A police library with a difference

Today being National Librarian’s Day, I wish to talk about a new library that charmed me.

I came to know of it from a Facebook post of Kolkata Police. Known as Kolkata Police Museum on Google Maps, its full name is Kolkata Police Museum, Library and Cafeteria. It’s located at 112 Ripon Street (on the left approaching Wellington).

I visited it with three friends who got interested hearing of it (two of them read the Facebook post too). The museum is small and spread over two floors. Its main attraction is arms seized by police from various periods of history dating back to pre-independence era.

Photograph by Arnab Banerjee

It shows the evolution of the police uniform since the colonial times. The winners of various awards/ honours of police are listed. It states that Natha Singh was the first Indian to win a traffic roll of honour and he won honours in two consecutive years, 1938 and 1939. A section familiarizes with various badges of the ranks of police which is an important civil information.

The history of the house is interesting too. The second prince (Mejokumar) of the erstwhile Bhawal Estate, who is popularly known as 'Sanyasi Raja' (The monk king), thanks to the popular Bengali movie of the same name made on him, fought the famous Bhawal Monk case from this house. It is regarded as one of the most extraordinary cases ever fought in Indian judicial history which took place in 1933-1936. As it happened, a monk came to the estate and claimed himself to be the Mejokumar who was known to have died eleven years back, and demanded his share of the estate.

Available documents show that it was the residence of Calcutta High Court Barrister RS Tweedle in 1874. After changing hands it landed with lawyer SN Matilal (in 1912) whose daughter Sarajubala Devi was married to the first prince of the Bhawal estate. It went to be part of the estate thereafter.

The house was decided to be demolished given its pathetic condition at a point of time. Kolkata Police took it as a challenge to restore it, and I must say they have done an exemplary job! Post the painstaking restoration, it was declared a 'Restored Heritage Building of the City' by INTACH. 

Coming to the library. It took me by surprise by the kinds of books in its collection as it completely beats the perception of a police library. I later realised it was by design, thanks to the Commissioner of Police Mr Rajiv Kumar, as it has been envisioned as a centre for police-citizen connect. The CP is so attached to it that it is said to be his second home and he is often seen there. The surprise element is that it has a wide collection of books for all the members of a family, from the junior to the seniormost. The fiction section is amazingly robust with admirable collection of classic literature, juvenile literature and classic thrillers.  The non-fiction range is pretty good too, including study books in various disciplines like finance and management. There are many Bengali titles too, both in fiction and non-fiction. Noticed the now popular book on fascinating cases of Kolkata Police written by senior police officer Supratim Sarkar, titled Goendapith Lalbazar (The English translation named ‘Murder in the City’ is available too). Before it became a book, the stories were being published in the Rohoshyo Robbar series on Kolkata Police Facebook page and they gradually whipped up a huge following.  

The library has over ten thousand books.

At the end of our tour of the library, what blew my mind was the extensive collection of comic books in English to hook the youngest readers. Imagine a police library keeping a huge collection of Tintin and Asterix, Marvel and DC!!

As Sub-Inspector S Sharma, the friendly gentleman who acquainted us through the library, told us, it is open seven days a week, 11 am to 7 pm. However, the best time is weekend as visitors are much less. They encourage one to come with the whole family and spend a good number of hours there. To help the purpose, there’s a cool cafe, interestingly named Off Duty Delights, which serves (non-alcoholic) beverages and a good range of snacks. We liked the iced tea. For the overall feel, one of the friends compared it to the British Council Library.

Iced tea

The membership fee is Rs 800 per annum plus Rs 100 as a one-time cost of membership card. You can take books or DVD or both and keep upto two books for a maximum of four weeks.

#NationalLibrariansDay #Library #Museum #Heritage #History

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And the fate of New Market's and other traders

So the fate of the New Market shop owners and others in the fraternity was sealed by the CM in the all Bengal hawkers' conference at Nazrul Mancha yesterday. Exactly as speculated in my preceding blog post on the New Market shutdown that also ended yesterday, hawkers have been given the immunity by the CM. Officially every hawker hawking till 13th March, 2015 will now have license to hawk (other than life insurance and annual medical reimbursement). Everybody will have 'registered with government' status. Those who are not registered yet, can do so by paying a fee of Rs 30. So we pedestrians will now walk on the footpath or road if and where space is left for that by the hawkers. And shop owners paying all kinds of taxes to government and corporation will be left to bleed. Wonderful! Would like to ask "Are we closer to London now?"

The 'neutral' police administration

It was good to know that the arrogant and foul-mouthed youngster Akash Banerjee was finally arrested in an unusual climax of a not-so-uncommon road drama where he and his friends in a car violated traffic rules yesterday, then abused and assaulted a traffic constable and shoved the traffic police inspector on duty while dropping the name of his famous aunt (father's sister) - none other than the CM of the state - Mamata Banerjee and threatening with grim consequences.

It was great to know that the arrest was at the behest of none other than the CM who was on visit to Darjeeling, and showed good governance in a quick, exemplary action (Though this must be noted that that media had raised its voice about the incident by then). It was indeed a new and welcome experience for people of the state.

But a question remains. Is this the 'neutral' police administration that the CM promised after she took the charge? She has the moral duty to answer (Especially since she heads the home ministry) what precisely led the police to let the brat and his gang walk out of the police station scot-free initially?

The 'bandh', the attack and the denial

Handful of buses (public and private put together), empty streets tempting enough to play a game of football, closed shops , low turnout at office marked yesterday's bandh (Officially an 'all-India' industrial strike) in the city.

I condemn the attack on the Anandabazar Patrika reporter Subhashis Ghatak and photographer Pintu Mondal by Trinamool hooligans for they dared to cover their ransacking the CPI(M) zonal office in Jadavpur yesterday! Following the brutal attack that could've turned fatal, a Star Ananda reporter Partha Pratim Ghosh was roughed up.

It was SHOCKING to know that a Kolkata Police constable off duty, named Tarak Das, was a prominent member of the Trinamool gang! He was clearly seen in the day-long coverage of the incident on Star Ananda. He is a real star indeed, for all the wrong reasons.

What added to the shock was that the CM rubbished the incident later on! This marks the hat trick of her denial after the recent Park Street and Katwa rape cases. As everybody knows, she was proved wrong by her own department (Police) as the Park Street case was cracked and a few key accused were arrested shortly by a team led by DC (DD) Damayanti Sen.

Didi, please think before you speak (to the media). Please remember you are a CM first, and a party supremo later. You are clearly testing the patience of the electorate who voted your party to power.

The AMRI Fire

I have little to add on the devastating fire that broke at one of the top and expensive private hospitals (AMRI at Dhakuria) at around 3.30 am that shook the city today. The death toll, rising possibly every hour, reportedly stands at close to 90 now, apparently most of them patients, including many old and immobile. The fire started at the basement and rose up to the second floor.

This is the second biggest fire the city witnessed haplessly after the one at Stephen Court in March 2010!

What I find particularly shocking is that the fire safety of such an advanced institution where people would come to save lives of near and dear ones against hefty expenditure apparently left a lot to be desired! Did they have smoke alarms, I wonder!

As per last update, the CM Mamata Banerjee, who's also the Minister of Health, has cancelled the license of the hospital. Six directors of AMRI (most of them big names in the industry) have been arrested.

This incident has tarnished the goodwill of the AMRI chain (They have another full-fledged hospital in Salt Lake and a newly started maternity and pediatric hospital at Mukundapur on EM Bypass) majorly and the group (Promoted by two leading local business groups - Emami and Shrachi) will have to struggle hard to revive it in the coming years. The healthcare chain expanded remarkably in the last 10 years. Public memory is short in general, but since this is healthcare this nightmare is not going to fade away easily. This incident should also lead to a new benchmark of fire safety standards in private hospitals in Kolkata.

The offenders should receive exemplary punishment in the court of law and the government should leave no stones unturned to do the needful. It's good to know that the CM has vowed the 'harshest punishment possible' for the guilty.

Looking forward to the development that follows.

Hoarding free heritage

It was pleasantly surprising to see super prompt action on the new government's decision spelt out by KMC : Pull down all the hoardings from BBD Bag to Park Street. The objective was something long-cherished by passionate Kolkatans - To be able to relish the Kolkata heritage blocked by countless hoardings of all shapes and sizes creating intense visual pollution for long. On the first day itself (that's yesterday) several hoardings were pulled down by the respective agencies on an overdrive.

Thumbs up to the new state government for the determined step towards a more beautiful Kolkata that we all can be proud of.

The sorry state of the stadium

It felt bad to know the sorry state of our showcase Salt Lake Stadium in this Times of India report published today. Always knew that the stadium gets a step-motherly attitude from the state government when it comes to maintenance and the ground has never got a much-needed overhaul in it's history. It's a shame for the last state government that despite earning from the stadium through hire charges for private functions, the upkeep always received a royal neglect.

Thankfully the new Minister of State for Sports (with independent charge) Madan Mitra has got into action soon after assuming duty and has ordered a maintenance drive. There are good reasons too, for if everything is upto the mark, the stadium is going to host the Argentine football team this September with Lionel Messi as the star attraction.

Also shocking to know was the state of a pride of the city - Rabindra Sadan (See this adjacent report in The Times of India).

The fate of the two

So the swearing-in of the new state government happened before a robust audience. Now recalling the speculation made in my earlier post Run-up to the elections 1 : Two distinct candidates, it has become half true. Yes, Amit Mitra is the new Finance Minister, but Bratya has been allocated the Higher Education portfolio, which he should be able to do justice to given his teaching experience in college. He wasn't given the Information & Culture portfolio (as also speculated in a prominent Bangla daily) because of Mamata Banerjee's principle that people shouldn't be given the ministries in line with their field of work by default. More thought should go into the portfolio allocation. I agree.

Am also particularly happy about the cabinet berth allocation to Manish Gupta (the giant killer who defeated the last Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya by a good margin) who wasn't really interested to become a minister. The Planning & Development department looks like in the safe hands of an Ex-Chief Secretary.

Finally....it's a green Bengal

It was sooooo disappointing not to be able to blog yesterday - The Historic Day in Bengal. Blogger was kept out of access by the site administrators.

Anyways, so finally Bengal is green now, putting an end to the longest-lasting communist rule in a democratic set up in the whole world, all of about 34 years, through the storming triumph of the Trinamool Congress & Indian National Congress coalition that won 227 sets out of 294, throwing out the ruling Left Front that managed only 62 seats. Being someone brought up in the communist-led Bengal it's hard to sink in.

Let's look forward to a new regime with renewed hopes. All the best to Mamata Banerjee & Co. Hope the life in Bengal gets only better now, albeit gradually.

Run-up to elections 2 : A strange game

The state Housing Minister Goutam Deb seems to be into a strange game. He is repeatedly opening his mouth in support of Majid Master, who has a number of police cases against him (that includes murder and rioting), had been officially 'absconding' till a few days back, yet had accompanied CPI(M) MP Amitava Nandi to the Left Front headquarters for a meeting with none other than the CM, and subsequently arrested following TMC's complaint to the state election office highlighting this incident.

First Goutam said in an election rally this month in south 24 Parganas (where Majid is reportedly a terror and manipulates the elections in CPI(M)'s favour) that Majid had been framed in 'ridiculous' cases. He announced that his party (CPI(M)) was consulting lawyers to get Majid released on bail at the earliest and assured that he was going to get bail and come back to take charge of elections in Deganga and Haroa, his home territory.

The day after the Special Secretary (Home) clarified that the Left Front government would oppose the bail plea for Majid, clearly indicating state government's intentions and embarrassing the party.

However there hasn't been a reprimand to Goutam from his party not to repeat the incident. And he did just what was not called for. He mentioned yet again in an election rally at Duttapukur yesterday that the effort to get Majid released was still on.

There is no reason to believe that Goutam is another rebel like the late Subhas Chakraborty in his party. In fact he is one major face of his party in the ongoing election campaign. The mechanics behind this strange game he is playing is not clear but his statements seem to be intentional and serving the interest of the party in terms of votebank and election machinery (especially Majid's follower base) and maybe have other deeper reasons.

Run-up to elections 1: Two distinct candidates

Amit Mitra, Padmashree, Ex-Secretary General of FICCI, noted ecomoist.

Being fielded by Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Khardaha constituency for 2011 assembly elections in West Bengal, against Asim Dasgupta, Finance Minister. Looks like a smart move.



Bratya Basu, noted playwright, actor (Play and television), play and film director.

Being fielded by Trinamool Congress in the Dum Dum constituency, against Gautam Deb, Housing Minister. His getting a ticket wasn't unexpected.

If they and their party win, will they become the Finance Minister and Information & Culture Minister respectively?

A nightmare in the morning

Went to visit a senior manager in a telecom giant in Srijan Tech Park in Sector V yesterday. As I got down at Webel More (crossing) and turned left, I found little place to walk towards RS Software on the main road. There's no sidewalk. And the road is full of trenches (not potholes, mind it!), the brick base is exposed at places, and has muck and muddy water all over, after the morning shower. Was as alert as possible to avoid getting the stuff on road come on my clothes, as buses, auto rickshaws and taxis were passing by endlessly, at the same time stepping on the right place.....but a mini bus proved fatal. Muddy water from a crater got spread all over my clothes, making my appearance absolutely unfit to meet a prospective client.

Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority was formed in 2006 to do justice to the civic job in the state government's showpiece tech zone- Sector V. By the current condition, it is everything but a showpiece. As Telegraph reports today, tech companies are deferring their senior people's visit to office apprehending their reaction to the condition of Sector V. A techie has left his car at home and coming to work in taxi.

The authorities are hopeless to say the least. There have been many other wrongdoings reported in recent times. I feel the management needs a change with immediate effect.

Whiteliner: An update

Launched not so long ago, Whiteliners, the flagship executive bus service of state government-owned West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation (WBSTC), run by the franchise Pirojiwal Infrastructure Ltd, is struggling to cope up with demand. The large white luxury buses were so successful, smaller buses have been added to the Whiteliner fleet. More routes have been added. Following in footsteps WBSTC has come up with a Starbus fleet of small executive buses outside the Whiteliner brand.

I prefer a Whiteliner everyday when I commute from Baguiati. The Airport-Santragachhi route is the only one that drops me at my Beckbagan office on AJC Bose Rd, in flat 42 minutes. And I have to be lucky enough to get one when I need it. The frequency is 15 minutes, but the Airport-Santragachhi route is alternated with Airport-Tollygunge route. So effectively my bus comes once in half an hour. Also AC buses, with naturally higher fares, come in between. The journey from Baguiati to Beckbagan in a non-AC bus costs Rs 16, while in an AC coach it shoots up to Rs 25.

There are two alternatives in case I don't get a Whiteliner. a) Take an Airport- Jadabpur mini bus, get down at Park Circus Tram Depot and walk for 12 minutes to the office. b) Do a break journey- Take a govt bus/ executive bus (The newer one) to Beleghata bus stop on EM Bypass and from there take a white non-executive govt. mini bus (Under WBSTC run by a private co.) to Beckbagan. In both cases one might have to stand in a crowded bus for long. In this scorching and humid Kolkata summer (Humidity generally hovers over 85% and in peak even crosses 95%.) how that feels is not a difficult guess.

The Whiteliner badly needs to increase its frequency on the Santragachhi route. I wonder what stops WBSTC/ Pirojiwal from doing the needful, since business is assured. It leaves out passengers at Baguiati regularly as its sitting capacity is full meanwhile. Also signs of complacence is visible with many buses looking in urgent need of maintenance incl. repaint. In non-AC buses many a time fans are seen missing.

The Whiteliner has brought in a new era in Kolkata's public transport which was anything but satisfactory. It made a significant difference to the people who would be all too willing to pay a little more to commute comfortably and save time too. In a Whiteliner there are many passengers who would otherwise take taxi. But it needs to do some catching up and shrug off the complacence in order to be a service Kolkatans can feel really proud of.

The overpowering Black Wednesday

What kept me from writing on this blog for long was the happening in Nandigram on 14 March, Wednesday that rocked Bengal and Bengalis all over the world and fellow Indians too. I could not justify any other topic for a new blog post and was struggling to find expression for the same.

It’s already a well-known fact thanks to wide coverage in local and national media. Thousands of policemen moved into Nandigram, which was isolated from the rest of Bengal by choice thereby protesting against the possibility of land acquisition by state government for industry. After early rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets they opened fire on the thousands-strong agitating armed mob. The casualties were horrible- a large no. of people died and got injured. The official figure, as expected was low- 14 people died. Unofficial figures say it was hundreds of both.

Media was prevented on the highway to Nandigram by cadres of ruling party, so that the ‘operation’ remains under wraps. The only channel that sneaked in was Kolkata TV, the Bengali news channel. Hence live footage could be seen only on this channel. As a result the channel was strangely stopped from being beamed in pockets of the state (Read local ruling party units ensuring cable operators do the needful).

What many media sources- print and electronic- have implied and confirmed that with police were CPI(M) cadres cleverly in disguise of policemen and they opened fire, beat up villagers brutally (Including children) and raped hapless women. Some bullets recovered from injured persons are not police bullets. Many people are still missing, including some who were seen injured while the firing was on. There have been reports of dead bodies thrown away at Haldi river.

This is the first of its kind in the left rule in Bengal. Not that there haven’t been instances of mass political and police killings and other excesses before (The Keshpur saga is still fresh on our minds), but everything pales before Nandigram. The only parallel I can draw is China’s Tienanmen Square in 1989. And it paints a radically different image of the chief minister (Who happens to be the home minister too, thereby directly responsible for this police operation). The CM I, and many like me, knew could not approve of such an operation. It is understood why such an operation was planned- Nandigram was a red bastion, i.e. six of the ten gram panchayats in Nandigram I (The area proposed for acquisition) belongs to CPI(M) and one to CPI. And in the wake of the ‘Save land from acquisition’ movement organised by Jamait Ulema-e-Hind and political parties especially Trinamool Congress, many left members and supporters were driven out of Nandigram. Those in control of the villages in Nandigram dug up roads and the ferry ghat was made dysfunctional, thereby isolating the area from civil administration. and police. While the lives of the left became miserable, the local CPI(M) units put pressure on their city headquarters to make way for their return to home. Meanwhile a no. of all-party meets were convened in Nandigram but they failed to reach consensus of all groups involved.

But it was indeed a high-risk task to force the desired situation with the help of police. While administrative interventions (All-party meets) failed, the government had to be more strategic and patient in using both political and administrative steps to bring back normalcy gradually. A large no. of people who died and were injured were children and women, as they were strategically put on forefront to dissuade police from firing. What, in such a scenario, prompted police to open fire, whatever have been the provocation (Stones and crude bombs were reportedly thrown to the police), is still being investigated. The initial CBI probe (Ordered by Calcutta High Court following a suo moto case immediately after the incident) has not found any evidence that substantiates it.

The government has not owned up responsibility for the whole incident and it has tried to present the incident as unavoidable. CPI(M) too hasn’t owned up the ruthless atrocities. There hasn’t been any known efforts of organising additional medical care for the injured admitted in the hospitals or declaring any compensation for the affected families. All this paints the picture of a ruling party possessing a terrible arrogance that grows out of a record thirty years in power. Such scaring arrogance is the sign of a typical communist government, like the Chinese government who ruthlessly killed students at Tienanmen Square. What the operation also suggests is that the CM can’t handle mounting pressure from his own party and take decisions that requires a matured political and administrative brain. Subsequent reports after 14 March have also shown glaring loopholes in his information network that should make him uncomfortable. He seemed to have no inkling of how heated the situation in Nadigram was.

All this has resulted in the intelligentsia of Kolkata distancing iself from the government it supported heartily. Prominent leftist theatre personalities have mass-resigned from the state drama academy and writers have mass-refused state literary awards. Celebrities, lawyers and journalists have held rallies in protest. They have voiced their frustrations and vented anger on television channels and newspapers. The general public showed their protest in a spontaneous support of the strike on March 17 called by all opposition parties.

I was numb for some time and living with restlessness for two days. What happened in a state ruled by a chief minister like Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was not in my wildest nightmares. All that I would like to say is that Nandigram left a scar that will take ages to heal, and it will change the course of land acquisition in Bengal and in India forever. It has already started in the state government’s notice that no land will be acquired in Nandigram and central govt.’s amending the land acquisition policy. It remains to be seen how many miles the CM has to tread before he restores his erstwhile legendary positive image that is badly messed up.

Good Sense Prevails !!

This is a follow-up to my November 20 post.

The state government is visibly on backfoot on the draft bill on wall graphiti. Just the day after a quick survey by MODE commissioned by The Telegraph (I believe other concerned media houses too joined in) reflected the rage of Kolkatans against this ‘surprisingly’ autocratic bill backed by a sensitive chief minister, the government has amended it with appropriate punitive actions to offenders. People who go against the will of the owner of the wall may now face a fine of a Rs 50000 or six months’ jail term or both. And even the top shots of the local political organisation who don’t physically make the graphiti but are the power behind it can face the music.

I must thank the media houses who promptly got into action. Its them only who could do it this way. And also appreciate the prompt, positive reaction from the government. Now it is difficult to believe this is the same government who drafted the initial bill.

License to deface?

I was really aghast as I read the top story in The Telegraph today. It says West Bengal Prevention of Defacement of Property Act is on its way out and the new act that is expected to be tabled and passed in the winter session of assembly will virtually legalise wall graphiti by political parties. You cannot complain to police. All you can do is 'report' your municipal authority. They are supposed to come and repaint your wall (With taxpayers' money).

The link-http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061117/asp/frontpage/
story_7014264.asp

Is this democracy? It fails me to understand how come a sensible and pro-development CM gun for such an autocratic rule? I understand that with the help of this act during assembly elections earlier this year the election commission (EC) more or less prevented political graphiti on people's walls and it held back the ruling party and all other parties in election campaign and forced them to do innovative nad more expensive ways of campaign. It was a bitter taste in their mouth.

But EC had people's blessings for this bold step. And the ultimate outcome? The ruling party won by a record margin without any help from wall graphiti. Now since it is his time, did our dear CM think of turning the rule upside down and make a mockery of democracy?

I request everyone able to make a comment to speak your heart out on this issue. The only way to even make a decent effort to make the government rethink or at least realise poeple's feelings is making a strong enough noise that is heard.

Please use strong but non-abusive language. If we gather a large no. of protests we can possibly approach a news channel to make a story on it.

Eagrely awaiting comments.