Saikat Ray

kolkata the poor state of pavements is apparently a major reason behind pedestrians jaywalking on the highspeed em bypass corridor at chingrighata crossing that has witnessed major accidents many of them fatal in the recent past the issue came up on multiple occasions during backtoback meetings between pwd and officers of bidhannagar and kolkata police.

Of the 144 KMC wards, 132 has no or barely one active Covid case now. Eleven wards have six or fewer Covid patients and only one ward, which includes Ballygunge pockets, has 15 active cases, making it the only ward in the city under the pink zone, shows the latest Covid zoning data released by the state government.

Twenty-five city addresses, six in Salt Lake, three in New Town and six in Lake Town were declared as micro-containment zones on Monday.

A couple of years after designer tiles were introduced to fashion city's pavements, many of these today have been reduced to ugly, dug-up patches, with heaps of earth, concrete and pavers dotting the streets.

The CEO of Amri Hospital, Rupak Barua, stated that the vaccination drive would be restarted, but only at their Dhakuria unit for now. Health department sources said government vaccination centres in the city were seeing between 10 and 20 people turn up on an average, some hospitals had seen a slight rise in footfall but not as high as the private centres, and that there was a slight increase for now. However, if there is a huge rush it could be difficult for them. Additionally, the vaccination centre at IPGmer has dwindling Covaxin stocks but no Covishield dose left, while Woodlands Multispeciality Hospital has not yet seen a demand spurt, and is primarily a vaccinated country.

At a time when the Kolkata Municipal Corporation assessment department had been struggling to chase the revenue target as fixed by the authorities, a fourteen day relaxation given to the property tax payers to pay their dues in discontinued currency notes has fetched handsome revenue for the KMC and bailed the civic body out of the financial crisis.

The first day of single-use plastic ban turned out to be a mixed bag.

Less than two hours had passed since the Election Commission announced the September 30 bypoll to the Bhowanipore assembly constituency, Trinamool Congress workers started decking up prominent neighbourhoods like Harish Mukherjee Road, Chakraberia, Potuapara and Elgin Road with wall graffiti, flags and banners with some already mentioning Mamata Banerjee as the candidate.

Saikat Ray & RAKHI CHAKRABARTY KOLKATA: The accident at the crossing of Rabindra Sarani and Mahatma Gandhi Road on Thursday that killed three persons when a bus plying on route 219 knocked a motorcycle down gave politicians yet another opportunity to extract political mileage from it.

All major temples and mosques in the state are unlikely to throw open their gates to people on Monday. At present, they are trying to put in place safety measures and work out social distancing norms. The state has given the go-ahead to open places of worship with not more than 10 worshippers on their premises at a time.

Even as the city braces for another Covid wave, the number of malaria cases has been spiralling in some areas — Burrabazar, MG Road, College Street, Bowbazar, Tangra and Topsia, among other — that have been traditionally prone to the disease, resulting in a 15% jump in cases from 2019 when figures were last collated.

he state government is going to evacuate around 20,000 people from Mousuni and Sagar islands in the next few days as the Sunderbans and the coastal districts of Bengal, which have already been devastated by cyclone Yaas, brace for yet another crisis.

"Bengal has no (BF.7) case now," the CM said, adding the state is vigilant of the fact that some cases (BF.7) have been reported in Kerala and Delhi.

One of the biggest Covid-19 immunization drives for students is scheduled to begin on Thursday. This is being perceived as a preparatory arrangement for reopening campuses after the festive season.

A 69-year-old Covid patient died at Beliaghata ID Hospital in the early hours of Tuesday - the second death in the city from the infection this month - even as the number of hospital admissions climbed up due to an uptick in cases. There were at least 40 Covid patients admitted across city hospitals on Wednesday.

The speeding car that hit and killed a postgraduate student of Aliah University outside its New Town campus on Sunday, prompting a students' agitation, was seized by Bidhannagar police from a service centre off EM Bypass on Monday.

The city could get stormy winds and moderate rain under the impact of cyclone Jawad, which is set to hit the north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coasts on Saturday. South Bengal districts like West and East Midnapore, South and North 24 Parganas and Jhargram could start receiving showers on Friday and could be lashed by very heavy rain on Saturday and Sunday after the cyclone makes landfall.

Kolkata and neighbouring constituencies vote amidst rain concerns, aiming to increase voter turnout, especially in Kolkata North.