QKolkata: CPM Okays 'No Fight' With Congress & More

1. CPM Okays ‘No-Fight’ With Congress

CPM general-secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the central committee of the party had approved an understanding with the Congress not to fight each other in the six seats the two parties hold in Bengal.

Sources said a meeting was likely to take place between Yechury and Congress president Rahul Gandhi later this week.

Yechury said at a press conference here that “a triangular fight in Bengal is better than a quadrangular fight.’’

(Source: The Telegraph)

Also Read: Why I’ll Bet on Sitaram Yechury as the Next PM Candidate

2. Darjeeling DM Bars Leave For Five Months

The Darjeeling district magistrate has issued an order that said leave should not be granted to employees of central and state governments for five months from March 1 in view of the coming general elections.

The directive issued by Joyoshi Dasgupta in her capacity as the district election officer led to resentment among a section of employees.

Although the DM had issued the order to heads of all central and state government offices in the Darjeeling district on 16 February, the employees came to know about it recently when many of them were denied leave by their superiors.

(Source: The Telegraph)

Also Read: Students in Darjeeling Find Novel Ways to Keep the Town Clean

3. Revamped Syllabus To Give Madhyamik Scoring Edge

The state education department is planning a new syllabus format and a new paper pattern to bring Madhyamik students at par with their counterparts from other boards. The new syllabus, similar to that of ICSE and CBSE, will be rolled out in 2020 for students appearing for the board exam in 2022.

Education minister Partha Chatterjee has advised the syllabus reforms committee to make the classes IX and X syllabus more contemporary and student-friendly. The Madhyamik syllabus was last modified in 2017.

(Source: The Times Of India)

4. Bengal Lobbies FCI To Buy Extra Rice

The Bengal government has started lobbying in New Delhi to ensure that the Food Corporation of India buys at least 3 lakh tons of additional rice so that the state can procure 5 lakh tons of extra paddy directly from farmers ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

“The state food and supplies department has already sold 50,000 tons of rice to the FCI which will buy another 50,000 tons. We want to sell at least two lakh tons more to the central agency so that more paddy farmers could be provided with minimum support price of Rs 1,750 a quintal,” said a senior state government official.

The state government needs around 36 lakh tons of rice annually to run cheap foodgrain schemes for financially weaker sections. For this purpose, the state buys about 52 lakh tons of paddy directly from farmers against an average annual production of 160 lakh tons.

(Source: The Telegraph)

5. Youth On Way To Wedding Ceremony Thrashed By Mob

A 32-year-old man on his way to a wedding ceremony was surrounded by a mob and assaulted at Dalimtala Lane near Burtolla police station on Sunday night. The mob thought he was a child-lifter, because the frightened youth could not properly explain his purpose of visit in the area. He was finally rescued by a team from Burtolla police station. The victim has been identified as Toto Das, a resident of Tangra Second Lane.

There have been several such incidents across the city and suburbs — triggered by rumour-mongers — over the past four weeks.

The Burtolla youth was not as lucky as the Maniktala victim, who was attacked by a mob four days ago, but rescued unharmed by police.

(Source: The Times Of India)

6. Student Hangs Self During Video Chat With Girlfriend

A 21-year-old college student committed suicide allegedly during a video call with his girlfriend at Barasat’s Duttapukur on Sunday night. Police have seized the mobile phones of the youth as well as that of his girlfriend.

Ranjan Debnath, a third-year student of New Barrackpore College, had been in depression after his father married for the second time and moved out of the house around three months ago. His mother had died long ago. He used to live with his grandparents and uncles at Baishali, Duttapukur, after his father left. Debnath used to call his girlfriend and talk about his mental agony.

(Source: The Times Of India)

7. Durgapur Flight Traffic Set To Increase With Connections To Mumbai, Chennai

The capacity of flights operating from Durgapur airport is set to increase by 200 times when SpiceJet introduces daily flights to Mumbai and Chennai this summer. While Air India currently operates flights to Delhi and Hyderabad, they are thrice-aweek operations. Moreover, the aircraft that SpiceJet plans to use has 30% more capacity.

SpiceJet will operate the 189-seater Boeing B737-800 aircraft on both flights connecting Andal under the central government’s regional connectivity scheme Udan, said airline associate vice-president (regulatory and government affairs) Debashis Saha in Asansol on Monday. While the airline was earlier expected to operate the 90-seater Bombardier Q400 plane on the routes connecting Durgapur, it has now decided to operate a larger aircraft as it believes the industrial belt of Durgapur-Asansol-Burnpur-Raniganj-Kulti has potential to attract more flyers.

(Source: The Times Of India)

Also Read: Delhi-Durgapur direct flight reintroduced