Cabinet approves land for railways, jobs to kin of deceased in rail mishap

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today believed to have expressed her displeasure on the alleged continued harassment of Bengali speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states, sources claimed.

Miss Banerjee during the cabinet meeting today expressed unhappiness at the reported harassment of the state’s migrant workers. Around 1.5 crore workers from other states are working in Bengal and no one ever faced any harassment. “Why about 22 lakh migrant workers from our state should face such harassment for merely speaking in Bengali,” she is believed to have said.

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The cabinet approved the decision to grant permission to the Titagarh Rail Systems to acquire 40 acres of land on 99-year lease for Rs 126 cr, sources claimed. It is believed that the capacity build-up would help scaling production of Vande Bharat coaches and Metro coaches at its Uttarpara facility in Hooghly.

The land parcel is spread across mouzas, Kotrung and Bhadrakali and is adjacent to Titagarh’s existing facility at Uttarpara.

The cabinet also decided to give jobs to the next of kin of those 13 people killed in 2013 train mishap at Balasore, Odisha. They would be engaged as home guard volunteers.

Meanwhile, the state fisheries minister, Biplab Roy Chowdhury was taken ill today at the cabinet meeting and was rushed to SSKM hospital.

In another development, the government has authorised the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) as the nodal agency for issuing old-age and widow pensions. The said pensions were earlier issued by the controller vagrancy of the social welfare department.