1. Dengue Fear Back To Haunt Duttabad After Student Death
Panic has gripped the residents of Duttabad, a predominantly slum area stretching from Ultadanga to Belighata off EM Bypass and sharing its border with Salt Lake, after dengue claimed the life of Narayan Shrestha (10), a resident of 115 Duttabad Road, on Thursday.
Several persons have been suffering from fever in Duttabad since the last few months. According to locals, the 10-year-old boy had developed fever last week and later it was found that he had dengue. “He had gone to school last Saturday to appear in an exam. His condition started deteriorating from Monday,” said Prabha Makal, his neighbour.
(Source: The Times Of India)
2. Woman In Hospital With Swine Flu, Raises Outbreak Scare
A 55-year-old woman from Kolkata has been admitted to a city private hospital with swine flu, raising the scare of an outbreak. She is the third H1N1virus patient to be treated at the hospital since last month. Even though the number of swine flu cases has been low this year, the virus may have started spreading on the city fringes, fear doctors. A woman from Kakdweep in South 24 Parganas succumbed to swine flu at another private hospital on Wednesday. So far, she is the only H1N1 casualty in the state this year.
The Kolkata woman was admitted to Fortis Hospital off EM Bypass about ten days ago. Even though she had been in a critical state, her condition has improved considerably, according to doctors at the hospital.
(Source: The Times Of India)
3. Family Recounts Fatal DeMo Blow
The Roy Chowdhurys of Behala are yet to come to terms with the death of their their youngest brother almost two years ago.
On a December morning in 2016, when the nation was reeling under the demonetisation blow, Kallol Roy Chowdhury slumped while standing in a queue outside an ATM kiosk in Hooghly's Bandel, almost 60km from Calcutta.
He lay on the ground for over 20 minutes before passing away.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. College Count Lays Bare Job Truth
The college service commission has received more than 16,500 applications for 2,500-odd vacant posts of assistant professor at government-aided colleges, the huge gap in the figures highlighting the lack of enough sought-after jobs in the state.
"Teaching at a college seems the only option for those who have a good academic record. It is not that all the applicants have been nurturing the ambition to teach at a college. They want this job because few other jobs in the state guarantees security and a decent salary," the principal of a college said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
5. City 10 Drive To Kerala With Carloads Of Relief
He drove 2,645km over 66 hours to deliver aid to Kerala flood victims. As the Kochi airport shut down and rail services remained suspended, south Calcutta builder Abhishek Das took to the wheel of his Toyota Fortuner to reach the flood-ravaged state.
Das, along with nine volunteers, left his Santoshpur home on 21 August and reached Thiruvananthapuram on 24 August morning.
"The Thiruvananthapuram airport was open and functioning, but I did not know whether the things I wanted to take would be allowed on flight. So I drove," Das said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Companies Wary Of Women's Issues
Corporate funds are scarce for women's issues, when compared to health and education, a report by a Mumbai-based foundation has suggested.
Vidya Shah, the CEO of EdelGive Foundation that has come up with the study, attributed the shortage to a tendency to avoid "edgy issues".
"Women's empowerment is an under-funded area in Bengal," Shah said. It would include issues such as trafficking, domestic violence, dropout rate among girls and early marriage.
"Working on trafficking involves taking on the state and involvement with police and child welfare organisations. Corporates want to avoid all that and do safe things that are easily measurable," Shah said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. Special Buses to Ferry Puja Shoppers
Puja shoppers can avail themselves of special buses to be introduced by the state government from Saturday.
The buses will remain parked at some of the points near shopping hubs where people usually converge between 5pm and 9pm on weekends and government holidays. Passengers will be ferried to destinations in and around Calcutta, including Howrah, Barrackpore, Behala and Santragachhi.
"The idea is to ensure that shoppers have a comfortable ride home. Soon after a bus leaves a particular point, another would move in and keep waiting for passengers to arrive," said a senior official of the West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBSTC).
(Source: The Telegraph)
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