Mamata’s answer to Modi model

Tax waiver for houses in Didi’s colours
Calcutta :

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) today decided to waive a year’s property taxes for residential buildings painted in blue and white, probably making Lionel Messi and Mamata Banerjee happy but not those doing the math and visualising the skyline.

The CMC mayoral council’s decision to promote the favourite colours of the chief minister needs to be ratified by the state government and an amendment has to be passed in the Assembly before the waiver can come into force.

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee said the decision was taken to bring “uniformity in the colour of buildings in Calcutta” but added that it would not be binding on house owners. “It will make Calcutta beautiful,” said Chatterjee.

Commercial buildings will not be granted the waiver.

Sources in the civic body said that the waiver would be granted only if an entire building is painted in blue and white and not a portion of it. The civic body is calling it a tax incentive.

“If there is a 10-storey building, the property tax on all the flats will be waived. But the entire exterior of the building must be painted in blue and white,” said an official.

Former mayor and CPM leader Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said the law did not allow the CMC to take such a decision.

A civic official conceded: “The CMC Act has no provision to waive the property tax. It will be sent to the state government that will then bring in the Assembly an amendment to the CMC Act.”

If there is no rethink, the Trinamul government, which has 195 members in the 294-member Assembly, has the numbers to get an amendment passed.

Usually, tax incentives are given to promote practices amenable to the environment or safety. Tax breaks to propagate arbitrary personal preferences are not common.

Soon after coming to power, Mamata had made known her fascination for blue and white. “Jaipur is called Pink City and from there I got the idea of having a uniform colour for our Calcutta…. I couldn’t choose red, nor could I opt for green. I chose blue and white,” she had said later.

Road dividers, some flyovers and police stations, the new sectratariat and the shamiana cloth used in government events have turned blue and white the past three years but there has never been any official circular from the state government to do so.

In the World Cup season, fans of Messi and Argentina might not mind houses being painted in their team’s signature colours but builders did not seem thrilled.

Harsh Patodia, the president of Credai Bengal, said the focus should be on sustainable development. “There should be incentives for eco-friendly buildings or if the builder has excelled in safety and security features. Today’s move, however, may encourage some property owners who have not painted their house for years to paint now.”

But a flat-owner in a G+4 building currently being painted in Kasba said: “I pay Rs 5,500 as property tax every year. There are eight flats in the building. So the total annual property tax is Rs 44,000 but the repainting is costing us Rs 2 lakh.”

Veteran artist K.G. Subramanyan said: “If you rebuilt the city and some areas were painted uniformly, it would give it an aesthetic neighbourhood feeling. But face paint cannot make an ugly person beautiful. If they want uniformity, white would be the best choice. Then it would look bright in sunshine like cities and towns in Spain and the Mediterranean…. Blue and white is not the best choice. It is ridiculous.”

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta-India / Front Page> Story / by The Telegraph Bureau / Calcutta – Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

Seven students from West Bengal and adjoining States in eastern India have been selected for the U.S. State Department-funded Community College Initiative Programme (CCIP) 2014 aimed at imparting practical skills through vocational and cultural studies.

“The participants of the programme can develop skills in their chosen sector. They may earn an academic certificate in their field of study and gain first-hand practical experience through professional internships, service learning, and community engagement,” said JJ Joria, Director of American Center, Kolkata, here on Monday.

While four of the seven students are from the city, a mass communication student from Guwahati, an aspirant lawyer from Ranchi, and an entrepreneur trying to make a mark in the footwear industry in Manipur, have been selected. The one-year certificate programme is open to students above 18 years, who have passed their class XII board exam, but have not completed their graduation. The applicants must have some work experience in the field they want to study.

Angela Bernadette Ryle had passed class XII from Loreto, Sealdah, and was working as a Childline team leader at Rainbow Home for Street Children. She is headed for Lakewood, Washington, where she will be studying Early Childhood Education at Pierce Community College. “I was a street child. I love small children and want to dedicate my life in helping street children. This programme will be a big push in that direction,” she said.

Exuberating similar confidence, Kh Anjalee Devi, a first-year student in Manipur, who runs her own footwear business, said the one-year programme would help her develop skills of an entrepreneur. She will be joining Houston Community College, Houston, Texas.

Two undergraduate students of commerce, Zeeshan Ali and Ashok Pal, are taking a break from their B. Com to study Businesses Management and Information and Technology at community colleges in the USA. This is the second year of the CCIP in eastern India and out of 22 students, who had applied from all over eastern India, seven were chosen for the 2014-2015 session.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Special Corrrespondent / Kolkata – June 24th, 2014

Kolkata :

Imagine a blood vessel swelling up like a balloon measuring 13 cm in diameter inside your chest. This is what had happened to a 27-year-old patient from Bangladesh, who went through a life-saving surgery to get rid of the football-sized inflammation at a city hospital last week. The complicated surgery was done by putting the patient on a heart-lung machine which didn’t require doctors to open his chest.

The young man had undergone an aortic valve replacement in his country two years ago, following which he developed the life-threatening complication known as aortic aneurysm. The aorta, which is the main vessel originating from the heart that supplies blood to the entire body, had become thin-walled and dilated like a balloon about to burst. The dilated aorta extended from the aortic root to the proximal arch measuring about 13cmx15cm. It made the patient breathless and triggered severe chest pain.

“The CT scan revealed that his aorta had swelled up almost to the size of a football. This was unusual and extremely dangerous. It was probably triggered by a faulty surgery that he had undergone earlier. It required us to reopen his chest without injuring the thin-walled aortic aneurysmal sac, which was adherent to his breast bone. It also required us to repair the arch of the aorta from which the blood vessels to the brain originate. This part of the operation required the temperature of the patient to be brought down to 18°C while his blood circulation was stopped. The procedure had to be completed in less than 20 minutes or else he would have suffered a major brain stroke,” said Kunal Sarkar, chief cardiac surgeon and head of Medica Institute of Cardiac Sciences, who led the surgery.

Aortic aneurysm surgeries are considered to be complicated cardiac procedures since the blood vessel is close to the heart valve and coronary arteries. The surgery, which took six hours, has set the patient on a path of recovery. “Having performed this challenging operation with uncomplicated recovery is a significant achievement,” claimed Sarkar.

The normal size of an aorta is 3 cm. Once it crosses 5 cm, the chances of a repair through surgery start diminishing. In this case, the vessel had reached four times its normal size and a rupture was imminent. Just 10-25% of patients survive a rupture.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / June 20th, 2014

Kolkata :

The biggest names in Bengali music, both urban and rural, will come together to pay tribute to Gautam Chatterjee, the founder of ‘Mohiner Ghoraguli’ who is credited with popularizing folk music in the city and pioneering rock music in Bengal, on his 15th death anniversary on Friday. It’s a grand opportunity for music lovers to catch veterans Debdas Baul, Bishwanath Baul, Mansur Fakir and many more along with the legend’s son Gaurab Chatterjee, Rupam Islam of ‘Fossils’, Sidhu of ‘Cactus’, Silajit and other youth icons sharing the stage, making music and reminiscing about an era gone by.

The tribute event at Rabindra Sadan, that will feature veteran ‘Mohiner Ghoraguli’ members and associated artists along with those inspired by the music innovator, will have several special moments. Abraham Mazumdar will again perform at the venue with the same Stradivarius violin he used with Mohin on stage as well as in recordings. Lopamudra Mitra said: “I’m planning to sing what I believe is Monida’s last piece of work. It was the title track of a TV serial, ‘Poush Shraboner Pala’, which was sung by me.”

True to Gautam’s legacy of bringing West and East together on the same page, the wide range of musicians invited to perform or as guests will also embrace the two worlds in an organic blend. So you have music director Debajyoti Mishra, Parama, Surajit of ‘Bhoomi’, Kalika Prasad of ‘Dohar’ along with Somlata, folk music pair Malabika-Sanjay, Mohin contemporary Ranjan Prasad as well as original members Pradip Chatterjee and Tapas ‘Bapi’ Das. Artist Hiran Mitra, celebrated for his Mohin-related illustrations will also share his memories of Gautam.

“Monida, along with poet Dipak Majumdar, set the stage for baul-fakiri musicians to step on the global platform. He brought artists like Gour Khyapa and Paban Das Baul to Kolkata and gave them the opportunity to sing for his films. This get-together is to celebrate his foresight and spirit,” said Deb Chowdhury of Sahajiya Foundation, the organizer.

Rupam told TOI: “I was very fortunate that I had the honour of knowing him. He appreciated my music and had even called me the ‘blue-eyed boy of Bangla rock’, after him, of course. I’m immensely grateful to him for that comment. His encouragement always gave me a boost. I’ve shared the stage and jammed with him, and going to the book fair and singing was a tradition of ours. At the tribute event, I will reminisce about my history with Monida.” Sidhu recounted: “What drew me most to Gautamda was the way he enjoyed music – the passion for music that took him beyond technicalities. I was very young, but these elements were drilled into my consciousness. Later on, the lyrics of ‘Mohiner Ghoraguli’ songs set a benchmark, which was a driving force for young musicians like us.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Shounak Ghosal, TNN / June 19th, 2014

A Lamborghini Gallardo in the garage doesn’t just set you back by Rs 3.06 crore, it also means losing sleep over how to drive the dream machine on a Calcutta road.

Parveen Agarwal, 31, figured out that the best time to take his LP 550-2 for a spin without having to worry about L31 scraping a side mirror was when the city would be asleep. Thus was born the city’s first Supercars Club, comprising a group of young automobile aficionados who are up and revving before dawn every Sunday and back before chaos returns to the city roads.

The club members may prefer to enjoy their cars away from the crowd, but they are discovering that it’s hard for their showboats not to draw attention to themselves wherever they go.

When the group halts at a Ballygunge Circular Road café after a drive down the Rajarhat Expressway and NH2 on a Sunday morning, everyone from the walker to the waiter seems mesmerised by the row of magnificent engines that include a Bentley Continental GTC, a Jaguar F-Type V6 and a BMW Z4, among other beauties.

“We are strictly not into racing. We are just a like-minded set of people who love to go for drives and hang out together at cafes or restaurants. It’s more fun driving in a group than individually,” says Parveen, introducing the club that he formed soon after his Lambo came home.

The Lamborghini Gallardo Longitudinale Posteriore five-hundred-and-fifty dash two, Fiftieth Anniversario India Serie Speciale (yes, it’s meant to be spelt out!), is Parveen’s second supercar after the Porsche that wife Paromita says she forced him to buy. “He was more a biker before that. I wanted to part of his outings, so I forced him to bring a Porsche and then got him to upgrade (to a Lamborghini)!” quips Paromita, who now accompanies her businessman husband on the Sunday drive.

Parveen’s brother Bikash, who has taken over the Porsche, is also a member of the club.

For auto dealer Amit Modi, the driving force behind his growing fleet of super cars is his 12-year-old son Devangsh, a student of Class VII at La Martiniere for Boys. “It was he who told me I should get the Bentley Continental GTC after the Jaguar F-Type V8 Supercharged,” says Amit.

Devangsh, who was able to identify marques at five, is up to speed on the precision engineering that goes into the making of supercars. He points out that the GTC, his father’s latest acquisition, has a phenomenal 6-litre W12 twin turbo engine that does 0 to 100kmph in 5.1 seconds.

But ask him what he likes about the white Bentley and Devangsh is like any other 12-year-old. “It’s a convertible!”

Engineer Arijit Saha, another of Parveen’s friends in the Supercars Club, owns a 3.5-litre BMW Z4 apart from a Harley-Davidson Forty-Eight, among other bikes.

But while biking isn’t a problem whenever he is up for it, Arijit rues that he can’t drive his Beemer where he lives.

“I live in Howrah and it is next to impossible to drive a sports car in those narrow lanes. So, every Sunday morning is like an event for me,” says Arijit, who looks forward to the company of his motoring friends as much as he does the Sunday drive.

One of those friends is Rishi Raj Lohia, who owns a Jaguar XJL, a BMW 330 and a Mercedes-Benz ML350 apart from his “prized” 3.0 litre V6 F-Type Supercharged. “I drive the Beemer to work, I take out the Jag once in a while, and I drive the ML when I am not driving carefully!” says Rishi, who doesn’t allow his family driver to sit at the wheel of any of these cars.

Does he also say no to his mates in the Sunday Drive Club? “No, I don’t. How else would I get to drive a Lambo or a Bentley convertible?”

The one thing he and the other supercar owners are extra careful about is where they park their prized possessions. “I take my F-Type only to places where there is secured parking. I don’t park on roads and under trees,” says Rishi.

The next car on Rishi’s wish-list is the Ferrari Italia Spider, which he just might get for his 26th birthday!

Aritra Ghosh has just “stepped up” from a Mercedes-Benz C-Class to the Z4 but says he is partial to neither, whether driving to work or for pleasure. “The Z4 is, of course a high performer and it shows when I am on a Sunday drive with my friends,” he says.

The other club members, Arinjan Mazumdar and siblings Saurabh and Anish Poddar, between them own at least seven top cars in the Sunday Club line-up.

Arinjan, who runs a plastics company, has a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and an Audi R8 in his garage. Brothers Saurabh and Anish Poddar have a 1993 Ferrari 348 TB (Transversale Berlinetta), the BMW 640D, the Mercedes-Benz SL 320 AMG, the S500 Launch Edition and the Jaguar Supersport XJ, among others.

Parveen attributes the bonhomie between the supercar owners not to the common factor of being able to afford luxury models but a shared love of anything connected to cars and bikes. Apart from meeting almost every week, they are connected online and their interaction is invariably about the machines that make their hearts rev.

Arijit’s Facebook profile has an entire picture album dedicated to his “mechanical girlfriends”, including his first one: a Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 that he bought in 2006.

According to Parveen, keeping the Supercars Club small is the key to keeping the friendship alive and the adrenaline pumping.

“Our club isn’t a registered entity yet and we aren’t a large group either. Ideally, we would like to have the size of the club restricted to 12-15 members,” he says.

What none of them wants to rein in, of course, is the spirit of the supercar experience: seat belt strapped, hands on steering, foot on the pedal, eye on the road, surrender.

WHEELS OF DESIRE

BMW Z4

Top speed: 250kmph
Price: Rs 79.75lakh (on road, Calcutta)

PORSCHE BOXSTER S

Top speed: 279kmph
Price: Rs 93.13lakh (ex-Calcutta)

JAGUAR F TYPE

Engine: 3 litre V6 380
Price: Rs 1.49cr (ex-Delhi)

JAGUAR F TYPE

Engine: 5 litre V8 550
Price: Rs 1.79cr (ex-Delhi)

LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO

Top speed: 320kmph
Price: Rs 3.06cr (ex-Mumbai)

BMW Z4

Engine: 2979cc
Runs on: petrol
0-100kmph in: 5.1secs

BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GTC

Top speed: 314kmph
Price: Rs 2.15cr (ex-Mumbai)

Which is your dream car? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta – India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Anasuya Basu / Saturday – June 14th, 2014

The St. Xavier’s College Alumni Association has a new international chapter — this time in Europe.

Father Felix Raj, the principal of St. Xavier’s College, inaugurated the new chapter in Luxembourg on May 3. He met Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich of the Catholic Archdiocese of Luxembourg, who offered him all possible assistance towards the successful functioning of the chapter in Europe. The Archbishop also promised help in the international collaboration between St. Xavier’s and the University of Luxembourg.

Father Felix Raj also met the alumni of the college to formally announce the formation of Europe Chapter and presented the SXC Vision 2020 of the college.

The meeting was attended by ecretaire ge´ne´rale chez Archevêché´ de Luxembourg. L.N. Mittal, a Xaverian, is the largest private employer in Luxembourg with more than 5,000 employees.

The alumni of the college present included Vijay Goyal, CFO, ArcelorMittal Europe, Augustine Kochuparampil, CEO, ArcelorMittal Europe -Long Products, Sapna Arora, global corporate manager of ArcelorMittal University, Deepak Goenka, manager finance, ArcelorMittal Europe-Long Products, Aditya Sharma, director, EU Energy Markets, RSRL and board member of the Indian Business Chamber of Luxembourg and Smriti Goyal. Sharma was selected general Secretary of Europe Chapter.

After Luxembourg, Felix Raj headed for Cologne, Germany to present the SXC Vision 2020 to Cologne NGOs.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta – India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by A Staff Reporter / Wednesday – May 28th, 2014

– Arena for political bouts gets new colour

Darjeeling :

Chowrasta, Darjeeling’s promenade that has seen one too many rallies of late, had musicians, artists and poets milling around this weekend.

A Darjeeling-based NGO, Life and Leaf, organised the adda, or ghamghat in Nepali.

The event, held on Saturday and Sunday, was called Jamghat and attracted local people as well as tourists.

Minket Lepcha, the marketing head of Life and Leaf that promotes local artisans, said the Jamghat was aimed at fusing young minds with old crafts. “We wanted to provide a creative platform to local artistes and musicians and this is how Jamghat happened,” he said.

Chowrasta had been more of a venue for political programmes in recent years. It has been the venue to Bimal Gurung’s and Mamata Banerjee’s meetings.

Of late, the Chowrasta’s green cover seemed threatened when private contractors started marking trees to cut them down and make way for a market complex for displaced hawkers. On May 22, Darjeeling residents stopped contractors from marking trees at Chowrasta.

Today at the Jamghat, poets Manoj Bagota, Nima Sherpa and Pradip Lohagun mesmerised the crowd with their lines in Nepali, Lakit Lepcha and Deoashish Mothey surprised the audience with their performance with pontong palit and esraj. “Pontong palit is a flute like instrument of the Lepcha community and Lakit is the only female playing this instrument now,” said Minket.

Deoashish Mothey, another participant, said: “Esraj is a Persian musical instrument introduced by Rabindranath Tagore at Santiniketan.”

The long forgotten song of the Gurung community, Ghatuseri Geet, was also sung by Amir Gurung from Sikkim.

The event was supported by a group of artisans who had come up with an animation on the Nepali warnamala (alphabets) — a method to teach vowels and consonants to children.

Songs, which are part of the animation, were sung by children at the event.

As the songs were being sung at the main square of Chowrasta, six artists were seen painting in another corner. Pankaj Ghosh and Pravin Gurung were engrossed in painting the Kanchenjungha. Paul Bhutia was drawing the picture of a meditating Buddha. In another corner, 10 organic tea farmers were seen promoting hand-rolled tea. The farmers were from Chottapubung, 35km from here.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta – India / Front Page> North Bengal & Sikkim > Story / by Vivek Chhetri / Wednesday – May 26th, 2014

SUMMARY
The chests were discovered in 2008 when a woman in her 60s sold her plot at 178, Rash Behari Avenue, in south Kolkata.

Geologists, archaeologists and policemen are waiting for June 16, when three iron chests kept at Gariahat Police Station for the past six years will be opened.

Believed to be 300-400 years old, each weighing about 1,000 kg, the chests will be opened following a court order, in the presence of representatives of the Geological Survey of India, Archaeological Survey of India and Kolkata Police.

The chests were discovered in 2008 when a woman in her 60s sold her plot at 178, Rash Behari Avenue, in south Kolkata to a shoe company, and digging began to construct a showroom. While the shoe company claimed the chests as its own, the former owner said these belonged to her forefathers and so she was the rightful claimant.
Though the city of Kolkata was officially set up in 1690, before that it had prosperous villages under the zamindari of Sabarna Roy Choudhury.

The chests were taken to the Garihat Police Station, even as both the woman and the shoe company went to court. In December 2013, the Alipore court ordered that the chests be opened.

“I am excited. The chests may have anything. I am sending some experts there,” said Ashok Patel, ASI superintending archaeologist.
The Fire Department has been told to open the chests. “It’s a court order… We have asked the police to arrange for crowd management as a considerable number of people may turn up,” said D P Tarenia, DG, Fire Services.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kolkata / by Sabyasachi Bandopadhyah / Kolkata – June 13th, 2014

Visva-Bharati may award the Deshikottama posthumously to Manna Dey, who passed away last month.

If the decision is finally taken, it will be the first incidence of the award being conferred posthumously.

It is the highest honour awarded by Visva-Bharati and earlier recipients include Satyajit Ray, pandit Ravishankar, Mother Teresa, Lata Mangeshkar and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was also a student for a brief period when Tagore was at the helm.

The decision will be taken by the executive committee later this month.

The convocation is expected to be in December.

Earlier, it was decided that President of India Pranab Mukherjee would hand over the certificates during the convocation.

The names of all persons who would be receiving the Deshikottama was finalised earlier.

Besides Manna Dey, others selected for Deshikottama were Nobel peace prize winner and Myanmar’s flame of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi, former Bhutan king Jigme Singye Wangchuk, Chinese scholar Tan Chung, space scientist Dr K Kasturirangan and filmmaker Adoor Gopalkrishnan.

But after the demise of Manna Dey, his inclusion needs to be freshly looked at.

“If the statute of the university does not allow posthumous presentation of Deshikottam, then the rules will have to be revised. An application will be sent to Prime Minister Monmohan Singh, who is our chancellor,” a senior VB official told HT.

Now the authorities are planning to place the proposal before the executive council. If the proposal is passed then the university has to apply to the PMO.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> India-News> Kolkata / by Surojit Ghosh Hazra, Hindustan Times / Kolkata – November 07th, 2013