Rationing of skilled manpower
The urban development department has drafted a plan to recruit a common pool of engineers who will serve across all municipalities and municipal corporations in Bengal. Once the plan gets the Cabinet approval, the municipal corporations in Howrah and Bidhannagar will get engineers from the pool.
The move is aimed at getting more qualified engineers to work for building infrastructure in urban areas. Under the existing practice, municipalities and municipal corporations recruit their own engineers. Several municipalities do not have enough qualified engineers to plan and implement infrastructure projects of medium and large scale.
Innovation fair on drinking water
A low-cost water filter developed by students of St Xavier’s College was shortlisted as one of the best projects in an international competition on devising safe drinking water for the underprivileged people. More than 135 institutions across the world participated in the competition organised by Entrepreneurial Action of University Students (Enactus).
The international NGO works with institutions of higher education and industries to develop entrepreneurial and innovation skills among students. With about 7,80,000 deaths per year in India attributable to contaminated water and its ill effects, the inaccessibility of potable water are major loopholes in the system.
Cops to visit elderly people for safety
The Kolkata Police will visit the residences of elderly people living alone to check whether their homes meet basic security parameters in the wake of murders of two elderly couple recently. The Lalbazar police headquarters have asked its officers to check whether residences have secure grill gates, boundary walls and whether they have door-bells.
Other issues to be kept in mind are location of such houses and whether there are disputes related to tenancy. The police officers will meet elderly people to instil a sense of security among them and keep a watch on anti-social elements in neighbourhood.
Another round of counselling
Jadavpur University will hold counselling on August 13 and August 14 for the 200-odd engineering seats left vacant after three rounds of centralised online counselling conducted by JEE Board. The university has 1,243 engineering seats in 16 disciplines. The third round of counselling ended on July 20. A JU official said a number of selected candidates did not turn up for admission. Quite a few of them are from Bengal, who could get admission under the domicile quota.