GenX makes Dada duck and drive

Sourav Ganguly padded up on Wednesday against a pace battery from Jadavpur University, Presidency and Calcutta University. Only, the bowlers had questions to hurl, not a shining leather ball. The students posed to the former skipper uncomfortable questions that rose from a good length and slower ones that confirmed they weren’t in a friendly. The Prince of Calcutta edged some, let go of some and drove some through the off, bringing lusty cheers from (alas!) the Town Hall and not the Eden. A selection of questions at the show organised by a Bengali news channel

Student 1: The CAB (Cricket Association of Bengal) has failed as the Eden custodian, losing the right to host the India-England tie. Isn’t this the time for you to step in?

SOURAV: I don’t believe in taking advantage of a situation when someone is down on the mat. You should only lend a helping hand at such times. I do plan to get into cricket administration but this is not the time for it.

Student 2: Were you ignored for IPL because there were too many Aussie coaches?

SOURAV: I don’t know if that’s the way to put it. The team owners, too, take decisions. But ‘Aussie coach’ is one theory I hear. The other theory is that I am 38. But there is Shane Warne, who is 41, and Adam Gilchrist, who is 40, and they are playing.

Student 3: Do you think you should have played county cricket or more of Ranji Trophy to prove your match fitness? Would they have treated you better then?

SOURAV: Who would have treated me better?

Student 3: The IPL people…

SOURAV: I have at least played some cricket. Warne, Gilchrist and Mathew Hayden played nothing.

Student 4: The IPL starts right after the World Cup. Will you play the IPL if you are picked as a replacement for an injured player?

SOURAV: Oh yes, of course! (Loud cheers)

Student 5: What if Kochi picks you and the Eden stops cheering for KKR. How would you feel?

SOURAV: How would I get a chance to feel anything? I would be in the middle, playing.

Student 6: Do you judge Dhoni when you see India play and ponder how you would have done things?

SOURAV: No, I don’t. I will never in this life be where Dhoni is and I am aware of that.

Student 7: You had skipped the Nagpur Test (against Australia in 2004)…. Was it because the wicket had grass?

SOURAV: Ghasher mathe ghash-i thake (A field will always have grass).
(The Telegraph Calcutta 10th Feb 2011)

AK-47 seized on leads given by Maoists held in Trinamool camp

KOLKATA: The police claimed to have recovered on Thursday a sophisticated firearm and several rounds of ammunition and explosives from Kanyabali village in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district based on information provided by two suspected Maoists, who were arrested from a Trinamool Congress-run relief camp in Midnapore town on Monday.

Additional Director-General (Law and Order) Surajit Kar Purkayastha said one AK-47 rifle, 50 rounds of 8-mm cartridges and 61 gelatine sticks were recovered from an abandoned house. The AK-47 rifle reportedly has ‘PLGA' (the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army) and ‘EER' (Eastern Frontier Rifles) written on it, making the police suspect that it could be one of the firearms looted by Maoists from the Silda armoury after they massacred 24 EFR jawans on February 15, 2010.

“The arms and ammunitions were found when the security forces raided various places at Kanyabali and Lakhanpur villages on the basis of information revealed during the interrogation of Asim Mahato and Amiyo Mahato. Investigations are still on to examine if the duo was involved in the Silda incident,” Mr. Kar Purakayastha said here.

Both were produced before Midnapore's Chief Judicial Magistrate during the day and remanded to police custody for five days. Murder charges had been slapped on them.

http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/04/stories/2011020465690100.htm

‘Major’ protest threat from Morcha - Agitation to start on February 8 - ‘Indecisive’ tag on Trinamul chief and Morcha president

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has threatened to start a “major” agitation across north Bengal from February 8 even as the Centre indicated that the draft of the interim authority might be soon presented to the party.

However, starting tomorrow, the party will scale down its existing programmes till February 6.

Union home minister P. Chidambaram, while presenting his ministry’s report card for January, said: “Next steps are being actively considered.” While laying emphasis on “actively”, Chidambaram indicated that the meeting with the Morcha last week was positive. In the same breath, he urged the Morcha to call off its agitation and cooperate in maintaining law and order. Chidambaram said he was happy to note that the bandh had been lifted by the Morcha. The minister was referring to the 27-day strike called by the Morcha in the hills to pressure the Centre to clear its stand on Gorkhaland.

The party is yet to react to Chidambaram’s statement.

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said: “An emergency meeting of the party’s central committee was held in Darjeeling today where we decided to start a major agitation in the Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars from February 8 onwards. We are, however, not immediately announcing the programme but are trying to convey a message to the general public to be ready for this agitation.”

Another round of the Morcha’s central committee meeting will be held on February 7. Till then the party has decided not to push hard for the Bimal Gurung-led “long march for Gorkhaland” to the Dooars. The march has been stopped by the administration at Kumani More on the edge of the Dooars where the security forces have set up a barricade.

“The march is being suspended till February 6. Between February 1 and 3, no demonstrations will be organised in front of police stations. The demonstrations will resume on February 4. The relay hunger strike will continue as usual,” said Giri. A proposed padayatra from Darjeeling to the Terai, which had been lined up for February 2, has also been postponed.

The Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha will, however, go ahead with its “black flag” rally in the hills tomorrow. The rally is being organised to condemn the alleged lathicharge on Morcha supporters at Sibchu in Jalpaiguri district yesterday.

Asked about the sudden change in programme, Giri said it was “a party strategy”.

“We are fighting against the atrocities of the Bengal government, and the Centre, too, seems to be a silent spectator,” he said, an indication that the Morcha probably wants Delhi to end the Dooars stalemate.

For the past 14 days, the Morcha has been trying to enter the Dooars through the Kumani area but the Jalpaiguri district administration has stopped the marchers and imposed Section 144 on the Dooars. Nearly 600 marchers have been camping in Kumani.

For the past one year, the hills had been breathing easy as the Morcha, the state government and the Centre had agreed in principle to accept the interim set-up.

But the recent Morcha decision to reject the interim set-up is largely because of the delay in solving the contentious issues regarding the new arrangement for the hills. “The overwhelming majority in the Morcha’s central committee now feels that the set-up has been delayed for long and that the party will no longer benefit as the Bengal government is not sincere about devolving powers to the new authority. The party now firmly believes that it should strongly go ahead with the Gorkhaland agitation as this was the slogan that catapulted the hill party to a force to reckon with in the region,” said a Morcha source.

Probe plea granted

The court of the chief judicial magistrate in Darjeeling has accepted a prayer of the CBI to reinvestigate the murder of ABGL leader Madan Tamang and the alleged escape of the prime accused in the case, Nickole Tamang, from CID custody.

“The prayer for reinvestigation was made by the CBI on January 29 and the court today accepted the prayer,” said a court source.

All records related to these cases including the chargesheet will be handed over to the CBI.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110201/jsp/siliguri/story_13517915.jsp

Railways to recruit around 3 lakh people: Mamata Banerjee

HALDIA(WEST BENGAL)IANS: The Indian Railways will recruit 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh people in the next six months across the country, union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said here Friday.

"We will take 2.5 lakh - 3 lakh people all over the country. But I am sure we will get over three crore job applications," Banerjee said at a railway programme in this industrial town.

"The written tests will be held throughout the country over several days and the entire process will take over six months," she added.

The railways minister laid the foundation of a diesel multiple unit here, a wagon component factory to be set up in nearby Jellingham and the second Haldia dock complex of Kolkata port at the function.

The diesel unit project was shifted here from Howrah district's Sankrail following anti-land acquisition protests.

"Only one percent of people instigated by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) were opposing the project at Sankrail. Ninety nine percent people wanted it there. And I know if I had waited, things would have been sorted out," the minister said.

The diesel multiple unit factory will be set up on 42.5 acres of railway land and produce 96 coaches per year in phase 1 and 500 coaches in phase 2.

At Jellingham, the Steel Authority of India, railway and central public sector unit Burn Standard and Braithwaite will join hands to set up the wagon component factory.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/railways-to-recruit-around-3-lakh-people-mamata-banerjee/articleshow/7427914.cms

State violence ‘history’

New Delhi, Feb 4: Chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi today said the poll panel’s proactive approach in Bengal had been prompted by the state’s “history of violence” and “bitter political rivalry”.

“The Bengal elections are a huge challenge for us. The state has a history of violence, which is a matter of concern for us,” he said at an interactive session of the Indian Women’s Press Corps in Delhi.

He said that like the other three poll-bound states, Bengal too had “issues specific to it”. Quraishi said the commission was in the process of “vulnerability mapping” at the booth level in Bengal.

Asked about the importance of the observer team — led by Bihar chief electoral officer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh and including five IPS officers — that was sent to Bengal last month, Quraishi said: “The committee has submitted its report. But we receive inputs from various sources, including our observers.”

He chief said another observer team would be sent to the state as the “Left has complained that we had left out certain areas from our survey”. He said the commission wanted “the truth, the reality, and we will take all steps to get it”.

Quraishi laughed away suggestions that political considerations prompt the commission to be “slightly more proactive” in states where Opposition parties (not the Congress and its allies at the Centre) are in power.

He said that in Bengal, the commission’s challenges were the “intense political rivalry” and “armed struggle”.

Quraishi said the commission’s “worries” in Assam were the border issue and militancy while in Tamil Nadu the concerns were intense political rivalry and money power. He said that in Kerala, the poll panel’s concern was how to get the state’s substantial NRI population to exercise their voting rights.

Elaborating on the panel’s plan to ensure peaceful and fair polling in the Maoist-affected regions of Bengal, Quraishi said the commission would relocate booths to safer areas, reduce voting hours to allow poll personnel to shift to safer places before sundown and ensure that booths are set up in clusters. He said the commission would ensure that security was tight and also gather intelligence on candidates. He said choppers could be pressed into service if forces needed to be mobilised.

He said the commission had found out that in Bengal, “fathers don’t get their daughters enrolled as voters as it would reveal their true ages” and hamper their marriage prospects.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110205/jsp/bengal/story_13539595.jsp

Bengal declares cancer a notifiable disease

Kolkata, Jan 5 (IANS) The West Bengal government has declared cancer as a notifiable disease making it mandatory for hospitals and doctors to report every case of the disease that comes to their notice, an official said Wednesday.

The direction is aimed at maintaining a proper database and better surveillance.

The order issued by the state health department has made its mandatory for all medical establishments to report the number of cancer patients at their hospitals or centres to the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI).

'Cancer is now a notifiable disease in Bengal. The order has been issued on Dec 28. All the medical establishments have to report the number of cancer patients at their establishment to CNCI,' said Jaydip Biswas, director, CNCI.

'It will enable us to have a complete database of cancer and better surveillance of the disease. It will also help us to locate the areas where the number of cancer patients are high,' said Biswas.

Biswas added that all medical establishments in the state would get the order by the first week of January.

Maoist activities adversely affect West Bengal tourism

Rising Maoist activities in West Bengal's Bankura district have badly affected the tourism industry in the region.

The recent incidents of violence have deterred tourists from visiting the State, particularly due to fear of shutdowns.

"There are some apprehensions among the people who are coming from other parts of the state. There are frequent shutdown in these areas. People got some apprehensions about coming into this area that if they are coming, and there is a shutdown, then there is no point in coming there," said Mohammad Ghulam Ali Ansari, District Magistrate, Bankura.

Meanwhile, a tourist complex owner blamed the media for spreading fear of Maoists.

"There is no fear of Maoists in this area. Their activities and presence is almost 100 kilometers away from here. But some mediapersons are propagating that there is fear of Maoists. That's why tourists are afraid to come here," said Tapas Mondal, owner of a tourist complex.

"We have informed the local administration and they are taking necessary steps and we have a also informed the police administration and trade associations about the same," he added.(ANI)

Maoist terror in West Bengal

Fakir Mohan Pradhan

Counter-insurgency operations have yielded significant results but it has been a terrible year with West Bengal topping the list of Red terror-hit States

Replying to a question in the State Assembly on December 23, 2010, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed, “Because of sustained joint operations (against Maoists) by 35 companies of Central Reserve Police Force, six companies of Nagaland Police and 51 companies of State Police, the situation ... has greatly improved... The situation has changed in the past three months. Some of the blocks (in Jangalmahal) are terror free... (But) till the situation improves in Jharkhand and Odisha, it would be difficult to keep West Bengal unaffected. Till such time, the paramilitary forces should be there.”

Earlier, in an interview to a TV Channel in Kolkata on November 13, the Chief Minister asserted, “The Maoist leadership is now divided. They are now cornered.” Ironically, on December 17, cadre of the CPI(Maoist) had shot dead seven workers of the All-India Forward Block, a party belonging to the ruling Left Front, in Purulia district.

In fact, West Bengal has witnessed a dramatic spurt in Maoist-related fatalities in 2010. According to available data, 425 people, including 328 civilians, 36 security forces personnel and 61 Maoists, including cadre of the Maoist-backed People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities, were killed in West Bengal in 2010 till December 26, as against 158 people, including 134 civilians, 15 security forces personnel and nine Maoists killed in the State in 2009.

With this, West Bengal has now earned the dubious distinction of recording the highest Maoist-related fatalities in 2010, dislodging Chhattisgarh which had topped the list since 2006. The intervening years have seen an extraordinary rise in Maoist-related fatalities in West Bengal, from just six in 2005, through 24 in 2008, and up to 158 and 418 people, respectively, in 2009 and 2010.

Significantly, the civilian casualty figure of 328, which includes 148 fatalities in the Gyaneswari Express derailment of May 28, is by far the highest among the Maoist affected States for any past years, followed distantly by Chhattisgarh in 2006 with 189 civilian fatalities. In 2010, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand each recorded 71 civilian fatalities. Civilian fatalities in West Bengal have recorded a 145 per cent increase over the elevated base level of 134 for 2009.

The principal cause for this dramatic escalation is the rapid expansion of the Maoists in the State and their focussed infiltration of the tribal movement in Lalgarh, as a result of which they have taken control of wide areas despite mounting pressure from the security forces. The movement in Lalgarh snowballed after a failed assassination attempt targeting the Chief Minister and then Union Minister for Steel Ram Vilas Paswan at nearby Salboni on November 2, 2008, and the clumsy police responses that followed.

Unlike other States, the expanding Maoist sway is confronted by the organised (and often armed) cadre of the ruling CPI(M) in West Bengal. In order to hold the area under their control, the Maoists have neutralised the CPI(M) cadre base and terrorised the masses — tactics that explain the large number of Marxists and ‘sympathisers’ among the civilian fatalities in the State. Indeed, of the 328 civilians killed in 2010, CPI(M) leaders and cadre account for as many as 116.

Security forces fatalities have also risen to 36 in 2010, from 15 in 2009, even as 61 Maoists were killed, as against nine in 2009, reflecting increasing direct confrontation between the forces and the Maoists.The State witnessed 14 major incidents (involving three or more casualties) through 2010. The Maoists were also involved in at least 25 cases of landmine explosions, 18 incidents of arson, and two incidents of abduction (an overwhelming majority of abduction cases go unreported because of fear of the Maoists). The Maoists also executed seven ‘swarming attacks’ involving a large number of their armed cadre in 2010, as against eight such attacks in 2009.

There were, however, major successes scored by the security forces in 2010, including the killing of six Maoists, along with Sidhu Soren, the founding ‘commander-in-chief’ of Sidhu Kanu Gana Militia, in an encounter on July 26; the Ranja forest encounter of June 16 in which at least 12 Maoists were killed; and, the Hathilot forest encounter of March 25 in which Maoist Politburo member Koteswar Rao alias Kishanji was injured. Most significantly, the PCPA founder-president, Lalmohan Tudu, was killed by the forces on February 22, along with at least two other PCPA cadre.

These operational successes were compounded by key arrests. Four members of the Maoists’ West Bengal State Committee, including ‘State secretary’ Sudip Chongdar alias Kanchan alias Batas, Anil Ghosh alias Ajoyda, Barun Sur alias Bidyut, and Kalpana Maity, wife of Ashim Mondal alias Akash, were arrested from Kolkata on December 3 and 4. A day after these arrests, Asim Mondal alias Akash, a senior member of the State Committee, admitted that “The arrest is unfortunate and no doubt it is a jolt for our organisation.”

Earlier, on March 2, 2010, Venkateswar Reddy alias Telugu Dipak, another State Committee member, was arrested near Kolkata. Dipak was the suspected mastermind of the February 15 attack on the EFR camp at Sildah. Indeed, there seems to be an abrupt leadership vacuum among the Maoists in West Bengal with seven of the 11 State Committee members either behind bars or killed.

Further, Bapi Mahato, a prime accused in the Gyaneswari Express derailment as well as a senior member of the Maoist-backed PCPA, was arrested by a joint team of the West Bengal and Jharkhand Police from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand on June 20. At least 245 arrests have been made in 2010 in connection with Maoist activities. On June 18, however, State Chief Secretary Ardhendu Sen claimed that security forces operating in the Jangalmahal area, which includes Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore districts, had arrested “about 400 to 500 Maoists”. Nevertheless, the mastermind behind almost all the Maoist attacks in the region, Koteswar Rao alias Kishanji, CPI(Maoist) Politburo member in charge of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, remains elusive.

Expecting that the pressure mounted by the security forces would induce some Maoists to lay down arms, the State Government announced its new surrender policy on June 15. The ‘package’ followed the Union Government guidelines, with a one-off payment of Rs 1,50,000, vocational training for three months, and Rs 2,000 in a monthly stipend for each surrendering cadre. If arms were also surrendered, they would receive, in addition, Rs 15,000 for an AK-47 rifle, Rs 25,000 for a machine gun, and Rs 3,000 for a pistol or revolver. On June 17, West Bengal Director-General of Police Bhupinder Singh said, “We have received feelers that a number of people are willing to surrender.” By December 26, however, only five Maoists had surrendered after the announcement of the ‘package’.

Despite these successes, however, there is little reason for any great optimism. The Chief Minister’s claim that “the situation has changed in the past three months”, while not altogether incorrect, nevertheless glosses over the reality of continuing killings in the Jangalmahal area.

The writer is associated with the Institute for Peace and Conflict Management. Visual shows CPI-M’s anti-Maoist posters.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/307761/Maoist-terror-in-West-Bengal.html

A crore votes at stake, Trinamool, CPI-M, Congress, BJP share dais

Kolkata, Dec 28 (IANS) The compulsions of vote bank politics presented a rare sight here Tuesday when leaders of West Bengal's arch-rivals Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Trinamool Congress, as also of the Congress and the BJP, shared the dais at a rally organised by a group of Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes.

This, when the main opposition Trinamool has been boycotting, since last year's Lok Sabha polls, government functions where CPI-M ministers and leaders were in attendance.

The union ministers from Trinamool had even in the past left the venue of government functions midway to avoid been seen with CPI-M functionaries.

However, with the All India Matua Mahasangha group, said to wield influence over more than one crore voters mostly in the state's southern districts, political parties made a beeline for the rally in the heart of Kolkata.

Among those at the rally were state Housing Minister and CPI-M state secretariat member Gautam Deb and Trinamool top gun and union Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy - the latter having come with two other party leaders - besides state Congress chief Manas Bhunia and BJP's Tathagata Roy, apart from leaders of other partners of the ruling Left Front.

'This is historic. It is great that Trinamool leaders are also here, besides leaders of other parties,' said Deb in his address.

'It is a difficult task to bring all political parties in our state together for a cause, but the Matua Mahasangha has successfully done this,' said Deb expressing his thanks to Barama - Binapani Debi, who heads the group of SCs and OBCs comprising mostly immigrants from Bangaldesh.

Deb also urged all political parties, mainly the Trinamool leaders, to keep aside the political differences and come together to launch the movement on development issues and noble causes.

'All the 42 Lok Sabha members from West Bengal and the MPs in Rajya Sabha irrespective of their political affiliations should come together and place the demands of the Matua Mahasangha in parliament,' said Deb.

Roy and other Trinamool leaders sat on the dais but did not speak. Echoing Deb, Bhunia said his party will support whole heartedly if all the parties come together on the issues raised by the Matua Mahasangha.

'A Congress delegation, including me, will place the demands of the Matua before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in January,' said Bhunia.

The Matua Sangha, founded by Binapani Devi's husband's great grandfather Harichand Thakur, a Brahmin, at Gopalganj in Faridpur (now in Bangladesh), held the rally demanding changes in the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003 to give citizenship, voting rights and proper rehabilitation to refuges staying in India over decades.

A team of delegates of the Matua Mahasangha also submitted a deputation before Governor M. K. Naranayan and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. (Sify News, 28th Dec 2010)