality and Mamata Banerjee came to power that an initiative was taken to revive the project.

Salt Lake tax to be levied after May 13

Suman Chakraborti TNN 

Kolkata: Residents of Salt Lake had better brace to pay property tax right after the assembly election results are declared on May 13. The Trinamool-run Bidhannagar Municipality is waiting for declaration of the election results before it starts sending tax bills to residents of the township. 

Neither municipality chairperson Anita Mondal nor vice-chairman and Trinamool candidate from Rajarhat-New Town assembly constituency, Sabyasachi Dutta, would speak on the issue now, preferring to reserve their comments till May 13. 

The civic authorities had, earlier, said they had come up with a new property tax structure in accordance with the Bengal Municipal Act, 1977. It had also been decided earlier to collect property tax with effect from April 1, 2010. The Trinamool-led civic board is expecting the party to form the next state government, which would make it easier for them to get the tax structure approved. 

Trinamool sources said the civic authorities will start sending tax bills once party chief Mamata Banerjee approves the tax structure after the election results are declared. Civic authorities plan to discuss the issue with Bidhannagar Welfare Association and other stake holders before the new structure is finally announced. 
Under this tax structure, owners of residential houses will receive quarterly tax bills ranging from Rs 70 to Rs 120. If the civic body collects taxes based on the new structure, it will earn about Rs 1 crore each quarter. 

Civic officials, however, said they would lose about Rs 6 crore a year if they collected taxes following this structure, which prevailed in 1977. But, at least, residents would be happy to pay a lower tax, they said. The civic authorities reduced their spending earlier by not using cars and mobile phones they are entitled to. “We have been trying to earn revenue from sources like amusement tax and parking fees,” said an official. 

The property tax dispute in Salt Lake has been raging since May 2007 when the earlier tax structure framed by the previous Left Front-led civic board was scrapped by the Supreme Court following complaints from the Bidhannagar Welfare Association. Since then, tax collection has been stopped in Salt Lake.

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