Bengal

Labour protest halts highway expansion

• The Statesman
• 09 Nov 2014

biswabrata goswami
Midnapore, 8 NoV: The expansion work of National Highway – 6 from four lanes to six lanes is likely to be delayed as labour unrest is taking on a militant mode owing to the reluctant attitude of the construction company authorities.
Around 150 workers who were engaged by the Ashoka Buildcon Ltd (ABL) and ATR Infraprojects Pvt.Ltd (ATR) at different times have started a movement against the project implementing agencies over some issues which include the issuance of identity cards, appointment letters, increments and some statutory benefits. They have already stalled work at few places along the stretch between Dankuni and Kharagpur for the past few days as the authorities have failed to address their demands even after several bipartite talks held since the last few years.
Mr Sk Abdul Hai, general secretary of the labour union alleged that the company had not issued any appointment letters to the workers till date, while they had assured to issue the appointment letters when the workers were inducted. “The company is not even following the Minimum Wages Act. Workers are being deprived from getting statutory benefits like provident fund, medical facilities and others. The company does not have any increment policy even though it is mandatory under the provision of Labour Act,” alleged Mr Hai.
Ashoka Buildcon started work in 2012 after emerging as the preferred bidder in a tender for six-laning on the 111.4-km Dankuni-Kharagpur section of NH-6. The expansion has to be completed in 30 months but if the agitation continues unabated, it would obviously miss the deadline.
A labour union leader (who did not wish to be named) alleged the company authorities prefer to keep happy the syndicate leaders who often extort money from them rather resolving the labour issues on hopes that the syndicate leaders (most are Trinamul Congress leaders) will defuse the labour unrest with their able capacity or political influence.
The company’s people also influenced the police administration who often threatened the labourers asking them not to launch any agitation while they are reluctant to recognize their workers, alleged Mr Hai. The workers however are adamant about continuing with the stir.

Bengal

Impasse over elephants’ route ends

• The Statesman
• 07 Nov 2014

Conflict between Bengal and Odisha govts resolved

Biswabrata Goswami
biswabrata@thestatesman.net
Midnapore, 6 November
An unwanted conflict over the blocking of elephant passage route between West Bengal and Odisha governments has apparently come to a happy ending today, as a herd of 80 elephants were allowed to enter into Odisha from the state’s Junglemahal districts.
The trouble erupted after the locals in Odisha dug trenches along its border with West Midnapore to thwart the jumbos from crossing over to their side. As it was the time for the jumbos to take Odisha route from Bengal during their way back to Jharkhand’s Dalma sanctuary, a sudden blockade along their transit route in Odisha led them to stay in Bengal’s district triggering conflict with the human habitats for the last few days.
To address the situation, forest officials from Bengal met their counterparts in Odisha and urged them to withdraw their blockades so that the migratory elephants can take their normal transit routes. Earlier, in August, the forest officials of Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh had met in Jamshedpur and pledged working together to ensure free passage for the elephants.
“After a series of talks with the divisional forest officers of Balasore and Baripada in Odisha, they finally lifted the blockades and all the elephants wandering in the Nayagram, Gopiballavpur areas in West Midnapore reached the Odisha today”, said Mr Anjan Guha, Divisional Forest Officer, Kharagpur.
Historically, elephants were present in West Bengal in the 19th century, mostly in the dense ‘Sal’ forests of Midnapore. But their population dwindled with the gradual loss of forest cover. With the JFM (joint forest management) scripting a success story during the mid-80s by bringing the green cover back, the Jharkhand elephants - already under severe threat from habitat loss - started moving towards Chhattisgarh, Bengal and Odisha using their age-old corridors.
As if the habitat loss in Jharkhand and Odisha - the elephants’ original abode - were not enough, a study by Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) reveals that more than 2,000 and 5,000 hectares of prime elephant habitat in Jharkhand and Odisha respectively are being extensively mined. WPSI undertook the study almost a decade ago and found that elephants from Jharkhand’s Dalma sanctuary had started moving towards locations not suited for them. The study found dissection of the jumbos’ traditional transit paths through West Singhbhum in Jharkhand and Keonjhar in Odisha. While the mining activities in Jharkhand and Odisha are on the rise, the ripples are being felt in West Bengal. Foresters claim that the jumbo herd from Dalma couldn’t return to Jharkhand in 2012 and had to stay here. The fallout: ever-increasing conflict in Bengal.
Mr Subrata Purohit, a Wild Life activist in Midnapore alleged, “The elephant doesn’t belong to a single state, it’s a heritage animal. Blocking their traditional migration route is a crime.”

India

IIT-Kgp set to make a global mark

• The Statesman
• 06 Nov 2014

Biswabrata Goswami
biswabrata@thestatesman.net
Kharagpur, 5 November
In a unique academic leadership programme, IIT Kharagpur will now invite professors and scholars from foreign universities besides offering joint PhDs with top international institutes to support students and scholars for international exposure.
This will not only boost exchange programs and research activities but will also help the institute to make its presence felt strongly across international academia.
Under the Shri Gopal Rajagarhia International Programme, which was launched today, at least ten professors from some of the world’s leading universities would come to the Kharagpur campus each year for few months.
Similarly, around 30 talented international scholars would be invited every year to conduct research activities at IIT, said the institute’s Director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti.
He said they are already in talks with leading universities from the US, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Under the joint PhD programme, students would be awarded with the doctorate by IIT-Kgp and an international university.
The institute’s distinguished alumnus Gopal Rajagarhia of the 1968 batch has donated Rs. 10 crore for funding the initiative.
“I was always keen to give it back to IIT. Its international ratings are poor because of low international exposure. With this program, we want the IIT to make its presence felt in the international arena so that its ranking improves as per our Vision 2020,” Mr Rajagarhia said.
At present around 200 PhDs are awarded by the IIT each year and hope to take it to 400. “We want around 25 per cent of PhDs to be joint PhDs. We will also be getting foreign students to study here for such joint PhDs,” said Mr Chakrabarti.
Recently, IIT, KGP has launched the unique International Summer and Winter Semester programmes wherein students and faculties from India and abroad are participating.
Besides student and faculty exchange, the institute has launched the M N Faruqui Innovation Centre (MNFIC) today in the presence of Shri Arjun Malhotra who made the seed funding for this centre. Several other alumni were present during this program.
Among several objectives, the Center will focus on supporting the creation and operation of an academic organisation within IIT Kharagpur in which students would be able to work in  interdisciplinary groups to work towards novel and efficient solutions for well-known, substantial and contemporary technical challenges.

VU students yet to follow JU footsteps

• The Statesman
• 02 Nov 2014

Unions haven’t raised voices over campus surveillance

biswabrata goswami
Midnapore, 1 NoV: At a time when JU students are holding referendum on issues ranging from the Vice-Chancellor’s continuation to campus surveillance, not a single protest, even by the students’ unions like SFI or DSO, against the introduction of campus surveillance by checking identity cards at Vidyasagar University has been organised yet.
Interestingly, hundreds of VU students have, however, extended their moral support to the students’ movement at JU either on Facebook or other media.
Under the direction of the present vice-chancellor, Profe-
ssor Ranjan Chakrabarti, himself a professor of History at Jadavpur University, a notice was issued by the acting registrar of VU on 26 May, 2014 (Memo No.VU/R/Noti./656/2014), which stated that ‘the bona fide students of Vidyasagar University are advised to enter into the university premises showing their identity proof issued by the university authority.’
 In the notice it was further mentioned that ‘if any unauthorised person(s) are found moving in the different sections of the university, necessary disciplinary/legal action will be taken against them as per the university rules.’
  The lone voice of protest was heard from Dr Abhijit Guha, a teacher of the Anthropology department of Vidyasagar University, who wrote a letter to the registrar on 27 May pointing out the fact that the ‘university campus is a public space owned, maintained and funded by the public authorities of the country and it was not declared as a restricted area by any authority.’
  Dr Guha also pointed out that there is a nationalised bank, a post office and other public utility facilities within the campus of Vidyasagar University and the aforesaid notice may prohibit the public who do not officially belong to the university. He requested the registrar to revise the notice in the interest of the public.
  The reply of the registrar of VU to Dr Guha foreshadowed the attitude of the present authorities of Jadavpur University who had recently issued orders by which entry of any person in the campus would be under strict surveillance.        On 30 May, Dr JK Nandi the acting registrar of VU, categorically replied to Dr Guha that ‘a university campus is not a “public place” as it is used to define national highways, roads/streets, railway or bus stations, parks or any other open space used by the public at large.’
 The registrar of Vidyasagar University also stated that ‘most universities of India are enclosed spaces’ and the persons using the bank or the post office of the university campus are ‘visitors’(read ‘outsiders’) and there should be  certain restrictions in the entry of those persons for the protection of the valuable properties of the university.
An SFI student (who is not wished to be named) said, “We have no organisational strength to arrange a protest against the decision here, so we have supported the JU students who are fighting for the same issue in their varsity.”