BIRD FLU

Culling to continue for two more days

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 4: The culling drive in the avian flu affected areas in Cooch Behar will go on for two more days. Earlier, it was decided that the drive would be carried on till today. But, as the target is yet to be fulfilled the administration extended two days and it will go on till Friday, the Cooch Behar district magistrate, Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha, said.

 

Till this evening about 20,000 birds were culled in the villages in Mathabhanga and Dinhata sub-divisions, the DM claimed. The scheduled target is 45,000.

 

In Daribash area where the villagers resisted the RRT members till yesterday the drive going on smoothly from this morning, the DM said. In Dinhata, the time for the drive was changed from today following local demand. The culling is being held here from the afternoon till 10 p.m.

TOY TRAIN, DEER PARK

Toy train, deer park at Kholta

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 4: In presence of a large curious crowd the state forest minister Mr Ananta Roy flagged off the inaugural journey of a toy train at Kholta in Cooch Behar today. He also inaugurated a deer park there. A children park already came up at the site.

 

After the inauguration the minister told the media persons that dredging of the adjacent Arhaikumari river has been done where boating facility will be added for tourists and visitors. Cottages will be built and sitting arrangements will be made for the visitors to spend some time at the lap of the nature. The total project area is 51-bigha and some more land will be purchased to make the projects full fledged ones. Talking about the viability of the projects Mr Roy said they earned Rs 13,000 on a day (Saraswati Puja) from the children's park.

 

The deer park where seven deer were set free today came up with a cost of Rs 25-lakh and the toy train project took Rs 75-lakh so far, Mr Roy said. The noise of the diesel-run toy train will not disturb the deer in the adjacent park, the minister believes. Today, it was found that there was lack of green grass and bush in the deer park. The dusty open area is under the shadows of large teak and other trees. When pointed out, the minister assured that fodder would be arranged for the captive seven deer.

 

Replying a question the forest minister admitted that required approval from finance department was yet to be attained. After submitting of reports it will not be difficult to get the approval, Mr Roy said.

 

PHOTO : Prior to the inauguration craze for photographing in front of the Toy Train. At Kholta in Cooch Behar on Wednesday. – DB.

JUTE PARK

A Jute Park in Cooch Behar, at last !

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 4: West Bengal State Industrial Development Corporation (WBSIDC) has called Expression of Interest (EOI) from diversified jute product manufacturers for the Cooch Behar Jute Parks Infrastructure Limited (CJPIL). EOI was also called for another Jute Park in this state – at Murshidabad.

 

WBSIDC sources said the CJPIL is a special purpose vehicle for creation, expansion and development of an integrated Jute Park in Cooch Behar. It shall develop the project and provide all basic infrastructure and common facilities as may be required for setting up and operation of the proposed Jute Park. This includes standard design factory, research and development centre and testing laboratory, wet processing facility, raw material store and warehousing, administrative and CFC building, exhibition and marketing hall, loading and unloading terminal, power and water supply, sewerage, drainage and sanitation, telecommunication facilities, parking canteen banking facilities, crèche and so on.

 

The proposed Jute Park is situated at Chakchaka Industrial Estate on around 30-acre land. It is at a distance of 4-kilometre from Cooch Behar town and one-kilometre from New Cooch Behar Railway Station. The CJPIL invited manufacturers of jute diversified products for allotment of land within the Jute Park and accordingly invited EOI from them.

 

Welcoming the development, secretary of Cooch Behar District Industrialists' Welfare Association Mr Depak Mundra, said, at last Cooch Behar was going to have the much-awaited Jute Park. It will be beneficial for the jute growers of this region. It may also boost up the industrialisation process in this district, which is to improve the socio-economic situation too, Mr Mundra hoped.

 

It may be recalled that during a visit to Cooch Behar in August 2008 the state cottage and small-scale industries minister Mr Manabendra Mukherjee had disclosed that the Centre has approved the setting up of the proposed Jute Park in Cooch Behar. He also hoped that the work for setting up of the proposed Jute Park might begin soon. []

 

Art Fair

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 4: An art fair organised by Maya Chitram Art Institute is going on at Uday Shankar Gallery of the institute in Cooch Behar since 31 January. It will continue till 6 February. []

INQUIRY COMMISSION

Udayan Guha not summoned yet for hearing

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 4: The hearing of the Justice Narayan C Sil Commission of Inquiry on Dinhata Police firing is to begin on 14 February. It will be held for three days at the hearing room of the Commission in the Annexe Building of the Circuit House in Cooch Behar.

 

District Forward Bloc secretary Mr Udayan Guha said he was yet to be called by the Commission to attend the hearing. Earlier, he had expressed his desire to the Commission wanting to appear for hearing in Kolkata. "As there is an FIR lodged against me, I like to appear before the Commission in Kolkata because I like to take legal help from my lawyer Mr Sekhar Basu there," the FB leader said.

 

"During my testimony I may produce the collected bullets, pictures and other documents related to the incident. I will also submit the copies of the circulated leaflets containing the demands for which we had organised the law violation programme to prove that our programme was a scheduled one and no prepared police force was deployed on that day to contain a huge crowd," Mr Guha said.

 

Though he was not summoned yet he wishes to appear at the hearing on 14 February to represent one of the two men summoned on that day for cross-examination. []

 

PHOTO : Forward Bloc leader Mr Udayan Guha coming out from the Hearing Room of the Justice Narayan C Sil Commission in Cooch Behar on 12 January 2009. - DB.

AVIAN FLU

Surprise raid plan to seek hidden chickens

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 3: On the second day of the culling drive the residents of Dakshin Dangkoba and Purba Khaterbari in Mathabhanga sub-division resisted the culling teams from doing their job. The drive has been disrupted due to their resistance. Meetings are being held with gram panchayat functionaries and leaders of political parties seeking their help to pacify the agitated villagers, according to the district magistrate of Cooch Behar Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha.

 

In a few areas the villagers have kept their chickens and ducks hidden to save those from being culled. The administration will conduct surprise raids in the residences with police help to find out the hidden poultry birds, the DM said. Now, it may take more than the stipulated three days (that ends tomorrow) to complete the culling, he admitted.

 

It was learnt that the culling drive is not going on smoothly in the avian flu affected and adjacent areas due to resistance of the villagers. In the first two days 32 teams have culled about 7,000 birds though the target is 45,000.

 

On the otherhand, a lorry loaded with sick chickens was seized when it was trying to transport out the birds from Gosanimari area in Dinhata. Animal resource development department personnel have buried all the seized birds. Raids are being conducted in markets in Dinhata too to stop illegal selling of poultry birds.

FORWARD BLOC

On-road gathering : FB to remember 5 martyrs

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 3: The Forward Bloc will observe the Martyrs Day on 5 February at Dinhata to commemorate the five activists who were killed in police firing on that day last year. A large gathering will be organised along the Dinhata-Cooch Behar road beginning from the gate of the office of the Dinhata SDO. But, the party will not seek any permission from the administration to hold the programme on the road that may disrupt traffic movement for a few hours. After the district secretariat meeting of the party in Cooch Behar today the district secretary and also a state secretariat member, Mr Udayan Guha announced the programme.

 

Mr Guha said they would erect a makeshift martyrs column to let the people pay their homage to the five martyrs. A decorated truck is to act as the dais from where the speakers are to address the gathering. On being asked whether they will seek permission from the administration to hold the programme the FB leader replied negative. "We are not worry about any permission and we are not going to seek anything like that, In Kolkata and here too", he said. "We took it granted that the authorities would not extend any permission", he added.

 

When contacted, the district magistrate Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha said he was not aware yet of the Forward Bloc's proposed on-road programme. "I will have to make inquiries into that before making a comment," he said. Mr Guha claimed that two DSPs came to them to know the programme details. Attempts failed to contact the SP Mr Devendra Prakash Sing over telephone to know the probable role of the police but his two mobile phones rang unattended.

 

It was learnt that the ministers, MLAs and MPs of the party are not to attend the gathering at Dinhata perhaps to avoid legal difficulties.

 

The aim of the programme is to float a message to all so that no government machinery can repeat the similar incident during any democratic movement, Mr Guha said. "The police are trying to convince all that they had opened fire compelled by the situation but it was not true. On 5 February we will bring some bullet-injured innocent persons who were not named in the FIR yet though a killed man's name still exists in the FIR lodged by the police. We want the judicial inquiry commission to complete its job speedily", the FB leader, said.

 

In the secretariat meeting it was decided that during the address on 5 February the leaders will make it known to all that the Forward Bloc was the first that had organised last year's law violation programme to demand correction of BPL list, job under NREGA schemes, right of Adivasis on water-land-forest, consideration of economic situation of the poor people of minority and scheduled caste communities.

 

PHOTO : Forward Bloc leader Mr Udayan Guha talks with media persons while Cooch Behar (North) MLA Mr Dipak Sarkar and former Sitai MLA Mr Nripen Roy look on. In Cooch Behar on Tuesday. - DB.

AVIAN FLU

Culling of chickens being done at bird-flu affected Nagar Bhangni village in Dinhata, Cooch Behar on Monday.

Culling drive began in Cooch Behar

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb.2: The three-day culling drive began today at two avian flu affected villages in Mathabhanga and Dinhata sub-divisions in Cooch Behar district. The villages are Uttar Dangkoba and Nagar Bhangni. Considering the graveness of the situation the drive was conducted in those areas as an additional measure on yesterday evening too. Ten culling teams killed about 1,000 birds yesterday.

 

More than 3,000 backyard birds were culled upto 1-30 p.m. today according to the district magistrate of Cooch Behar Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha. About 45,000 birds will be culled during the scheduled three-day drive, he said. Compensations are being disbursed on the spot, the DM said. The different rates of compensation are : local chicken Rs 50 and chick Rs 20, broiler chicken Rs 40 and chick Rs 20, duck Rs 75 and poultry meat Rs 6 per kilogram.

 

This is the first time compensations are being given against destroyed eggs. One may get Rs 2 against an egg, the DM said.

 

Alleging that they failed to get compensation for their culled birds on earlier occasion some villagers tried to resist the culling teams to do their duty at Uttar Dangkoba in Mathabhanga. Panchayat functionaries and police had to intervene to pacify the situation. The DM said he would probe into the allegations to learn why the villagers failed to get compensations. Disturbances also reported from Nagar Bhangni village in Dinhata.

 

On Saturday, the district magistrate of Cooch Behar Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha had declared Cooch Behar a bird flu affected district following recent reports of unnatural death of numerous backyard birds in different areas in the district. The district administration alerted the BSF to beef up vigil along the Indo-Bangladesh border to stop illegal transportation of chickens and ducks. []

DO IT NOW !

CM's intervention needed to build classrooms

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 2: Uttar Banga Unnayan Parshad (UBUP) had extended a fund of Rs 1.12-crore for adding classrooms in Cooch Behar Polytechnic, Thakur Panchanan Mahila Mahavidyalaya and Acharya Brajendra Nath Seal College in Cooch Behar. The district administration of Cooch Behar entrusted the public works department (construction board) to complete the job. But, the ever-practiced work culture prevented them to start the work. At last, the chief minister has to intervene with his 'do-it-now' magic wand and then the ball started rolling.

 

Sources said, the PWD (Construction Board) division had demanded the allotted fund in advance to start the construction work. The district administration asked them to start the work and assured handing over the fund to them after commencement of work. But, the PWD (CB) division reportedly denied doing so. Intervention of state public works minister was also sought to end the impasse but that too failed to yield any result. For this reason the work had to be left postponed for more than a year. At last, the problem was conveyed to the chief minister who is also the chairman of the UBUP.

 

When asked about the matter, the district planning officer Mr Sunil Agarwala admitted that the chief minister's intervention was needed to make the things straight. He said, "The stalemate is now over. Tenders are being called to launch the construction of classrooms in the three educational institutions." The work may commence very soon, he hoped.

 

Sources in PWD (Construction Board) in Cooch Behar too said that the problems related to the construction of classrooms in three colleges were melting down. The matter is now under process and the work may begin soon, a senior official hoped.

 

However, the officer-in-charge of ABN Seal College (the lone government college in Cooch Behar district), Dr Nilay Roy was not found hopeful enough over the recent development. Due to lack of classrooms in this college the students of post-graduate courses are suffering. "We are feeling disappointed because we are still in dark about the date of commencement of the delayed work", he said. The college needs no promise but classrooms, said Mr Roy. []

TIME TELLER

A man who needs no watch to count time

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb. 2: It is not a story about the joke very often being telecasted about identity of the man engaged in a watch store. That man may be called a watch-man jokingly but our very own watch-man needs no watch or clock to tell you the time – anytime and anywhere. Believe it or not he has this power, unexplained so far. You know time and tide waits for none and he too never waits a second to answer a question.

 

Mr Biswanath Bhaumik is a man in his forties. He did his B.Com with Accountancy and Mathematics from University BT and Evening College in 1999. He discovered his hidden power when he was merely a student of Class V. From then on he is telling any passer-by especially young ones what the time was. He answers them in a lightning speed with cent-per-cent accuracy to seconds, of course the hours and minutes prefixed.

 

Mr Bhaumik is a resident of Patakura area in Cooch Behar town. As he is one of the thousands of unemployed youths he earns a little to exist from private tuitions. But that too is not easy for him as the normal demand for private tutors is of the schoolteachers.

 

"I do not know how I can do it. When one asks me the time I see a wall clock in front of me as a flash like dreams. I do not know from where the clock comes to help me to tell the time. I never dreamt of such a capacity and I never practiced anything to nurture this power", Mr Bhaumik confessed.

 

Mr Bhaumik is a young man of very ordinary appearance but his strange ability to tell the time accurately without any gadget made him a sort of reputed man differentiated from others.

BIRD FLU

Bird flu : Culling drive begins

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb.1: The district administration of Cooch Behar ordered culling of backyard birds from this evening in the affected villages – Uttar Dangkoba and Nagar Bhangni. As the chickens and ducks come back to their shelters at the evening it is the better time to get them for the culling, animal resource development (ARD) department sources said.

 

Deputy director of the ARD department in Cooch Behar, Dr Tapan Kumar Roy said they will engage thirty teams consisting of five members in each team for the scheduled three-day culling drive that to begin from tomorrow. Today's drive is an additional one considering the graveness of the situation. The culling teams are to kill about 45,000 chickens and ducks during the drive, he said.

 

Yesterday, the district magistrate of Cooch Behar Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha has declared Cooch Behar a bird flu affected district following recent reports of unnatural death of numerous backyard birds in different areas in the district.

 

The scheduled culling drive would begin from Monday at Nagar Bhangni village in Dinhata sub-division and Uttar Dangkoba village under Pachagarh gram panchayat in Mathabhanga sub-division.

 

Meanwhile, the BSF was alerted to beef up vigil along the Indo-Bangladesh border. The border has been sealed to stop transportation (incoming and outgoing) of chickens and ducks, according to the DM.

 

Also, prohibiting trading and transportation of chickens in ten-kilometre radius of the affected areas a order was issued but trading is still going on violating that order.

 

Cooch Behar declared avian influenza affected district for the second time because the chickens suddenly started dying at Nagar Bhangni and Uttar Dangkoba villages. Blood samples were sent to Kolkata and then to Bhopal laboratories. As the samples tested bird flu positive the district administration convened an urgent meeting yesterday and after reviewing the situation the district was declared bird flu affected one. []

 

Workshop for school inspectors

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb.1: A three-day interactive workshop to better the performance of the inspectors of primary and Madhyamik schools began at District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) in Cooch Behar today.

 

Chairman of District Primary School Council (DPSC) Mr Nuruddin Mian inaugurated the programme while DIET principal Ms Mira Lama presided over it. Deputy directors of schools (primary and Madhyamik) Mr Debashis Sarkar and Mr Manoranjan Roy attended the inaugural programme. Representatives from different organisations of teachers too attended the programme.

 

The aim of the workshop is to equip the inspectors of the schools with better inspection skills to make the inspection system a good one for improvement of education scenario. Earlier, similar workshop was held in 2006.

 

In his inaugural address the DPSC chairman Mr Nuruddin Mian admitted that they failed to bring all the children under primary school education system but it should be done at any cost. He also said that 80 primary schools were uplifted to upper-primary ones in last year and 20 in this year. Upgrading of the remaining ones would be done soon. []

Meeting to review schemes

 

COOCH BEHAR, Feb.1: As the current fiscal year is going to end on 31 March, a review of the ongoing development schemes in Cooch Behar district is needed. To study the progress of the schemes a meeting will be held on 6 February. Officials of all executive agencies and government departments like public health engineering, forest, irrigation and the block development officers, sabhapatis of the Panchayat Samitis and chairmans of the civic bodies are to attend the meeting, according to the district planning officer Mr Sunil Agarwala.

 

Review will be made scheme wise to identify the shortcomings for why completion of those has been delayed. Emphasis will be given to chalk out ways so that those may be completed by ending of March. []