Christians in Nadia observe Good Friday through online live streaming to avoid congregation in the wake of Covid 19 outbreak

Biswabrata Goswami

KRISHNAGAR, 10 APRIL: It’s been an experience that has never happened before as Christian’s in Nadia on Friday was seen either glued to online streaming or engaged in small prayers at one’s home, as the Good Friday mass in churches on account of COVID-19 spread has been limited to just five, including the priest and his associates.

Hundreds of Christians, today, observed Good Friday with prayers, hymns and messages of peace and reconciliation online, though it has not dampened their spirit to observe the anniversary of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion.

Many people also participate in the church services specially on the day, but this year as everyone is grounded in their homes they had to participate in the online live streaming of the services.

Good Friday is a day of prayers, penance and fasting to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Calvary Hills nearly 2000 years ago. Churches observe it with a service that normally takes place in the evening where Christ’s death is remembered with hymns and special prayers.

At Krishnagar Cathedral Church, the Parish Priest Father Ongshu Gyen, Reverend Fathers John Biswas and Rakesh Mondol recalled Christ’s sacrifice for the entire humanity.

“Jesus was the epitome of love and forgiveness which he demonstrated on the Cross. He died so that we can be forgiven for our sins. His message of peace and reconciliation is so relevant in this era”, said reverend Biswas.   

He also said the celebration this time was quite different as it was observed without a congregation in church in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. All Christians observed the Holy Day sitting in their homes and practiced rituals by their own way to show honours to Jesus Christ, he added.

For Krishnagar Cathedral Church, the online service is being conducted by Avijit Louis Sarkar, a social worker who eventually said, “I have started online live service for prayers for the last few days and members of Christian community are feeling good for this live service”.

He said other Churches in Ranaghat and Chapra also took the advantage of the live online service and they also observed the Holy Day through this service.

Learning the teaching from the ‘Way of the Cross’ is the highlight of the Good Friday service. Hundreds of devout Catholics gather at Krishnagar Church each year to listen to mass and participate in it. The afternoon sermons narrate the tale of sufferings Jesus Christ took upon himself for the sake of humanity. “Choir and services adds essence to the day. Sadly, devout had not been able to make it to the church, but live streaming helped us all to soak in the blessings and worship of Lord Jesus, who sacrificed his life for us”, said a member of the Ranabandh Church in Chapra.

Chaitra sale now a distant dream for both sellers & buyers

  Biswabrata Goswami

(Statesman News Service)

KRISHNAGAR, 12 APRIL:  Chaitra Sale, the Bengali’s annual shopping festival ahead of Bengali New Year is now a distant dream to both sellers and buyers as the entire state is observing nationwide lockdown to contain Covid-19 infection.

Thousands of retailers and hawkers, who had stocked garments for selling in the season-end Chaitra sale trade, have started feeling the heat of the dreaded virus.

The month-long discount sale offered by the hawkers ahead of Bengali New Year attracts lakhs of people every year, but this time, all shops are closed and hawkers were not allowed to sit on the roadside near the markets due to lockdown.

This corresponded conducted a brief survey amongst the members attached to the domestic garment manufacture industry and hosiery trade at a few places in Nadia to get a sense of how the members were facing up to the current circumstances and how they were forecasting the period after lock-down was lifted.

An analysis indicates the significant crisis is brewing in the domestic garment industry and household hosiery small scale industry. Only a comprehensive support package from the government can cushion the potential collapse of these small scale industries.

“Our hosiery manufacturing industry is staring at close to Rs 16 crore per month in losses as production grinds to a halt amid the nationwide lockdown started from 25 March. We don’t know how we will manage the situation. There are around 20000 labourers attached with the industry and we are now maintaining their livelihoods at our own cost. If the situation persists for more weeks, it will be impossible to maintain our livelihoods”, said Tarak Ghosh, a resident of Anjanapara at Saktinagar in Krishnagar who runs a small scale hosiery industry.

In Saktinagar area alone, there are around 2000 small scale hosiery industry and all residents are attached with the industry.

“During Chaitra sale, I normally get orders for making garments and hosiery items worth of Rs 25000 per day, but this time, I have no orders as all shops are closed due to lockdown aimed to combat Covid-19 infection”, said Alok Saha, who also runs a tailoring industry in his house at Saktinagar.

Like Saktinagar, retailers and manufacturers of domestic garments and hosiery items living in Kalinagar are facing huge losses as production and sales have been stopped due to the restriction imposed for nationwide lockdown.

In Ranaghat, Chakdaha, Kalyani and Nabadwip, where lakhs of people rush to the markets for Chaitra sale, retailers and hawkers are facing the same financial constraints due to the impact of the lockdown.

“The North Bengal is an important market for Nadia traders. Since we depend majorly on Siliguri market, we are experiencing losses in business and are likely to face closure if the situation doesn’t improve,” said Govinda Saha, a wholesaler of hosiery and garment items.

He said 30% of the total stuff in the market is sent to Siliguri but to date none of the buyers has arrived this season. “If the situation continues for more weeks, our business will be in doldrums,” Saha added.

Health staff face social boycott even after warnings from chief minister

Biswabrata Goswami

Statesman News Service

MIDNAPORE, 13 APRIL: More than a hundred health staff attached to a private nursing home in Midnapore town are facing social boycott from their native villagers who suspect them of carrying novel coronavirus after being exposed to a Covid-19 positive patient.

This incident came into the light at a time when the chief minister Mamata Banerjee has recently asked her administration to ensure that doctors, nurses and health workers battling the spread of the dreaded virus do not face any discrimination.

“I am asking the administration to ensure that doctors, nurses and health workers don’t face any problem. They should not face social boycott. They are fighting to prevent the spread of the virus and it is our responsibility to ensure proper security for them,” the chief minister said after a meeting with top government officials at Nabanna in recent times.

Trouble broke out a few days ago when an elderly man tested positive for Covid-19 at Kalinga Hospital in Odisha. Before it, he was admitted in a private hospital in Midnapore town with other ailments. As his condition was not improving, his members took him away to the Kalinga hospital in Odisha where he tested positive for Covid-19.

Soon after the news spread, the West Midnapore district health department immediately swung into action and sealed the nursing home. The administration also sent 19 health staff including some doctors and nursing staff in a quarantine center for observation. Later, the reports of all samples taken from these health staffs found negative for Covid-19.

“But, as the nursing home has been closed for a temporary period, the health employees sought to go to their houses. The problem aroused when the villagers disallowed them to get entry into their houses. A total of 127 health staff hailed from different parts of the district including the district headquarters could not go to their houses as the local residents didn’t allow them to get entry into their locality. The local residents suspect they are carrying coronavirus as they were exposed to a Covid-19 positive patient”, said Partha Mondol, one of the directors of the nursing home.

“Among them, many staff reside either in different municipal wards or in the outskirts of the town. My housemaid, who is not attached with the nursing home, has not been allowed to go to her house even. So, we have kept all our staff in the nursing home premises and they are being provided foods and other essential things”, Mr Mondol said.

When asked, Dr Girish Chandra Bera, chief medical officer of health said, “This type of social boycott should not happen. These health staff are not only the victims; many of our health employees have faced the same consequences. I have asked the district police to look into this matter and conduct an awareness programme so that local residents are not unnecessarily panicked and they do not indulge in social boycott”.   

Mr Dinesh Kumar, superintendent of police, however, said he will take stringent action against those who will discriminate against any health staff or his/her family members in the society.

Bengal

Letter takes four months to travel three kilometres

• The Statesman
• 01 Feb 2015

biswabrata goswami
Midnapore, 31 Jan: A registered letter took more than four months to reach its destination and that too over a distance of just three kilometres.
The letter in question. posted with the registration number RW476232875IN, is a reply to an RTI query sent by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, West Midnapore to Dr Abhijit Guha, an Associate Professor of the Department of Anthropology at Vidyasagar University and was dispatched from the Midnapore Police Line post office on 05.09.2014 with an acknowledgement card.
The sealed letter reached Vidyasagar University post office located just 3 kilometers from the Midnapore Police line on 27 January.
The track record of the letter at the website of the Indian Postal Department revealed more strange facts.
It shows that the letter was posted not from Midnapore Police Lines but from Krishnapur Post office on 22 January at Kolkata and then via Khragpur reached Vidyasagar University Post Office. (http://www.indiapost.gov.in/RNetTracking.aspx?RNetNo=Rw476232875in).
It is not at all clear why the letter was posted twice once on 05.09.2014 and for the second time on 22.01.2015 from Kolkata about four months later.
When contacted the
RTI applicant, Dr Guha stated that the “information he sought was a report of an enquiry
conducted by the Midnapore Police on the misappropriation of UGC funds and impersonation perpetrated by Professor Swapan Kumar Pramanick, a former Vice-Chancellor of Vidyasagar University.
Dr. Guha has already submitted his complaint to the Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Midnapore Division to enquire into the delayed delivery of the letter and he suspected that something went wrong into the dispatch of the information to him since the Public Information Officer is not providing the police enquiry report for the last several months.”

Bengal

Re-excavating history

• The Statesman
• 12 Jan 2015

Biswabrata Goswami
biswabrata@thestatesman.net
Midnapore, 11 January
The state archaeology department is all set to conduct re-excavation of the Mogolmari mound in Dantan in West Midnapore which is believed to be the ruins of a ‘Buddhist monastic complex’ resembling the ancient Nalanda University and Karnasubarna.
It is being believed to be the biggest monastic structure discovered so far in West Bengal and it was probably an institution on the lines of Nalanda.
Last year, the state archaeology department had taken charge of its excavation and it had been able to do excavation work for about three months. For further excavation work, it applied to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) this year and the ASI authorities in its meeting held on 7 January has renewed its appeal, a senior government official said.     
The Mogolmari mound was first discovered in 2003 by Indologist BN Mukherjee who visited Dantan to document Bengal’s navigational history. Calcutta University started excavating the site in 2004 and did it in several phases till 2012 to arrive at the conclusion that a Buddhist vihara existed underneath the massive mound of Mogalmari, that developed in two phases from sixth to seventh centuries and then again from ninth to tenth centuries. However, due to lack of funds and several other infrastructural shortcomings, the university could not continue to excavate the mound. The state archaeology department took it over and started re-excavating the site from November last year.
The state archaeology department has gradually excavated a tri-ratha type of structure that is typical of the Buddhist monastic architecture, complete with many cells lined on all four sides.
Several relics of post-Gupta period, dating back to the sixth and seventh century AD, have been unearthed which resemble those found in Nalanda and Karnasubarna. This monastic structure was, however, made in two phases: after the destruction of its original monastic complex another structure was built on its basic foundation. Its early phase structure was made of various decorative bricks and beautiful relics.
Later it was painted in red and the whole complex was decorated with beautiful artwork. But, in the second phase structure, the complex was not made with earlier phase’s arts. The monastic complex was left abandoned after 12th century. A team comprising eight members from Calcutta University's archaeology department, led by the late Ashok Datta, started digging the area in 2003. During the sixth phase excavation, it was believed to be the largest find till date in Bengal, measuring about 3,600 sq mt.
In the latest, six terracotta tablets were found lying inside a container that was kept below a staircase; that too has been unearthed intact. Brahmi inscriptions have also been found on these tablets that read the equivalent of, ‘Ye darma hetu prabhabo...maha shaman’, indicating clearly that the site was a prominent and proliferating vihara (monastery) of the times. A large number of deities have been unearthed during the course of the excavation and historians feel that the monastery was built during the Vajrayana phase of Buddhism.

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Youth slaps Mamata’s nephew, nearly lynched

• The Statesman
• 05 Jan 2015

TMC workers go on rampage after incident at party rally

Biswabrata Goswami
Chandipur, 4 January
A Trinamul Youth Congress rally turned into a battlefield after an unidentified youth slapped Abhishek Banerjee, a party MP and the nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee on the stage in front of a bunch of leaders, including a minister and two MLAs, at Chandipur in East Midnapore this afternoon.
The youth was caught by party workers and leaders who started beating him up on the stage;  he was then pulled down on the ground where the crowd joined in. The youth was later rescued by police and admitted to the Chandipur block hospital in critical condition.
Hundreds of workers and supporters pelted stones at police and security officials who rushed to the stage to rescue Mr Banerjee. The irate workers also jumped on the stage and vandalised it. They then went to the Chandipur police station, which they ransacked.
At least 15 police persons including senior police officials were injured in the incident.
The Trinamul workers also targeted mediapersons too. Four mediapersons of two vernacular news channels were beaten up and their cameras were broken.
The youth’s motive in attacking Mamata Banerjee’s nephew is yet to be ascertained. The party claimed that the youth was not a Trinamul member but an outsider.
According to party leaders, the youth was apparently allowed to go on stage after he told party workers that he wanted to take a photo of Mr Banerjee on his cellphone.
Mr Sisir Adhikari, a veteran Trinamul Congress leader said, “I am astounded at this incident. I don’t know the youth, but I believe that it was not a factional feud that led to the incident. There is obviously a conspiracy and it should be properly probed”.
Mr Akhil Giri, who belongs to Mr Adhikari’s rival lobby, said, “The party will conduct a probe into this matter. It is impossible to say anything before the investigation is completed.”
A CPI-M leader said, “Following the Saradha scam Miss Banerjee decided to put aside many senior leaders, perhaps to distance herself from such scam-tainted leaders, and started promoting her nephew. This has aggravated the internal feuds in the party’s district leaderships and this incident may be the resultant of the factional feuds. Though I personally condemn the attack on Mr Banerjee”.
Congress leader Mr Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said, “It is nothing
but a crude manifestation of an internal conflict within the TMC. The Frankenstein syndrome has become very visible in the Trinamul.”

Bengal

‘Pisciculture changed lifestyle of self-help group members’

• The Statesman
• 02 Jan 2015

Biswabrata Goswami
biswabrata@thestatesman.net
Midnapore, 2 January
At a time when the state government is planning to frame a policy to attract investments in the fisheries sector, a research study revealed that pisciculture has changed lifestyle of Self Help Group members in Birbhum.
Mrs Rajyosree Roy, a student of Vidyasagar University, who has conducted a research study on socio-economic development of Self Help Group members involved in fishery activities in Birbhum district, said that her research works would help the government to formulate plans in eradicating poverty among fishing community through pisciculture in rural Bengal.
Government officials said that at present, there is no specific policy to attract investments in this sector. The proposed policy will have a comprehensive outline on what incentives, subsidies and grants the state government could provide to entrepreneurs or private companies.
Self Help Groups (SHG), non-formal cooperatives, are making a silent revolution through micro-credit and various other activities involving women as major change agents to make pisciculture sustainable.
Nearly 30,000 SHGs have been formed so far in Birbhum district who have made a notable success in micro-finance. The study, however, focused on the functioning of 93 SHGs of which 45 run by male, 38 by female and 10 by mixed groups respectively, located in 19 blocks of Birbhum district comprising 644 members mainly belonging to Below Poverty Line (BPL). Also, different social class of this fishing population of these SHGs was assisted under Swarnjaynti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY). These SHGs were found to save a portion of their meagre income and pull away that money for inter-lending among them at an interest decided by the SHGs.
Mrs Roy in her survey projected how the credit and project loan were used for better sustainability and enhancement of income in changing the lifestyle of poverty-stricken group members from pisciculture. Empowerment of women was undertaken through training and other assistance provided by local panchayats, NGO’s and government officials. The SHGs members increased their self-confidence, leadership qualities, skill to undertake pisciculture, marketing, knowledge of book keeping, enhanced income, linkage with banks and protest against social injustice.