Interim report by board could not identify the source of around one-fifth of Calcutta’s PM2.5 pollution Environmentalists have raised questions about an ongoing study ordered by the state pollution
SOUMEN BHATTACHARJEE Street food has always been scrumptious. It will now be safe, too. The central government has chosen Bidhannagar Municipality to implement the first Safe Street Food programme in Bengal, with the focus on setting up vending zones where any hawker can do business as long as the food is hygienic. That could mean the neighbourhood puchkawalla having to use gloves and switch to mineral water, and the chicken, mutton and egg roll vendor using branded sauces instead of the toxic-looking ketchup customers are used to.
Calcutta and most of eastern India will be witness to the spectacle of Mars and Saturn nudging each other, with a crescent moon watching over them, this weekend. This rare conjunction after sunset on July 6 will be topped by Regulus (Megha), the brightest star in the Leo constellation, making an appearance in the same patch of the western sky. After dusk on July 10, Mars and Saturn will be just 0.38 degrees apart, which is the closest they'll get until 2022. According to astronomers, the two planets were last seen near each other
The Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) will launch a health insurance scheme for 29,000 BPL families living in the civic area. Two thousand residents of the category will benefit in the first phase. "The insurance will be of Rs 30,000 for which the SMC will pay a yearly premium of Rs 148 and the beneficiary Rs 100,' mayor Bikash Ghosh said. Ghosh also announced free vocational training and a monthly stipend for former sportspersons and artistes from poor families
A congested NH34 in Malda. The highway passes right through the town. Picture by Surajit Roy Malda, July 1: The expansion of NH34 from Barasat to Dalkhola will be completed by 2011, National Highways Authority officials said today. The stretch between Barasat in North 24 Parganas and Dalkhola in North Dinajpur will be widenend to four lanes. "Provisions are being kept to turn it into a six-lane road in future. The land acquisition is being made with an eye to achieving the goal,' said Srikumar Bhattacharya, the project director of the NHAI here.
The chicks at the Iskcon temple. File picture Krishnagar, July 1: Six out of the 14 peacocks seized by the forest department from the Iskcon temple in Mayapur last month have died, apparently unable to cope with weather fluctuations. Although seized, the birds were left behind in the temple's cages as the forest department had failed to decide on an alternative accommodation. A government veterinary doctor, who went to see the birds on a call from the temple on Saturday, informed divisional forest officer Lipika Roy about the death of six chicks only yesterday.
The construction for the proposed 6MTPA steel plant of Tata Steel in Kalinga Nagar would start in a month, its managing director B. Muthuraman said. The Rs 21,000-crore project has been in limbo for more than two years after 14 tribal villagers died in a clash with police while resisting the construction of a boundary wall by the Tatas on January 2, 2006.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the chamber of commerce. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury Calcutta, June 30: The government plans to table the long-awaited rehabilitation and resettlement policy for landlosers in the monsoon session of the Assembly. "I hope to place it in the Assembly as soon as possible,' the chief minister told the Indian Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting today.
Burrabazar's biggest problem is space, rather the lack of it. Lack of planning and the mushrooming of illegal buildings have led to road space in the commercial hub shrinking with each passing year. The problem has been compounded by vehicles being parked illegally, choking all the arteries.
A thick cover of rain clouds hung over the city on Monday afternoon. The Met office warned of isolated heavy rain in Calcutta and the rest of south Bengal in the next 48 hours. The monsoon current has become strong over Gangetic Bengal following the development of two cyclonic circulations.
RAKHEE ROY TALUKDAR The tiger after it reached Sariska. Picture by Gopal Sunger Jaipur, June 28: The tiger has landed in Sariska at last. In an air force helicopter. After three long and barren years, Sariska regained its stripes as a tiger reserve today, carrying out what experts said was the world's first "scientifically planned' relocation of the big cat. The 881sqkm national park in Alwar had made headlines in 2004-05 when unchecked poaching turned its cat count into zero.
