With a view to minimising road accidents, the North Dinajpur district police have decided to restrict the speed of vehicles at Islampur and Raiganj towns. Police officers said they will keep an eye on speeding vehicles from next Friday. A total of 32 CCTV cameras will soon be set up at different places near the roads in Raiganj and Islampur in this regard.

The on-duty traffic policemen, after checking the speeding vehicles on their monitors will take action against them, it is learnt. According to the ‘speed restriction chart’ issued by the district police, both four wheelers and motorcycles are not allowed to run above 30 km/ hour on a 2-km stretch of road from Jelkhana Mor to the NBSTC bus terminus in Raiganj town.

The same speed limit has also been set for the stretch from Kasba to BidhanNagar More, 3-km, and from Mohanbati to Siliguri More, around 1-km. The same restrictions apply in Islampur town too. “If a vehicle enters Raiganj town from Hemtabad and Bangalbari through the Raiganj-Balurghat state highway, it is not allowed to cross the speed of 30 km per hour,” police said.

“All buses, trekkers, light vehicles, auto rickshaws and motorcycles from next Friday will have to maintain a maximum speed limit of 30 km when they enter Raiganj and Islampur towns,” a police officer said. Superintendent of Police, North Dinajpur, Shyam Singh said, “We have already restricted the speed on the roads in both Islampur and Raiganj, whilein order to take control of the total system, we have decided to set up 32 CCTV cameras soon. If vehicles are found flouting the rule, the driver will be fined, while also taking other legal action.”

The Darjeeling Municipality today got a new chairperson, over three months after the then chairman, DK Pradhan was arrested and the vice chairman, Ram Jan Golay, tendered his resignation. Pratibha Rai was today elected the civic body chief by 30 of the 32 ward councilors, while she was sworn in by Darjeeling Sub-Divisional Officer Avik Chatterjee.

“I thank the Morcha leadership for this post, while this proves that  they believe in women empowerment as they have given important posts to women, like the primary education board of the GTA being given to Tshering Dahal, and the trade union of the party given to Karuna Gurung. I will treat all the issues as primary, while also focusing on garbage disposal. I have also nominated Sagar Tamang as the new vice chairman, who also took oath of office today,” Ms Rai said.

According to her, Mr Golay’s resignation had been accepted “recently.” It may be mentioned here that on 10 January this year, Mr Pradhan was removed as the chairman in a meeting called by Mr Golay. A total of 28 ward councilors had removed Mr Pradhan then, while the Binoy Tamang camp of the Morcha had then said that Mr Golay’s resignation had not been accepted.

Apart from Mr Pradhan, who is still in custody, councilor of ward-1, Nira Sharma, was not present in today’s meeting, with the latter’s post remaining disputed as she allegedly holds a Nepali citizenship too. Asked what would happen to Ward-10 from where Mr Pradhan had had contested, Ms Rai said,

“He is still in the correctional home and we will look after that ward until he comes out.” According to her, the posts for the different departments in the municipality would be fixed in two to three days’ time. The name of Ms Rai as chairperson and Mr Tamang as vice-chairman had been announced by the Binoy Tamang camp of the Morcha on 3 January.

After the swearing-in ceremony today, a rally escorted the new chiefs around town, while their supporters burst firecrackers and oirganised a a small public meeting at Chowk Baazar here.

A tripartite meeting on wage revision with interim relief, minimum wages and fixation of ration value for tea workers has been rescheduled. While the meeting was scheduled to be held at Uttarkanya here on 17 January, it will now be held on 19 January, officials have said.

State labour minister Moloy Ghatak is scheduled to attend the meeting after inaugurating a fair where he will distribute social schemes for working classes at Dagapur in Siliguri on 19 January, official said. Though officials of the state labour department are also set to discuss the three points, a proposal for interim relief will especially be the main agenda for discussions, it is learnt.

The state labour department has proposed that planters increase Rs 17.50 as interim relief for tea workers with effect from 1 January 2018. According to a senior state labour official, the workers’ claim for the traditional rationing system is legitimate.

The interim relief of Rs 17.50 was proposed for workers with effect from 1 January 2018 before implementation of the minimum wages, with effect from 1 April 2017. The interim relief will be adjusted if the minimum wages is executed in the future. The Rs 17.50 hike was proposed in the present Rs 132.50 a day that is given to the workers, and the same will hike the daily wage to Rs 150.

The value was ascertained as per the last tripartite agreement for wages signed for three years. In the last tripartite agreement, workers got an increment of Rs 17.50 for the first year. A section of the trade unions, especially belonging to the Trinamul Congress, reportedly want to accept the proposal, though the planters have sought time to give their final verdict.

On the other hand, another section of trade unions under the Joint Forum, has already announced that they would not accept the interim relief proposal and go on the warpath if the outcome of the meeting is not satisfactory.

They have decided to press both the planters and the state labour department on implementing the minimum wages and the fixation of money value of food grains the workers used to get from the garden management earlier. The ration was stopped after implementation of the National Food Security Act in tea plantations of north Bengal.

The 11th convocation and valedictory of S. Xavier’s College was held today at 11 a.m. in the college ground which witnessed distribution of medals to students while teachers who have completed their PhD were honoured. Several renowned personalities graced the occasion.

Lt General Abhay Krishna, General Officer Commander- in-Chief (GOC-in- C), Eastern Command of the Indian Army, was the chief guest while Rev. Fr Raphael Hyde S J, Provincial of the Calcutta Jesuit Province, presided over the ceremony. On behalf of the Senate of the University of Calcutta, Prof Dipak Kumar Kar, pro vice-chancellor for academic affairs, University of Calcutta, conferred the degrees on the students.

“We have imbibed the Xaverian spirit of commitment to work and society, a sense of commodity and feeling of social responsibility which has prepared you to serve the country and the world to make it a better place to live in,” said Prof. Kar. A total number of 2168 students were awarded their degrees.

Rev. Dr John Felix Raj SJ, vice-chancellor of St Xavier’s University, Kolkata, and the immediate former principal, received the ‘Nihil Ultra Award’, the highest honour conferred by the college. The Annual Report of College was presented by the principal Rev. Dr Dominic Savio SJ. On 18 January, the prize distribution ceremony of the 11th convocation of the college will take place in Fr Depelchin Auditorium.

Leo, a Labrador, is all set to walk during the inaugural rally for the 29th Malda Book Fair here tomorrow like she has beendoing in the past two years. The crowd that she managed to pull the previous years is eager to see her again the day when the book fair kicks off.

She has been trained for a long period of time now to walk through the English Bazaar town without any chain, while holding a banner on her mouth bearing quotes on book-reading. According to her master and trainer, Ajay Kumar Kundu, who is a resident of Kalitala under the English Bazaar police station, the idea to let her walk with a message to read books in her mouth came to his mind two years ago and he subsequently approached the convener of the book fair and a councillor of the English Bazaar Municipality, Amlan Bhaduri, who agreed at once.

“I brought Leo in 2009 from Kolkata and since then she has stayed with me. She is such a homely and calm dog that the stray ones also cooperate with her whenever she is out in the streets. One of the memorable incidents about Leo is that she fed her breast milk to the newborns of another dog living nearby when she was also pregnant,” Mr Kundu said.

Meanwhile, the committee of the fair has brought into place some new measures for the people for better convenience, like a map of the fair premises to be displayed on the entrance of the gate and a picture gallery comprising pictures of the old days of the fair.

However, the enthusiasm among people, especially the children, is for Leo, who has her own fan following now. Rishita Bhattacharya, a student, said, “Leo is so cute and we always expect her in the rally.”

All events of the Red Panda Winter Carnival in the state and the Jorethang Maaghey Mela  (fair) were suspended for a day today as Sikkim mourned the passing away of its former governor, TV Rajeswar. Rajeswar took over charge as the governor of Sikkim in November 1985 and held the post till March 1989.

Due to his earlier stint in Sikkim as Assistant Director, Intelligence Bureau (IB), he had close relations with the state and the people here, officials have said. “As one of the most popular governors of the state, he had a firm belief in establishing the rule of law all over the state by creating an atmosphere free of injustice, crime and fear.

His charismatic and endearing personality was truly admired by the Sikkimese people, state officials have said. Rajeswar was born on 28 August 1926 in Salem, Tamil Nadu, and after completing his MA in Economics from Presidency College, University of Madras, he joined the Indian Police Service in 1949.

Initially, he was posted to the erstwhile Hyderabad state and after reorganization of states, he was allotted Andhra Pradesh. He served as Superintendent of Police in the districts of Nizamabad, Raichur and Guntur, and as Deputy Commissioner of Police in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. In 1962, he joined the Intelligence Bureau as Assistant Director.

After serving in Sikkim and Bhutan from 1963 to 1967, he was posted as Deputy Director and Joint Director in the IB headquarters. In February 1980, he was promoted as the Director, IB, and held the post till August 1983, after which he took over as the Lieutenant Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, the first time an IPS officer was appointed to a constitutional post.

He later served as the Governor  of Sikkim, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. After 60 years in civil service, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour, in 2012. One of the biggest tourism festivals in the state, the Red Panda carnival kicked off in Gangtok on 8 January, while it is scheduled to end on 18 January.

On the other hand, Chief Minister Pawan Chamling inaugurated the three-day Maaghey Mela in Jorethang in South Sikkim on Sunday last. “While all official events were cancelled during the day, events that were scheduled for the evening were held as planned as it was the final day of the fair,” organisers of the Jorethang fair said.

Four boys of class 11 at the Alipurduar Railway High School near Alipurduar Junction have claimed that they have invented a system that can prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks and railway accidents at unmanned railway gates. The boys have designed a project on the system using magnetic power.

The Alipurduar Railway High School displayed the project in a two-day science fair which started yesterday at the Alipurduar Indoor Stadium in the town, which is organised by the Alipurduar district Sports and Youth Welfare Department. As per the model, magnets are installed under railway tracks in the elephant corridor in the Dooars.

The magnets are connected with censors in the railway engines. As soon as elephants start crossing the railway tracks, the magnet will be pressed which will notify the train driver of the movement of elephants on the tracks.

A 12-day-old baby of a resident of Jhankar More in Siliguri was stolen today. Soma Sarkar, the mother of the baby, had been at the Out Patient Department (OPD) of the Siliguri District Hospital for her child’s regular check-up when a woman, a stranger, lured her on the pretext of buying her food and took her to an eatery outside the hospital.

Mrs Sarkar’s 15-year-old sister-in-law, Saraswati Sarkar, had been accompanying her to the hospital, while it was she who had been carrying the baby. As the trio ate, the woman snatched the baby from Saraswati’s lap and fled, it is alleged. While police said they are trying to trace the woman, hospital authorities said the incident was not related to the hospital, but that they had been examining the CCTV footage.

As news of the incident spread like wildfire, many expressed concerns over the movement of child lifters in the hospital there. Hospital Superintendent Dr Amitava Mondal said the hospital has no connection with the case. “However, we are examining the CCTV footage and are helping with the investigations,” he said.

Mrs Sarkar’s relatives later filed a police complaint, it is learnt. Commissioner of the Siliguri Metropolitan Police, Sunil Kumar Choudhary, said police are investigating the matter.

After candidates with marks as low as 15 were allowed to sit for the MPhil interview of the Bengali department of Calcutta University (CU), senior officials of the university asked the concerned department to reconduct the entrance examination.

The Bengali department, in defiance of the existing rule which states that candidates who score above 60 per cent are eligible to appear for the MPhil interview, had allowed undeserving students. A few days ago, the Bengali department was in the news for calling back answer scripts from external examiners which led to a row.

It was only after the intervention of the state education minister that the external examiners were allowed to check the answer scripts. In the entrance test held  on 26 December last year, only about five students out of a total of 148 received 60 per cent marks and therefore eligible for the interview.

The authorities, however, decided to lower the marks criterion and allow students who received 15 and above to sit for the interview, sources said. A merit list of 46 students we re published, of which 41 are non-eligible, sources said. As most of these examinees have completed their masters from the Bengali department of CU, questions are being raised as to why they could not crack the entrance examination and score 60 per cent. The department has a capacity of 20 seats in the MPhil section.

The matter, however, reached the vice-chancellor (V-C) and after the intervention of pro V-C (academic) professor Dipak Kar, the department decided to allow only the five eligible candidates besides other NET qualified candidates to sit for the interview. The department will now have to reconduct the entrance test for the rest of the candidates. Prof. Kar remained unavailable for comment

Kalahandi district collector Anjan Kumar Manik said the district is on the road of green revolution and after completion of the lift irrigation canal of major projects like Indravati and Ret more areas
will be irrigated. Kalahandi is the lead district in paddy, cotton and pulses production, he said while felicitating 12 farmers including three women farmers for quality production of paddy and other crops.

The felicitation was done as part of the Kalahandi Utsav “ Ghumura” celebrations here yesterday. The festival which entered its second day drew huge crowds at the Lalbahadur Sastri stadium to witness cultural programmes and the exhibition stalls that have been set up.The stadium reverberated with folk dances and music from different parts of the country.

A Kabi samilani was where 80 poets from different parts of the district took part . A collection of these poems “ Nisan” and short story collection “ Penthae Ashoka Kalika” by short story writer Debahuti was released. A Fine Art exhibition,added to the attraction.

The main attraction of the ongoing festival , apart from the cultural programmes, is the elaborately arranged Krusi exhibition, Crafts mela and the  products of Self Help groups.

Venting strong discontentment over the delay in establishment of the proposed satellite centre of AIIMS at Balasore, the Congress today held a protest meeting here. Former union minister Srikant Jena lambasted the government at the centre alleging the much hyped dream project , a world class health care facilities in north India has been virtually shelved by the Modi government.

He said the erstwhile UPA government had drawn up a road map for health care and had announced the project at Balasore. But subsequently, the NDA government has slept over the matter.

Former MLA Jayanarayan Mohanty, Chitta Sarangi, Satyanaryan Mohanty ,Akshay Mallik, Sanjib Giri,Bikram Panda, Bidhan Jena , Benumadhab Panda , Padmalochan Lenka ,Satyasiba Das, Ranjan Baug, Sarat Raj and Urmila Majhi were present in the meeting .

BJP state president Dilip Ghosh today said that  his party will actively resist against every single attack by the Trinamul Congress on its supporters. He was reacting to the violence in Nadia, in which some Trinamul supporters allegedly attacked some Bharatiya Janata Yuba Morcha (BJYM) supporters with bamboo sticks during the motorbike rally while rally participants were heading towards Plassey from Nadia.

Tension broke out in the locality over this issue. Mr Ghosh said that Trinamul Congress also unnecessary created a controversy that outsiders came to join the BJYM rally as several motorbikes joined the rally containing the number plates of the other states, including Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. “All motorbikes have valid documents, police may verify it. There is no ban on the motorcycles from outside states. All necessary documents of the outside state motorbikes were deposited to the motor vehicle department of West Bengal,” he said.

Trinamul secretary general Partha Chatterjee yesterday said that BJP brought those bikes to lure the voters for presenting them as gifts before bypolls at Noapara Assembly constituency and Uluberia Parliament constituency. He also said that TMC is strictly monitoring the activities of the bikers. Mr Ghosh, however, said that BJYM will complete the rally peacefully. “These bikes were brought from the Uttar Pradesh. So if something goes wrong, police will see it. The TMC had tried all sorts of tricks to stop us from conducting this rally. But we are determined to finish this rally.

They won’t be able to stop us,” he said. BJP’s youth wing yesterday resumed its motorcycle rally from Kolkata, two days after it was stopped due to clashes with TMC activists.West Bengal BJP chief, the party’s national secretary, Rahul Sinha, leader Mukul Roy flagged off the ‘Sankalpa Pratirodh Yatra’ rally from Swami Vivekananda’s ancestral house in north Kolkata.

Mr Roy yesterday alleged that the way the rallyists was attacked by TMC activists on Friday in the city shows that “democracy doesn’t exist in Bengal’. He also said that the peaceful conclusion of this rally will be BJP’s mark of protest against the misrule of the TMC. The rally will end in Coochbehar.

Meanwhile, Gariahat police station today received the nod from Alipore court to proceed with the investigation of charges of intimidation against the state BJP president. The BJP leader had allegedly made intimidatory statements after Pratirodh Sankalp Abhijan taken out by the youth wing of the party ran into trouble.Complaints against him were made at both Hare Street and Gariahat police stations.

Minister Women and Child Development, Prafulla Samal, distributed 100 laptops to students with blindness pursuing higher education and self employment tool kits to 21 skilled youths with disability at a function organised by the National Career Service Centre for Differently Abled here today.

Speaking at the function, Mr Samal said the government is trying to the best of its ability for comprehensive development of PWDs. He added that the fund allocation of Rs. 50 lakhs was enhanced to Rs. 2 crore per annum from this year onwards to provide free laptops to 250 such beneficiaries.Mr Niten Chandra, principal secretary, department of SSEPD, informed that Paradip Port Trust provided Rs. 16,50,000 in the current financial year for self-employment tool kits to skilled PWDs, which is quite encouraging initiative under CSR.

He directed the corporate world to utilise at least 5% fund under CSR for the empowerment of PWDs. Ms. Mansi Nimbhal, IAS, Director, department of SSEPD, called upon the students to utilise the given assistance appropriately  to become independent and contribute meaningfully in development of the country.

She informed that in joint collaboration with the NCSCDA, Bhubaneswar pre-recruitment coaching for PWDs has started preparing for competitive examinations with an investment of Rs 50 lakhs having sitting capacity of 80 PWDs have been established at the NCSCDA. Ram Kishor Sharma, assistant Director (Employment), NCSCDA, Bhubaneswar informed that about 360 PWDs have been provided free residential skill development training in 2017-18 sponsored by (OSDA), organised by the NCSCDA and SSEPD.

Demand for a foot over-bridge  in front of the Hanuman Vatika here is increasing day by day. Concerned citizens feel that the administration should look into the issue with immediate effect in order to avoid
any major tragedy. Hanuman Vatika is one of the major tourist as well as religious attraction for the city.

It is situated barely fifty meters away where the Ring Road and the busy Civil Township one way bypass road meet. The bypass road is used by heavy vehicles entering or exiting Rourkela, which include the heavily loaded trucks for Rourkela Steel Plant(RSP). During any such mentioned days commuting becomes extremely difficult as vehicles as both two and four wheelers, are parked on both sides of the oneway.“This makes the road very vulnerable and accident-prone,” said residents of the town. In fact, RSP was facing the same problem in front of the park.

Railings could not solve the problem. Finally, a few years back it erected a foot overbridge, all iron, there and today it is a favourite photography spot and visitors are using it.When this was brought to the notice of Collector Sundergarh Vineet Bhardwaj he said, “We are planning such bridges at different places in Rourkela and let us see whether that is feasible there or not.”

By feasibility he wanted to say whether the public would use it or not. He said, “Despite the overbridge if the public continue to jump over the railing instead of using it then the whole purpose fails.” However, when he was told that the height of the railings could be raised considerably for someone to climb with other deterrents the collector promised that he would order for a survey first then do the needful.

Odisha Governor Dr S C Jamir stressed on the need to conserve petroleum products as it reduces imports but also helps protect environment. He was speaking at the inauguration of ‘SAKSHAM’, the annual event organised jointly by Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) and oil industry with sole purpose of bringing awarenes among the people on need of oil & gas conservation.

Dr Jamir noted that India is not self reliant in petroleum products and imports heavily. He felt that oil industries along with PCRA should organise such programs in a bigger way to create awareness among all sections of people about the importance of oil and gas conservation.State Level Co-ordinator, Pritish Bharat, Chief General Manager, IOCL, elaborated on the activities planned to create awareness about oil and gas conservation in the state.
Over the next month, oil industries, jointly with Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), will conduct training programs for drivers on better driving habits to save fuel. Workshops will be conducted
for house wives on better cooking habits to save LPG. Across the state, competitions will be organised in schools and colleges to emphasise upon the importance of conservation.

Mass awareness programs will be conducted in agriculture & industrial sectors, too. Sanjay Pathak, Head,GAIL, Odisha, D. Palit, State Head (Retail), BPCL, D. K. Behura, Chief regional manager, HPCL. Cinestars Sabyasachi Mishra and Archita Sahu were the special guests at the inaugural function.Dr. S C Jamir flagged off the walkathon of school children carrying placards of Oil & Gas Conservation.

Social problems can be solved through business and businesses have a responsibility to solve social problems’ observed speakers at a workshop on social entrepreneurship organised by the World Trade Centre (WTC) Bhubaneswar in association with several other organisations here yesterday.

The workshop was attended by 100 students from 10 varsities. It aimed at creating socially minded business  leaders. Ms. Nimeshika Natarajan, manager of WTC Bhubaneswar highlighted the urgency for such training and why the need is to have collaborative approaches to learning about the experience of social entrepreneurs. Social activist Mr Jagadananda spoke about several social entrepreneurs who took up the courage and risk to start something that has made a great social contribution and at the same time added value to the local and national economy.

He offered support to new social entrepreneurs and promised to guide and mentor them. Speaking at the workshop, A.K. Sharda, Managing Director, Grow Green Consortium Pvt. Ltd (GGCPL) shared how tribal communities have started planting trees and how they have started earning a livelihood from it. Narasingha Panigrahi, Director, Siddha Development Research and Consultancy (SDRC)made a presentation to demonstrate that waste management provides a great opportunity for social entrepreneurs.

C.R. Pattanayak, Coordinator, Eastern Region, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI), Prof Kaushal Borisagar of Sri Sri University also addressed the gathering.The workshop was organised in partnership with Odisha State Planning Board, Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI), Sri Sri University and Kalinga Kusum Foundation (KKF). Centre for Youth & Social Development (CYSD, (IQMES),(SDRC) and (GGCPL) were knowledge partners.

Students of National Law University Odisha (NLUO), Utkal University, Sri Sri University, College for IT and Management Education (CIME), Biju Patnaik Institute of Technology and Management (BITM) and Siksha O Anusandhan (SOA) University attended the training workshop.

Santhal tribals were seen flocking to Baruni Ghat in the Damodar River to immers the bones of their ancestors as part of the annual ritual called ‘Jilling Dahar’ . The marching tribals chanted Hirla Marangburu Hirla Marangburu(We are under you) to appease their deity and ancestors.

About 20,000 Santhals from remote Mayurbhanj villages and far beyond from the neighbouring Singhbhum district in Jharkhand and from West Bengal gathered for the first day of the ritual today. The district police had made security arrangements at Balasore Golei, Madhuban, Station Bazaar and Baruni Ghat and a few junctions of Baripada town and the adjoining places of River Budha Balanga, Jarali and Sarali to maintain order.

Especially the Santhal communities here observed the ritual a day after Makar Sankranti, gathering at Baruni Ghat or Triveni Ghat at the union of rivers Budhabalanga, Sarali and Jarali in the town. “For us, the confluence of Budhabalanga, Sarali and Jarali at Baruni Ghat is considered the Holi Damodar where we perform Jilling Dahar,” said Gurva Soren, a social activist and secretary of the Society for Research and Development of Tribal Cultures (SRDTC).

“The Ghat gained prominence during the rule of Pratap Chandra Bhanj Deo, the last king of the Bhanja dynasty in the erstwhile princely state of Mayurbhanj,” Soren added. Before that, the Santhals used to trek all the way to Thakurbadi, a place near Gopiballavpur in West Bengal for the ritual, the SRDTC secretary said.

The people treat the bones with something called handia rasi, and wrap them with a piece of yellow cloth. Janbaha (immersion of bones) over, they set about performing what is akin to pindo daan, a ritual which Hindus perform to feed their forefathers. The offerings placed on three Saal leaves include mud, toothpicks, rice and sweetmeats.