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Briefly
Debate on AIDS at
city hospital
Kolkata: A debate on ‘Are
We Offensive Against AIDS
or AIDS patient’ will be
organized at ESI Hospital,
Maniktala on December 1.
Luminaries from civil society
like Sujato Bhadra and
Rudraprasad Sengupta as
well as trade union leaders
and state labour minister
Anadi Sahu will participate
in the event. — BP
Passenger held for
on flight ruckus
Kolkata: Sarajit Deb, 65, was
arrested by NSCBI Airport
police station for creating a
ruckus on board a Kingfisher
flight from Bangkok. “The
problem occurred when an
air hostess refused to serve a
complimentary drink to Deb
as he was in an inebriated
state. He reportedly,
molested the air hostess,”
said a senior police officer.
Deb was later released on
bail. — BP
Fire caused by
stray spark
Kolkata: Two fire tenders
rushed to douse the flames
at a wasteage dumping
place near Jaipuria College
on Sunday. The incident
took place at around 9 pm.
The fire was controlled
within 15 minutes. Fire
brigade officials said that
the fire was caused due to a
stray spark. — BP
Couple arrested
for maid’s suicide
Kolkata: Sital Prasad Haldar,
50, and Mina Haldar, 46,
were arrested by Lake Town
police on Sunday on the
charge of abetment of suicide
of their domestic maid.
The maid, Gargi Kar, was
found dead in their house at
Dakshindari on Friday.
Police had initially lodged a
case of unnatural death. On
Sunday, the local union of
domestic helps had agitated
in front of the Lake Town
police station demanding
the immediate arrest of the
Haldar couple. — BP
Severed body of a
woman found
Kolkata: Police recovered
the maimed body of an
unidentified middle-aged
woman from Diamond
Harbour Road on Sunday.
Local residents saw the body
and informed the police. Her
head was severed and was
located after an extensive
search of the area. The body
was later sent for post
mortem. A man later said
that it was the body of her
daughter Azmira Bibi but
later recanted on seeing the
body. He had lodged a missing
diary at Bishnupur
police station in July 2009.
Murlidhar, additional superintendent
of police, South
24-Parganas said: “We have
started an investigation. We
tried to match her face from
our records but no matches
were found.” — BP
Awareness on
human trafficking
Kolkata: The International
Mission for Social Welfare
and Charity (IMSWC)
recently organized awareness
camps in Coach Behar
to build public opinion
against human trafficking,
sexual harassment, and
child marriage. During the
campaign, the organisation
highlighted that in most
cases the victims of trafficking
were from the poor
families. “We want to
create awareness about trafficking,”
said Nityananda
Puri, a member of the
IMSWC. — BP
Now, the CM is talking
about compensations
as elections
are nearing. What
about those who
were killed in
Kolaghat boat
tragedy?
— Mamata Banerjee,
Trinamool Congress chief
Abhiroop Ghosh Dastidar
Kolkata: The oldest Chinese temple in
India, situated at Achipur near Budge
Budge will soon undergo a facelift at a
cost of `5 lakh, which has been contributed
by members of the Chinese
community.
The temple, dating back to nearly
300 years, has witnessed the history of
Bengal. It was built in 1718 by a
Chinese trader named Aton Atchew
who arrived with 110 labourers from
Canton in order to set up a sugar mill.
The land on which the temple stands
was rented by the then zamindar for
`45 per annum. However, at present,
not a single Chinese can be found in
the area.
The roof of the main courtyard is
being reconstructed along with the
floors and the other rooms of the temple
which stands on two bighas.
“Every year, there is waterlogging
inside the temple which damages the
wood and marble décor.
As a result, there has been considerable
decaying. We have sought the
help of local municipalities,” said S K
Au, secretary of the Gee Hing Church
and Club which has been monitoring
and organising the funds for the
restoration project.
“The work had to be temporarily
stalled after a misleading report about
the fund allotment came out in the
newspapers. We also had to produce a
proper plan of the temple for the local
municipality, after which work started
afresh,” said Au.
According to Au, there are around
6,000 Chinese in the city. Out of the
five Chinese temples present, this happens
to be the oldest.
A number of devotees gather at the
temple on Chinese New Year in
February.
It is located in a pre-dominantly
Muslim area and has been looked after
by 65-year-old Sheikh Ali Akbar. “Four
generations of our family have been
looking after the temple. Even the local
people consider this temple to be
sacred,” said Akbar.
The age-old tradition of telling fortunes
with sticks is still prevalent here.
The temple houses two goddesses --
Thuti Kung and Thuti Fo Thuti – which
mean Earth in Chinese. Local people
believe that the temple possesses
The Bengal Post Kolkata Monday November 29, 2010
CITY
KMC bargains greens for profits
Sportsmen and joggers remain out of bounds as event organisers take over parks
Our Correspondent
Kolkata: Never mind whether the
Left or the Trinamool Congress is
at the helm of Kolkata Municipal
Corporation (KMC): the city parks
appear to be going out of bounds
for children, lovers, sportspersons
and neighbourhood morning and
evening walkers. For the better
part of the year, most of these
parks are put on ‘sale’ to generate
revenues for the civic body.
On Sunday, senior civic officials
told The Bengal Post that at least
half a dozen parks had been identified
as “regular revenue spinners”.
They are: Park Circus
Maidan, Tala Park, Vivekananda
Park, Triangular Park and
Northern Park. When this newspaper
visited Northern Park, it
found that the only green stretch
in Bhowanipore in south Kolkata
was left at the mercy of organisers
of a religious event. Every nook
and corner of the ground was dug
up mercilessly in order to plant
bamboo poles. Even tufts of grass
had been plucked to improve the
look of the event. Organisers said,
this would be the venue for a programme
of a lady spiritualist.
The park is the home ground of
Balak Sangha, a Cricket
Association of Bengal (CAB)–division
league club that has produced
several cricketers of firstclass
standard, including former
Test cricketers Devang Gandhi and
Dilip Doshi. With the CAB league
set to begin soon, the cricketers
are not sure whether they would
be able to play matches on their
home turf.
When asked about the event,
KMC officials said they are compelled
to give permission keeping
in the mind the religious sentiments
of local people. “We still
feel parks and greens should not
be let out for public events. But it
becomes somewhat impossible
for us to deny permission for religious
and government programmes,”
said Debasish Kumar,
member, mayor-in-council
(MMiC) in charge of parks, gardens
and sports.
The greatest irony: In 2007 the
Left-run KMC faced stiff opposi-
INTELLIGENTSIA
� Food being distributed at an event in Northern Park—BP
Game over for Northern park
� The park is the home ground of Balak Sangha, a Cricket
Association of Bengal (CAB)–a league club
� With the CAB league soon to begin, cricketers are unsure
whether they would be able to play on home turf
� Every nook and corner of the park has been dug up and bamboo
poles planted for the event
� KMC officials said they were compelled to give permission for
events, keeping in mind the religious sentiments of people
tion from Kumar when they
decided to rent out Deshapriya
Park for a fair organised by Khadi
Gram Udyog. In fact, Kumar led a
group of affluent locals to organise
a protest over the KMC’s decision
which they had termed `sabuj
shraddha’.
Although these events leave
parks scarred, former MMIC,
parks, Faiyaz Ahmad Khan feels
there is no problem in renting out
green spaces for a “social cause”.
In fact, he pointed out that by
renting out parks KMC earns revenues
which can be utilised for
other welfare activities.
“When we rented out different
parks we had to face huge opposition
from the Trinamool Congress.
But now, they are following in our
footsteps, revealing their ‘dual’
nature,” Khan said.
Sports personalities and environmentalists
are concerned that
even after generating revenue,
KMC officials do not plough back
the income to restore the park and
maintain it throughout the year.
“Our city has less than one per
cent of open space and in no way
should we allow them to organise
such programmes inside any open
spaces across the city. The local
people should stop them from
organising such programmes,”
said green activist Subhas Dutta.
Green activists pointed out that
with the winds of change in
Bengal politics, they assumed that
at least greenery would be saved.
“But the scenario is completely
different. What the CPI(M)-led
KMC did with the parks and gardens,
the TMC leaders are following
in their footsteps. Now it is
time for local people and green
activists to put up stiff resistance,”
said Ravi Menon, a green activist.
However, parks are KMC
property and there is no law to
stop them.
� Ramola Chakrobarty, Maya Ghosh, Pabitra Sarkar, Sabyasachi Chakrobarty and Paran Bandhopadhyay at a CPM
demonstration at Esplanade on Sunday — Subhrajit Chandra
magical powers.
A wooden cup, concave in its shape,
is taken within the folded hands, and is
then thrown on the floor.
If it falls with the concave side up
and the other in the opposite direction,
it means good fortune. A Chinese way
of telling your future, this ritual is still
performed in the temple. “Even before
we started the restoration work, we
performed this ritual. One up, one
down, the wooden cups showed us the
way,” said the joint secretary of the
Gee Hing Church and club, Ho Yuan
That.
A bunch of sticks is placed in a cup,
which is then shaken.
After shaking, one stick, which has
Chinese inscriptions on it, comes up.
The sticks are numbered and are then
tallied with a fortune paper, where the
numbers are tallied with the inscriptions
on the paper. Another soothsaying
process, it is still performed in the
temple.
There is no particular priest or timing
of offering. It is the devotees who
come and offer prayers, whenever they
like. Centuries-old inscriptions are
withering away with time.
As a former cricketer (of
Balak Sangha), I am disapointed
to hear this about
the parks (being off limits)
—Jisshu Sengupta, Actor
With less than one per cent
open space, we cannot
allow such programmes
—Subhash Dutta, Green activist
It becomes impossible for
us to deny permission for
religious programmes
—Debasish Kumar, MMiC,
parks & gardens
Local residents, morning
walkers and kids should
not be stopped from
entering parks
—Raju Mukherjee, Ex-cricketer
Our Correspondent
Kolkata: Railway minister
Mamata Banerjee might get
her way yet again since the
state government has agreed
to work with the ministry in
order to hasten work on the
East West Metro project.
The CPI(M)-led state government
and Banerjee had
been at loggerheads over the
Joka-BBD Bag Metro extension.
However the East West
Metro was a joint venture
between the Union urban
development ministry and
the state government.
“The bone of contention
was the plan to have Metro
stations below the Howrah
and Sealdah stations. The
Railway Board has stated
that such a move would disrupt
passenger traffic for a
prolonged period of time.
Traffic movement would go
haywire causing immense
inconvenience to com-
Ban on diabetes
drug for ill effects
Our Correspondent
Kolkata: Popular anti-diabetics
medicine Ros igl utaz -
one and its formulations
have been banned after serious
side effects among elderly
people were rep orted.
According to office of the
drugs controller-general
(ODCG), Government of In -
dia, sources, Dex tropro -
poxyphene, a pain killer, may
soon face the axe.
The ODCG issued a prohibition
order to all state drug
control offices and associations
of drug manufacturers
on November 12, asking
them to ban the production
and sale of the medicine
with immediate effect.
Doctors, however, feel that
the ban would not affect the
treatment of diabetics.
“Rosiglitazone came with a
lot of promise but increased
incidents of cardiac arrest
and fractures among elderly
people have led to the prohibition
on the use of Rosi -
glitazone,” said cardio-diabetologist
Dr Jotideb
Mukhopadhyay. “Age-old
medicines like Metformin
and Sulphonylurea are doing
an excellent job so diabetes
treatment will not be
affected due to this ban,” he
said.
There are over a dozen
brands of this anti-diabetes
medicine manufactured by
numerous leading pharmaceutical
firms in the country.
Rosiglutazone was used to
treat Type-II diabetes.
However, lately there has
been a dispute over the
effectiveness of the medicine
and its side effects.
The US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) first
sounded an alarm in this
regard. Following that, a sixmember
committee of
experts was formed in India
on the advice of the drug
technical advisory board
(DTAB) to review whether
Rosiglitazone needed to be
muters,” said an Eastern
Railway official.
It was interpreted as a
political tussle by many
which would adversely
affect the project.
However with the railway
ministry prepared to take
over from the Union urban
development ministry, th -
ings are all set to move.
“It is likely that the railway
ministry would take
over. Correspondence bet -
ween the Union urban development
ministry and our
chief secretary has already
begun. He will reply after our
consultations are over,” said
state transport minister
Ranjit Kundu.
However, there was no ray
of hope for the Joka-BBD Bag
extension of the Metro
Railway.
“The transfer of land is a
serious issue and cannot
happen overnight. There is a
procedure for such things
Medicines for
diabetes
� Rosiglitazone – used for
diabetes treatment
� Substitute – Pioglitazone
(should be used with
caution)
Other medicines under
suspension:
� Sibutramine and R-sibutramine
– anti-obesity
drugs
Under Observation
� Dextropropoxyphene,
Propoxyphene –
painkillers
� All these medicines have
faced complaints of
elevated risk of cardiac
arrest
3
banned. The expert committee
recommended the suspension
of import and manufacture
of Rosiglitazone on
October 7.
ODCG sources said Dex -
tropropoxyphene might also
be banned soon. “Dex -
tropropoxyphene has rec -
ently been prohibited in the
US and New Zealand due to
increased incidents of cardiac
arrest. We anticipate
that this drug will also be
reviewed very soon for its ill
effects,” said a senior ODCG
inspector. “We have info -
rmed all drug sellers and
manufacturers in the state
about the Rosiglitazone ban.
Dextropropoxyphene will
also be picked up for consideration,”
said Sajal Roy -
chowdhury, director, the st -
ate drug control directorate.
State, railways set for joint
East West Metro journey
The state government
and Banerjee
had been at loggerheads
over the
Jo ka-BBD Bag
Metro extension
and it will take time,” Kundu
said. The East West Metro is
a `4,874 crore project funded
by the Japan International
Cooperation Agency.
Chinese community to restore 300-year-old heritage temple
� The Chinese temple at Achipur near Budge Budge —
Debasish Bhaduri
The waterlogging
within the temple
takes away much
of its sheen
—S K Au, secretary,
Gee Hing Church
The temple is the
most authentic place
where Chinese traditions
are strictly
followed
—C Y Tan, president