No special convocation at Jadhav University
The state education department has granted Jadavpur University permission with certain riders to hold the annual convocation and not the special convocation that is usually held on the same day to confer DLitt and DSc degrees on distinguished persons. The university authorities had written to education minister Bratya Basu in the first week of December requesting permission to convene a meeting of the executive council, the highest decision-making body of the institute, to discuss issues related to the 66th annual convocation and the special convocation. JU does not have a full-term VC.
City’s canal becomes dumping ground
Nearly 2.5 lakh tonnes of silt were picked up from a 7 km stretch of Tolly’s Nullah, also known as Adi Ganga that flows behind chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence from the past one year when the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) started dredging the canal, said an official of the civic body. However, the official said the canal is still a happy waste dumping ground for people living along the waterway and suffers because of the direct discharge of untreated sewage. Pollution in Tolly’s Nullah means pollution of the Hooghly since the canal drains into the river.
Kolkata civic body begins sewerage inspection
The state Pollution Control Board (PCB) and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) have started jointly visiting large residential and commercial complexes that are supposed to treat their sewage to check if the treatment plants are functioning. Officials of the civic body said they suspected many apartments and commercial complexes were not treating the sewage. Building rules of the KMC and ruled framed by the PCB have made it mandatory for buildings above a certain scale to treat their sewage. “We have started joint inspects with the PCB of large apartments and commercial establishments,” said a KMC official.
Pranab mondal
Our correspondent in West Bengal
pranabm@newindianexpress.com