Kolkata’s Metro Railway has become the highest passenger density train service in the country, surpassing the busy Mumbai Suburban Railway. On this count, the Metro Railway is also far ahead of its counterpart ~ the Delhi Metro.

According to a recent study conducted by the Metro Railway authorities, the Metro in Kolkata carries 17,728 passengers per km. Against this, while the Mumbai Suburban Railway carries 14,924 passengers per km and the number of passengers transported by the Delhi Metro, per km, is 8,434.

The study has been carried out on the basis of latest available figures dating from April to November 2011, said Mr Surajit Kumar Das, the chief operations manager (COM) of the Metro Railway.

The Metro network in Kolkata runs up to 25.135 km; the Delhi Metro has a network of 189.70 km and the Mumbai Suburban Railway network is spread over 465 km.

Furthermore to the transportation of highest number of passengers per km, the Metro Railway in Kolkata is also ahead of both the Delhi Metro and the Mumbai Suburban Railway, vis-à-vis, number of passengers carried per coach.

While a train coach in Delhi Metro and the Mumbai Suburban Railway transports 160 and 247 passengers per trip, respectively; a Metro Railway coach in Kolkata carries 266 commuters on every trip, the study has revealed.

A Delhi Metro train (rake) usually comprises four to six coaches; a Mumbai Suburban train has nine to 15 coaches and the number of coaches in the Kolkata Metro train is fixed at eight.
At the present rate, while the Mumbai Suburban Railway runs 28,104 coach trips per day; Delhi Metro plies 10,000 coach trips and the number of coach trips operated by the Metro Railway in Kolkata is 1,672.

“The number of people availing the Metro Railway service has also witnessed a steady growth over the past few years,” the COM said. “In 2007-08, the rise was 4.89 per cent over the previous year; in 2008-09 it became 4.91 per cent; in 2009-10 it was 8.31 per cent; in 2010-11 it stood at 16.31 per cent and up till November this fiscal, the passenger growth was 3.56 per cent.”

This, notwithstanding, the poor condition of the non-AC rakes that the Metro Railway has and the malfunctioning of the five new AC rakes that have joined its fleet in the past one year or so.

Metro Railway general manager, Mr Peri Bhaskar Murty, said they were focusing on augmenting the overall infrastructure so to meet the ever-growing passenger pressure.

“It was really so heartening when we found out that Metro Railway now has the highest passenger density among all train services in the country. But this does not make us profitable and we will have to focus on commercial utilisation of our real estate to sustain the organisation,” Mr Murty said.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report was first published in The Statesman on 13 January 2012.)

West Bengal has turned out to be a poor performer as far as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is concerned.

According to the latest status report released by the Union ministry for rural development, till 16 December this fiscal, West Bengal could generate only about 14 days of employment under the NREGA which assures 100 days of work to unemployed adults. This poor performance is in line with the negative trend being witnessed in the state since the start of the 2010-11 financial year.

In 2010-11, the state was being able to generate only 31 days of work per registered households, as compared to the 45 days of employment provided in 2009-10. The present national average of employment provided under NREGA (2010-11) is 47 days.

According to the Union government report, out of the 18 notified NREGA districts in West Bengal, Cooch Behar has been the worst performer this fiscal with only about nine days of work generated so far.

This is followed by 10 days of work generated in Nadia; 11 days in Hooghly; 12 days in Howrah, Burdwan, North and South Dinajpur, Siliguri Mahakuma Parisad and West Midnapore; 13 days in Birbhum and East Midnapore; 14 days in Jalpaiguri and Murshidabad; 15 days in Bankura, 16 days in Malda, 18 days in South and North 24-Parganas.

The administrative areas under the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) top the list with 23 days of work being provided per registered households.

Consequent upon the poor performance on the NREGA front and other Centre-aided rural development projects, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has already removed the state panchayat minister, Mr Chandranath Sinha, and has now allotted the portfolio to her experienced aide, Mr Subrata Mukherjee, for damage control.

But with barely three months to go for the current fiscal and around Rs 900-crore remaining unutilised till 30 November last year out of the then total available fund of Rs 1,823-crore; the NREGA employment figure in West Bengal is likely to end up at a record low in 2011-12. The approved NREGA budget (labour) for the state this fiscal is Rs 3,868-crore.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report first appeared in The Statesman on 9 January 2012).

Nineteen Gorkha youths from Darjeeling will run this year’s Mumbai Marathon to reassert their Indian identity, which is often questioned.

Mr Amrit Rai, who is one of the 19, said his team’s participation in the Mumbai Marathon has nothing to do with the ongoing agitation in Darjeeling to carve a separate state of Gorkhaland out of West Bengal.

“We are participating in the marathon with a sporting spirit and with the aim to reassert that we are no less Indians than those living in other parts of the country,” said Mr Rai, a resident of Pedong who is in the second year of his BA at Kalimpong Government College.

Mumbai Marathon, an annual international road-running competition that is entering its ninth year, is slated to take place in Maharashtra’s capital on 15 January.

The 19 Gorkha youths are part of a 22-member team participating in the marathon with support from a Mumbai-based corporate executive of Gorkha origin. There are also two Bengalis from Darjeeling, and one Punjabi from Delhi on the team. Five members are female.

While 17 members of the team will run the 21 km half-marathon, the remaining five would to slog it out in the 6 km Dream Run category.

“The most significant aspect is, all of them will take part in the marathon sporting T-shirts inscribed with the slogan “We Are Gorkhas And Proud to Be Indians. Jai Gorkha, Jai Hind,” Ms Roshini Rai, the corporate executive behind the idea explained in a communiqué from Mumbai.

Ms Rai, whose roots are in Pedong in Kalimpong sub-division, said she conceived the idea to mitigate the general perception that every Nepali-speaking individual is a citizen of Nepal, and not India. Incidentally, the Gorkha community in Darjeeling has been agitating for a separate Gorkhaland state, as an overwhelming majority of them believe statehood is necessary to solidify their Indian identity as distinct from the Nepalese citizens.

Mr John Joydeep Sinha, a Bengali physician based at Salugara in Siliguri, and a participant listed with the Gorkha team, said taking part in the marathon wearing a T-shirt inscribed “Jai Gorkha, Jai Hind” does not hurt his community’s interest in any way.

“The Gorkhas believe they are the only ones to be labeled as foreigners,” Mr Sinha said. “But is it not true that people in Mumbai also often mistake the Bengalis as Bangladeshis? So in a way, both the communities are victims of a wrong public perception and supporting the Gorkha cause is a step forward in mitigating the problem.”

The team will leave for Mumbai by train on 10 January.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report was first published in The Statesman on 6 January 2012.)

Chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee‘s enthusiasm for commemorating the birth or death anniversaries of eminent personalities at the lobby of her chamber at Writers’ Buildings has presented the information and cultural affairs (I&CA) department with a quaint little problem ~ where to store the portraits of these personalities honoured in such ceremonies.

Soon after taking over as the chief minister of West Bengal in May, Miss Banerjee decided to observe the birth or death anniversaries of eminent individuals from all spheres of life ~ from politicians to poets, actors to scientists, martyrs to musicians ~ and earmarked a space in front of her office on the first floor at Writers’ Buildings.

Since then, in the past seven and a half months, Miss Banerjee has observed around 50 such ceremonies out there. This is in contrast to the one or two such commemorations ~ the birth anniversaries of the state’s first chief minister, Bidhan Chandra Roy, and the national icon Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose ~ that the previous Left Front government used to undertake at the state secretariat.

Given the manner in which Miss Banerjee has stuck to this practice ~ and the sheer number of eminent personalities this state has been blessed with ~ many more such commemorations are sure to come up in the coming months, correspondingly compounding the I&CA’s little problem.

In the month of January alone, there are seven such commemorations that have already been finalised ~ the birth anniversaries of Swami Vivekananda, Netaji, singer Shyamal Mitra, poets Subhash Mukhopadhaya, Michael Madhusudhan Dutta and the death anniversaries of Masterda Surjya Sen and Mahatma Gandhi.

This ever-growing trend has now compelled the I&CA department to scout for a separate room at Writers’, where the large-sized portraits can be stored properly for future use.
While the issue has been informally discussed within the department and also with the public works department, I&CA officials plan to make a formal move on this soon.
“There was a suggestion to use the back of the photography section’s room for the purpose. But with a computer lab already housed there, the space could not be spared,” said an official.

At present, the 50-odd portraits are stored in two or three places in Writers’ Buildings, including a few kept in the wall-cabinets at the photography section located on third floor.

The director, I&CA department, Mr Umapada Chatterjee, said they are not yet facing any difficulties in ensuring proper storage for the portraits.
“But with the number (of portraits) going up, we will need some separate arrangement for storage. However, this is a matter to be decided at the appropriate time at the secretary and ministerial levels,” Mr Chatterjee said.

Incidentally, the I&CA portfolio currently rests with the chief minister herself.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report first appeared in The Statesman on 2 January 2012 under a different headline.)

Trinamul Congress’ volte-face on the Lokpal Bill ~ the latest in a series of standoffs with the Congress that commenced with the Teesta water issue ~ is probably an indication that Miss Mamata Banerjee is laying the groundwork for a split with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

This proposition gains strength from the fact that, in the past few months, the BJP and the Trinamul Congress were often found to be on the same page, be it in opposition to a fuel price hike, the Pension Bill, FDI in multi-brand retail, or Lokpal ~ all of which only embarrassed the UPA’s lead partner, the Congress.

The Congress leadership in West Bengal today minced no words, saying that “Trinamul is trying to get closer to the BJP.” The national leadership of the BJP, though cautious, did not rule out the possibility of the Trinamul re-joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the days to come.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Mr Pradeep Bhattacharya told The Statesman that the Trinamul is trying to get closer to the BJP to reposition itself for a putative changed equation in the power scenario at Centre. “Beginning with the Teesta water sharing issue the Trinamul has been creating uncalled for trouble for us on almost every front,” he said.

BJP leader Mr Arun Jaitely declined to comment to The Statesman on the possibility of the Trinamul supporting the NDA in the future, as did BJP national spokesman Mr Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Mr Rudy, however, said Miss Banerjee’s objections to the price rise, FDI in multi-brand retail, and the Pension Bill “reflected her concern for the people of her state.”

“As far as the FDI issue goes, like many other state governments in the country, Miss Banerjee, too, felt concerned over the likely losses to unorganised retailers in Bengal and, when it comes to opposition to the price rise, I don’t think any chief minister can be happy when her people are suffering,” Mr Rudy said. “Hence, she was right in raising her voice at the right moment.”

 
But that there is more to the “coincidental” similarity between the stance of the BJP and the Trinamul on several prominent issues, was evident from BJP leaders Mr Rajnath Singh and Mr Kirti Azad paying a visit to Miss Banerjee’s house in Kolkata after the death of her mother on 17 December.

Now, taking a cue from the latest fiasco over the Lokpal, Pradesh Congress president Mr Bhattacharya said his party would “confront the Trinamul government” in Bengal on every issue of concern. “We are not thinking of pulling out from the Trinamul government right now, but I can say this for sure: that Congress is not in any way benefiting by being a part of Miss Banerjee’s government,” he said.

Unfazed by the criticism from the Congress, Trinamul leader and Union minister Mr Mukul Roy said: “Both the Trinamul and the Congress fought the elections on separate manifestos and our commitments are different. Congress must realise that the UPA at the Centre is a coalition government and not a single party rule. Let us make it clear that, be it the Lokpal or other contentious issues, we will stick to our stands come what may.”

Mr Roy continued: “Despite our repeated requests, the Congress has not yet put in place a coordination mechanism for the smooth running of the UPA government.”

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report originally appeared in The Statesman on 31 December 2011 under a different headline.)

If the repeated uproar in the state Assembly in the first week of the Winter Session is anything to go by, Left parties, especially the CPI-M, have begun the attempt to reassert their political presence in West Bengal.

The move comes after a self-imposed six-month restriction the Left parties had decided to observe in criticising the policies of the Trinamul Congress government.

In the two previous sessions of the state Assembly ~ the inductive session in May and the Budget Session in August ~ the Left watched silently as Miss Mamata Banerjee’s government swiftly moved one Bill after the other. In this session, the Communists are using the slightest excuse to make their presence felt.

At the same time that the restriction expired, a number of back-to-back incidents, the police firing at Magrahat, the fire at Amri Hospital and the hooch deaths in Magrahat, have put the Trinamul government on the backfoot. The CPI-M, therefore, has not needed to search very hard for issues to corner the government.

Just five days into the present session which began on 12 December, and the Left has attacked on a number of fronts ~ they created an uproar on day two over the government’s failure to use the MGNREGS fund, on day three over the chief minister’s continuous absence from the House and the hooch deaths, and on day four they staged a walk out over the introduction of a land bill in the chief minister’s absence. On day five, they also staged a walk-out over state industries minister Mr Partha Chatterjee’s comment yesterday that the CPM-M had played a role in the Magrahat hooch deaths.

The Leader of Opposition and CPI-M MLA, Dr Surjya Kanta Mishra, justified their actions saying that in the previous two sessions they overlooked the flip-flops of Miss Banerjee’s government as it was the Trinamul’s first time in power and it needed some time to learn how the legislative functioned. “But they cannot be excused every time,” he said.

The Trinamul Congress chief whip in the Assembly, Mr Sovandeb Chattopadhaya, told The Statesman that the Left was trying to grab headlines by creating an uproar in the House: “They do not have any substantial issues and are disrupting the proceedings on one pretext or the other. But we too know how to deal with such situations.”

The ruling bench’s criticisms come after senior ministers Mr Subrata Mukherjee and Mr Chatterjee failed to make a truce with the Opposition during two separate closed-door meetings in the Assembly with the Leader of Opposition on 14 and 15 December.

In an immediate move to counter the Left, Miss Banerjee has on her own called an all-party meeting in the Assembly on 19 December over the Magrahat tragedy.

But the Left too is holding firm and refusing to step back. Opposition MLAs met the Governor on Friday evening and accused the state government of serious violations of legislative procedures dealing with the presentation and amendments to a number of Bills.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report first appeared in The Statesman on 18 December 2011.)

The failure to trace out the report of the Justice Narayan Chandra Sil Commission that probed the 2008 police firing at Dinhata in Cooch Behar might have raised eyebrows in various quarters; but the Forward Bloc whose five cadres were killed in the firing has adopted a wait and watch policy on the matter.

The Commission’s report is stated to be untraceable from the chief minister’s office (CMO).
According to Forward Bloc Cooch Behar district secretary and Dinhata MLA, Mr Udayan Guha, the party was seeking legal opinion on the issue before deciding on a future course of action.

“The police have filed charge-sheet in the case against 63 of us, including me. The matter is at present sub-judice before a court in Cooch Behar. Hence, we have sought legal opinion on whether the Sil Commission’s report coming out at this point would hamper our case,” Mr Guha told The Statesman.

Asked whether his party has any plan to raise the issue with the chief minister, the Dinhata MLA sounded non-committal. “If the chief minister comes to the Assembly during the ongoing session, then we would ask her for an appointment. But it’s up to her, whether she grants us an appointment on the matter.”

The rival Congress, however, is smelling something foul in the Forward Bloc’s lacklustre attitude. “We suspect that the Commission in its report has indicted Mr Guha, the FB Cooch Behar MP Mr Nripen Roy and several other local leaders of the party. This is why FB does not want the report to be made public,” said Mr Keshab Roy, the Congress MLA from Sitai in Cooch Behar. Mr Roy today raised the matter in the state Assembly.

Mr Udayan Guha was the one who had led a huge FB rally to the Dinhata SDO office on 5 February 2008 torsubmit a memorandum demanding proper implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Indira Awas Yojona and inclusion of more beneficiaries in the BPL list.

The rally allegedly turned violent, prompting the police to open fire that killed five FB cadres. A policeman also died in the clash.

Subsequently, the then Left Front government constituted a one-man probe commission into the incident, which submitted its report in August 2010. However, for reasons unexplained, the LF government chose not to make it public. Now in a recent reply to a Right To Information query, the home department of the new Trinamul Congress government has stated that the report is untraceable.

In the meantime, the Forward Bloc has given some monetary compensation from its party fund  to the next of the kin of the five deceased cadres.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report originally appeared in The Statesman on 15 December 2011.)

Even after a year of being conferred the zonal status, Metro Railway, Kolkata remains on paper a railway zone as there have been no corresponding augmentation in infrastructure and manpower.
As of today at least six crucial higher level posts in the Metro Railway lack permanent incumbents and officers with other responsibilities are shouldering them as additional duties. Besides, an organisational restructuring necessitated by the zonal status has also not taken place in the past 12 months.

All this is resulting in deterioration in the overall performance of the country’s oldest tube railway system. According to highly-placed sources in the Railways, over the past one year, no appointments were made to the posts of Senior Deputy General Manager (SDGM) who is to look after the vigilance department and the legal cell; Chief Safety Officer (CSO) responsible for ensuring safety in train running; Chief Security Commissioner (CSC) meant for managing the overall security matters and the Deputy General Manager (G) tasked with preparing replies to parliamentary questions and convening meetings of various statutory committees.
Two posts in the General Manager’s secretariat ~ Deputy Secretary (Confidential) and Deputy Secretary (General) ~ are also bereft of full-time incumbents and the Secretary to GM is somehow dragging them along. As regards the four other posts, the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) is looking after the vigilance department; Chief Engineer (CE) is managing the legal cell; the Chief Electrical Engineer (CEE) is doubling up as the CSO; the Chief Operations Manager (COM) is supervising the overall security matters and the Senior Public Relations Officer (Sr PRO) is dispensing the responsibilities of the DGM (G).

While these are higher-level posts that lack full-time incumbents, down the line a number of posts are also laying vacant and new posts have not been created to meet the growing work pressure. “Being a zone, it is now a must for the Metro to send several periodical statements and action-taken reports to the Railway Board. But with so many crucial posts lacking full-time officers, this is proving to be a tough job for us, resulting in deterioration in overall performance,” said a highly-placed official.
Besides the manpower issues, the task of segregating the Metro Railway organisation into three separate units ~ the Headquarters, the Construction Unit and the Divisional Unit ~ is also being delayed. All this is hampering the process of speedy decision-making, as at present, the Metro headquarters is taking calls on all issues, be it day-to-day management or future planning.
The task of recognising a workers’ union through election is also held up and hence the Metro Railway at present does not have a permanent negotiation mechanism (PNM) for resolving any dispute with the workers.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report first appeared in The Statesman on 13 December 2011.)

In view of the growing concern over rising carbon footprint, Metro Railway, Kolkata, is setting up two solar power plants for meeting its energy requirements. This is the first such initiative being taken up by a railway establishment in the entire Eastern zone.
The plants are being set up under a policy directive issued by the Railway Board and as per specifications stipulated by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO).

The two proposed solar power plants ~ one of a 10-kilowatt capacity and the other a 20-kilowatt one ~ would be set up at Metro Bhavan, the headquarters of the tube railway located on Jawaharlal Nehru Road in the city and at the Metro Railway car-shed at Kavi Subhash station in New Garia, respectively. Contracts for both the plants have been awarded and they are likely to become operational by January.

According to Metro Railway sources, the 10-kilowatt solar power plant for the headquarters will be installed on the roof of the 10-storied Metro Bhavan. This would come at a cost of Rs 20.24 lakh. The project work has already been awarded to Bangaluru-based Sun Technique Energy System Pvt Ltd through a competitive domestic bidding, sources added.

The proposed plant does not come with regeneration facility and hence, would supply power during day-hours only. When operational, this will contribute to the Metro Bhavan’s daily energy requirement, pegged at around 65 kilowatt.

The second plant, a 20 kilowatt one meant for the Metro car-shed at Kavi Subhash station on the southern fringes of the city, is a “solar firming” project. In this case, the solar panels and other related apparatus weighing around 12-ton would be installed on the ground in an open space and not on the roof of any building, as is the usual practice.
This is because, given its comparative light structure and design, the Metro car-shed cannot withstand the heavy load, sources clarified. The Kavi Subhash car-shed solar power plant will cost the Metro around Rs 37-lakh and the project work has been awarded to Tata BP Solar India Ltd ~ a joint venture between the Tata and the BP Solar of UK.

This plant too will generate power in the day-hours alone and on being operational, it would feed to the car-shed’s daily power requirement, estimated at around 100 kilowatt.
According to Metro Railway spokesperson and deputy general manager (G), Mr Protyush Ghosh, they are hoping that apparatus for the solar power plants would arrive here by the end of this month and the plants would be commissioned by January.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report originally appeared in The Statesman on 9 December 2011.)

Despite the body blow of Kishenji’s death, Naxalite leaders associated with Communist revolutionary politics in West Bengal and across the country believe the peoples’ movement in Junglemahal is far from over.

The government’s counteractive approach and the absence of a sincere attempt to address the lack of economic development and exploitation of Junglemahal’s residents will keep the agitation alive, a number of far Left political leaders have said.
“It is true the agitation in Junglemahal has suffered a setback because of the Maoists’ sole focus on armed struggle. But the movement is far from over. It started as an indigenous agitation; with the ground situation remaining the same and the state resorting to more oppression, the movement will not die anytime soon,” said Mr Dipankar Bhattacharya, the All India general secretary of the Communist Party India (Marxist-Leninist), Liberation (CPI-ML, Liberation). “The void created by the Maoists will be filled by other organisations and leaders.”

Mr Bhattacharya believes that the Maoists in Junglemahal stepped into a Trinamul Congress trap and are now paying the price for the error. “Just like  YS Rajasekhara Reddy used the Maoists for his political cause in Andhra, the Trinamul Congress too exploited the Maoists in the run-up to the Assembly poll in Bengal,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Maoists didn’t learn from the Andhra experience and therefore committed the same mistake again.”

Mr Subrata Basu, West Bengal state secretary of another Naxalite faction, the CPI-ML (Kanu), said “The Peoples’ Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) was formed with the participation of people from 99 blocks in Junglemahal. The movement erupted spontaneously in response to years of exploitation and oppression. Now, with the paramilitary offensive more intense than ever before, Maoists’ influence might decline but the agitation will stay alive.”
Mr Abhijit Mazumdar, a CPI-ML (Liberation) central committee member and the son of now deceased Naxalite ideologue Charu Mazumdar, expanded on this line of analysis of the Junglemahal agitation. “The agitation in Junglemahal erupted as local people were searching for dignity. Initially, the Maoists were able to strike a chord with people by paying attention to the fight for better wages and living conditions. But gradually they became fixated on armed tactics and weakened the movement,” said Mr Mazumdar. “Having said this, I believe the movement in Junglemahal is far from over. The state’s counteractive strategy will boost the movement.”

One of the frontline leaders of the 1967 Naxalbari uprising, who now aspires to form a democratic revolutionary party, Mr Ashim Chatterjee alias Kaka, said that the Junglemahal agitation can bounce back provided that the Maoists focus on strengthening their mass base.

“The Junglemahal agitation in a sense is a continuation of the Naxalite Movement and also its vulgarisation. If the Maoists minimise the use of armed tactics and instead focus on mass organisations, Junglemahal will surely bounce back. The death of an individual may create a vacuum,” Mr Chatterjee said. “But that does not mean the end of a just movement.”

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report originally appeared in The Statesman www.thestatesman.net on 02 December 2011.)