![Call to solve Siliguri pollution problems](/files/air_Polltuin_cont_38.jpg)
Call to solve Siliguri pollution problems
Concerned about the rising pollution levels in Siliguri, a voluntary organisation on Tuesday sought measures to be taken against the same. Members of the Green Forum also demanded that authorities concerned
Concerned about the rising pollution levels in Siliguri, a voluntary organisation on Tuesday sought measures to be taken against the same. Members of the Green Forum also demanded that authorities concerned
JOYNAGAR (South 24-Parganas): Drinking water scarcity is still a major problem for the residents of 100-year-old Joynagar Mazilpur Municipality. Two reservoirs had been inaugurated in the municipality (consisting of 14 wards) from 1978-1980 but 10 years later, drinking water scarcity became an issue again. The lack of maintenance rendered the two reservoirs decrepit resulting in the disruption of water supply.
Water tax in Salt Lake will be a reality only after water meters are installed in all commercial and residential buildings of the satellite township. A decision in this regard was taken at the board-of-councillors meeting of the Bidhannagar Municipality, today. This comes as a deviation from the municipality's previous decision where it was supposed to collect water tax from residential houses on the basis of property tax rates. Ferrule size was the determinant for commercial buildings until water meters are installed.
In a bid to save wild animals from getting killed after being hit by trains in north Bengal, the state will urge the Centre to ask the railways to follow norms while running trains through the forests of the area. State forest minister, Mr Ananta Roy, today said at Writers' Buildings that a number of elephants and other wild animals like snakes and bison were killed in north Bengal over the past few years after these were hit by speeding trains.
An 11-year-old male giraffe died after being electrocuted at Bagnan in Howrah yesterday. It was being transported to Nandankanan, in Orissa from Alipore Zoo. A senior zoo official said a low-bed trailer was used to ferry the giraffe. Zoo authorities received a call on Thursday night from Nandankanan saying that the animal was injured following an electric shock. Sundar was brought back to the city on Friday and it died in the zoo around 9.50 p.m. yesterday. The giraffe was buried after an autopsy. A probe has been ordered. SNS
Although the panchayat elections have ended, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is still feeling the after-effects with delayed work projects. There has been a labour shortage since many workers went back to their homes to vote which has been delaying the dredging work being carried out by the civic body in collaboration with the state government. Officials felt they are fighting a losing battle to avoid water logging in the city during the monsoon.
KOLKATA - Clearance from the fire services would henceforth be mandatory for issuing trade licenses for shopping malls, multiplexes, cinema halls and restaurants in Kolkata Municipal Corporation areas.
BERHAMPORE : One look at their diseased hands and feet and the fact that the country has been Independent for the last 60 years seems doubtful. Women in some villages of Murshidabad are doomed to a life without a family of their own, as no one will marry them. Even gram panchayat candidates here have sores on their hands and feet. They go about campaigning while trying in vain to ignore painful sores in their hands and feet, a continuous burning sensation, nausea and fever that refuses to go away. The drinking water they draw from their tube wells is laced with a silent killer ~ arsenic.
Even after spending crores of rupee on the relaying and upgrading the city's sewer lines under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), civic body can hardly heave a sigh of relief that they have given the city dwellers respite from waterlogged streets during the monsoons. Thanks to the century old sewer lines and age-old pumps at various pumping stations. Moreover, engineers are also skeptic about the fate of these pumps once de-silting and sewerage-relaying projects under the JNNURM are completed.
The Left Front government may claim to give equal importance to both industrialisation and agriculture, but nearly 30,000 villagers of 20 villages in Uluberia do not believe them. For they have to incur huge financial losses every year as their crops are damaged by contaminated water used for irrigation. The water they use comes from the Hangar canal, which they say has become contaminated with poisonous residue, left over by "illegal" liquor factories.
If things go as planned, transplantation of liver would be a reality in Kolkata within a couple of months. After Mumbai, Kolkata would be the second city in the country to facilitate transplantation in a state-run hospital at a much cheaper cost.