Art exhibition to express solidarity with farmers
A series of paintings and sculptures is being displayed in an exhibition titled “Firmly with farmers on canvas” at the Academy of Fine Arts, reflecting the turbulent times in the backdrop of the long-standing farmers’ protests on the borders of the national capital. The exhibition, organised by Prachi Protichi, a cultural organisation, started on February 15 and will continue till February 21. The curatorial note of the exhibition said, “The exhibition is our humble tribute to farmers. The canvasses mirror the revolutionary times that we are living in.” Among the exhibits, a sculpture displayed on a table showcases a skeletal farmer with writhing in pain.
Second round of engineering counselling at CU
The Calcutta University will conduct independent counselling for the second time since December to fill 50 of the 237 BTech seats that are still vacant. The second round of independent counselling will take place more than a month after the first-year classes started. The university had conducted the first round of decentralised counselling in December to fill 89 seats that had remained vacant after the centralised counselling conducted by the state Joint Entrance Examination board. The Calcutta University decided to hold the second round as seats across departments fell vacant after some enrolled students left for newer National Institute of Technologies (NITs), which offer better infrastructure, a university official said.
Regularisation charges to go up in city
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has linked the fees charged to regularise illegal structures with the existing circle rate of the area where the structure is built, a step that will increase manifold the amount that has to be paid to regularise unauthorised constructions. The circle rate is unique to places and it is higher for upscale localities. The circle rate of a place is determined as an amount per square feet of an area, said an official of the civic body. Under the new system, the regularisation fee will be a percentage of the market value of the size of the unauthorised construction.
Norms out for calculating examination marks
The state higher secondary council has come up with a topic-wise division of marks in each subject, factoring the reduction in the higher secondary syllabus necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The school education department had in November announced that syllabus would be slashed by 30 to 35 per cent as on-campus classes could not be held. An official of state higher secondary council said it was crucial that topic-wise division of marks was announced so that the examinees could prepare themselves for theory examinations that would be held across the state from June 15 on the basis of reduced syllabus.
Pranab Mondal
Our correspondent in West Bengal
pranabm@newindianexpress.com