Chhath Puja at the lake: Activists move court
Environment activists have decided to move court seeking action against the state administration for failing to comply with a National Green Tribunal order and prevent Chhath Puja ritual at Rabindra Sarovar.
“The violation is shocking. It seems to be a case of intentional lapses and betrays the fact that the environmental issues are not in the list of top priorities of the state government,’’ said activist Subhas Dutta, whose petition had resulted in the NGT’s order in November 2017 banning Chhath Puja at the lake.
Hundreds of devotees broke open two gates of the lake and performed the rituals.
Paying back the Alma mater
An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) in Sibpur, Howrah, has contributed Rs 5 lakh for the redesign of his alma mater’s website, which will have a portal for the alumni to enrol and the students to register for semester exams.
This is the first contribution from an alumnus since the institute had set up an alumni cell in August to raise funds for infrastructure development and create a corpus for students’ welfare, on the line of the IITs.
“This contribution would mark a new beginning in our initiative to engage the alumni for the welfare of the institute,’’ an IIEST official said. The redesigned website will have a provision for the students to register and pay fees for semester exams.
Parcel delivery, a priority for postal dept
The Bengal circle of the department of post has launched its road transport facility in a bid to speed up its parcel delivery service. Trucks were flagged off three days ago on three routes—Kolkata-Guwahati via Siliguri, Kolkata-Patna via Dhanbad and Gaya and Kolkata-Bhubaneswar via Kharagpur.
“We are considering our parcel delivery business with priority. This is a sunshine sector. Transactions are increasingly happening on e-commerce, so parcels need to be reached across long distances,’’ said Arundhati Ghosh, the postal service board member (Operations).
Experts trying to solve Tallah Bridge issue
A proposal to allow BT Road-bound buses on Lockgate flyover in Chitpur has been placed to cut down on commuters’ travel time.
A committee of traffic experts working on diversions for the Tallah Bridge, which will be pulled down because of its poor structural condition, placed the proposal at a review meeting where officials of the transport department, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, and Kolkata police were present.
It was suggested at the meeting that the specific routes be identified on which buses could be allowed to take the flyover from CR Avenue.