JournaBulletin - Local - Week 27

The state this week 

Summary of the week at a glance

CBI arrests seven ECL officials in Bengal coal smuggling case.

 

On July 13, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested seven ECL officials concerning the coal smuggling scam. Among the other officials arrested were ECL's former General Manager, A Mallick and serving ECL manager, Mukesh Kumar. 

According to CBI sources, their sleuths began interrogating the seven officials on Wednesday morning. However, the Interrogation followed the officials' arrest late evening that day as there were a lot of inconsistent statements by them. The investigating agencies suspect a scam of Rs.1300 about to the coal smuggling scam. 

No ‘immediate plan’ to shut schools and colleges in Bengal amid COVID-19 spike: Bratya Basu 

Education Minister Bratya Basu on July 8 made a big announcement as Covid cases surge in West Bengal. He stated that the state government has no immediate plans to shut down schools and colleges amid spiking Covid cases. He said that the decision remains with the state health department. 

The education minister’s statement was followed by the report of 2962 fresh covid-19 cases in the state. On being enquired about the student’s union polls in the colleges and universities, he said that the government intends to hold them as soon as possible. 

CM not invited to Sealdah metro station inauguration: TMC claimed

TMC fumes on Irani being invited [Photo Courtesy: google/zeenews.india]

On July 11, TMC claimed that Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was not invited to the inauguration of the Sealdah metro station of the East-West Corridor. On Saturday, Kolkata Municipal Rail Corporation (KMRC) Union Minister Smriti Irani inaugurated the metro station.  

TMC leader Firhad Hakim allegedly expressed that the Central Government had no regard for democratic principles. TMC accused that the invitation dropped at the CM’s residence late last night. The East-West Metro project is being executed with the mutual cooperation of the state and Centre. Now the Centre is playing ‘politics’ by not inviting Mamata Banerjee to the inauguration of the East-West Metro.  

 

West Bengal registers over 1,700 dengue cases in the first 26 weeks of 2022, the highest in 4 years.  

Highest cases of dengue in recent years [Photo Courtesy: google/newsd]

July 13 2022, West Bengal: West Bengal faced a new thread in the form of Dengue, while the State registered 1037 dengue cases in the first 26 weeks of 2019 but that number dropped to 619 and 273 in 2020 and 2021. But again, it has shot up to 1751 in just the first 26 weeks of 2022. 

North 24 Parganas, Malda and Murshidabad have recorded the highest number of cases. 70% of the rural areas have registered more cases than urban areas in West Bengal. “Unbridled urbanization” is the reason behind the rising number of Dengue cases in rural West Bengal, experts claimed.  

West Bengal: Kala Azar cases in 11 districts of W.B.

A boost of Kala-Azar cases in West Bengal [Photo Courtesy: google/MSF]

West Bengal reported 65 cases of black fever in 11 districts: 65 cases of Kala Azar or black fever have been reported from 11 districts in West Bengal over the past few weeks, officials of the state health department said. "The Union government has set a target to reduce Kala Azar cases to less than one per 10,000 population at the block level to eliminate the disease. In West Bengal, we are well within the target. There is no outbreak and this is not a cause for concern," said Siddhartha Niyogi, director of health services in the state.

Author

Debomita Dey, Sheetal Prasad