Kanwariyas on the rampage
After Delhi and Meerut, kanwariyas went on a rampage in Beliaghata area in north Kolkata over the breaking of a pot of water that a devotee was carrying. The incident was sparked after mini-truck driver, Chandrasekhar Yadav, brushed past a kanwariya and hit his pot of water, which was broken. Irked by the incident, other kanwariyas thrashed the driver and vandalised his mini-truck. He was rescued by the police with injuries to his neck, legs and chest, and was admitted to NRS Hospital. Most of the kanwariyas of West Bengal pour the holy Ganga water they have fetched over the Shiva Linga in Tarakeshwar in Hooghly district.
Police crackdown on stunt bikers
Kolkata Police has begun evening and night patrols, and installing CCTVs, guardrails and speed-breakers at Nayabad area off Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in the city to stop drag races and stunts by rogue bikers, after residents lodged complaints against rogue bikers when a 75-year-old local resident was recently hit by a speeding motorbike at night. After the police crackdown on racing circuits on EM Bypass, major flyovers, Lake Gardens and New Town, the racing activities have moved to the arterial roads of the city along the major highways, where racing was not earlier monitored by the police.
Israel opens visa application centre
To encourage students and travellers from West Bengal and northeast India to visit Israel, the country has opened a visa application centre in Kolkata. Visas 0applicatios for employment, business, tourism, meetings, conferences and study will be accepted in the centre.
With the new visa application centre, residents of West Bengal and the northeast will no longer need to send their visa applications to Delhi. Also, the visa application fee for Indians has been reduced from Rs 1,700 to Rs 1,100. The Israeli Ministry of Tourism will also conduct a roadshow in Kolkata on August 29 to promote the country as a tourism destination in the upcoming Durga Puja season.
Coin stuck in throat, kid turned away by 4 Kolkata hospitals
Four hospitals in greater Kolkata region refused to admit a four-year-old boy from Nadia district of West Bengal citing lack of instruments. Four-year-old Arghya Biswas of Gangnapur in Nadia district had swallowed a Re 1 coin while playing with it. However, when his grandfather Dinesh Biswas took him to College of Medicine and JNM Hospital in Kolkata’s satellite town Kalyani, the doctors advised endoscopic removal of the coin, but claimed they did not have the instruments and referred him to Nil Ratan Sarkar Hospital near Sealdah in Kolkata, where doctors spotted the coin in the esophagus through an X-ray but had no method to extract it. The family faced similar disappointments in Medical College and Hospital and Ramkrishna Mission Seva Pratisthan. Finally, the coin was removed through endoscopic procedure at SSKM hospital.