The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Census authorities for engaging school teachers in massive number in census work, seeking to know whether the Centre had discussed the issue in connection with deciding the period for enumeration before engaging teachers. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has asked heads of institutions to grant teachers engaged in census work an “on-duty facility”, allowing them to focus solely on enumeration. After the SIR of electoral rolls in Bengal, now, the census threatens to deal another blow to classroom teaching in schools with the engagement of around 7000 teachers again.
Fire at the Kolkata Airport ATC building
A fire broke out on the open terrace area of the second floor of the Air Traffic Control (ATC) building at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata early on Tuesday. Flight services remained unaffected. The ATC is largely managed from the eighth floor of the building. The blaze was spotted at around 4 am. According to airport officials, the blaze was brought under control with deployment of three fire tenders within a short time. No major damage or casualties have been reported. Fire department officials suspect that a short circuit in decorative fairy lights installed at the ATC building might have triggered the fire.
Govt to plant 20 cr trees in ’27, 10 cr this year
West Bengal government will undertake planting of 20 crore trees in 2027 to ensure environmental upkeep and afforestation of the state, CM Suvendu Adhikari announced on Tuesday. Planting a sapling at Mohor Kunja in the city to inaugurate a programme for planting 50 lakh trees across the state in a day, Suvendu said three crore mangrove trees will be planted in the Sunderbans islands from October. “We have undertaken a plan to plant 20 crore saplings in 2027,” he said. Adhikari said that the initiative will be implemented by the forest and panchayat departments of the state. “Our target is to plant 10 crore trees this year,” he added.
SUBHENDU MAITI
Our correspondent in West Bengal
subhendu.maiti@newindianexpress.com
