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.

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.

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.