Bengal tourism industry eyes footfall boost

INDIA CLEARS VISA-ON-ARRIVAL FOR 43 COUNTRIES

By bappaditya paul

The tourism industry of West Bengal is eying a big boost from Centre’s move to grant visa-on-arrival to tourists from 43 countries. They believe that the Darjeeling-Dooars region, which already receives a good number of foreign tourists, will particularly benefit from this.

In 2010, West Bengal had received 11.92 lakh foreign tourists, which was 8.33 per cent of all foreign tourists who had visited India that year.

“We have been waiting for this for long. The move will surely increase the inflow of foreign tourists in Bengal; we expect the number to become double if not more,” said Mr Kaushik Kar, vice-president of the Travel Agents Association of Bengal (TAAB). “Darjeeling-Dooars region will be the main beneficiary and so will be Santiniketan. But destinations such as Sundarbans will have to wait to en-cash this as we do not have enough modern accommodation facilities there as yet.”

The Bengal tourism industry, however, says that it will not be able fully reap the benefit of the visa-on-arrival move in the forthcoming winter tourist season that commences in mid-December. “Majority of the foreign tourists plan their visit at least two months in advance. Hence it is unlikely that the visa-on-arrival facility that has been announced today will encourage a large number of foreigners to flock into Bengal this winter itself,” said Mr Partha Guha, general secretary of the Eastern Himalayas Travel and Tour Operators’ Association (EHTTOA).

“But we are eyeing a big boost in the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Darjeeling-Dooars during the next summer tourist season,” said Mr Guha. “The summer season lasts from April to June.”

The visa-on-arrival facility is available for passports holders of 43 countries for short-duration stay for recreation, casual visit to meet friends/relatives or for medical purpose. The countries are ~ Australia, Germany, USA, Brazil, Thailand, Japan, UAE, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Djibouti, Fiji, Finland, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Laos, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue Island, Norway, Oman, Palau, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Ukraine, Vanuatu, Vietnam.

West Bengal Pavilion at World Tourism Market, London, 4-7 Nov 2013

A visitor from any of these countries will have to apply for an e-visa on the designated Government of India website and pay visa fee online to get an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) within 72 hours of applying. An E-visa will be valid for 30 days and a tourist can avail the facility twice a year at nine international airports namely ~ Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Goa.

EHTTOA general secretary, Mr Guha said that it would have been better if the Bagdogra Airport near Siliguri were included in the list of airports that could process the visa-on-arrival. “A good number of tourists from the Schengen countries begin their tour with Bhutan and then fly down to Bagdogra. Such tourists will be compelled to fly to Kolkata from Bhutan if they want to avail the visa-on-arrival facility,” he said.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report first appeared in The Statesman on 28 November 2014.)

Bangladesh border in West Bengal remians unfenced as state drags feet over land acquisition

By bappaditya paul

Even as West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee last week pointed fingers at Central security agencies over Bangladeshi infiltration, nearly 235 km stretch of the Bangladesh border in Bengal remains unfenced as the state government has been dragging its feet on acquiring the required land. This apart, work on a number of proposed border outposts of the Border Security Force (BSF) has been held up for sometime now over non-availability of land and so is the task of constructing border patrol roads.

According to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) latest status report on border management, till 31 March this year, a 234.85 stretch of the Bangladesh border in Bengal could not be fenced due to “population residing within 150 yards of the border, pending land acquisition cases and protests by the border population.”

This is the longest unprotected stretch among five states that share India’s 4,096.70 km long international border with Bangladesh. Apart from the 2,216.70 km of this that runs through Bengal, Assam shares 263 km, Meghalaya 443 km, Tripura 856 km and Mizoram shares 318 km. The unfenced border in Assam now stands at about 4.8 km; in Meghalaya 115.57 km; in Tripura 65.54 km and in Mizoram it is 115.79 km. As regards border patrol road, of the 4,407.11 sanctioned length in the five states, 153 km remains incomplete in Bengal, 29 km in Assam, 151 km in Meghalaya, 190 km in Tripura and 187 km in Mizoram.

The Centre had in 2005 identified a 1,528 km stretch of Bangladesh border in Bengal that was to be protected from infiltration and smuggling by erecting barbed fences; out of this, sanction for fencing was made for 1,471 km in two phases.

While the Centre is directly implementing the task through its various agencies; the state’s role is to acquire the required land or removing encroachments as a major stretch of the borderland are under cultivation.

It is during the second phase work that the Central agencies began facing land hurdle. People living in border areas in several districts such as Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, North and South Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia and North 24 Parganas began to resist the move as the fencing were to come up on their paddy fields or homestead land. The Centre has thus been compelled to extend the fencing deadline time and again. Even after this, till now it has succeeded fencing only 729.15 km out of 964 km stretch sanctioned in phase-II. For the past two years, the fencing work has been progressing at a snail’s pace with barely 71 km being covered since the 2011-12.

The BSF, which man the Bangladesh border says that they have raised the matter with Bengal government several times but failed to convince them to expedite the facilitation of land for fencing, patrol roads and border outposts. “The latest meeting was held in August-September,” said a BSF officer not willing to be named.

A very senior official in the Bengal home department confirmed the veracity of the meeting but partially disagreed on what had transpired. “The meeting chaired by our chief secretary discussed land acquisition problem for some proposed border outposts, the proposal for which was submitted to us very late. As far as fencing is concerned, I don’t think they apprised us of any difficulty,” the officer said.“Furthermore, one knows that the UPA government had passed a new land acquisition law but the present dispensation at Centre is yet to frame the corresponding rules. Hence, the country now does not have any functional land acquisition law; thus there is no question of Bengal government acquiring land now,” he added, requesting anonymity.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report first appeared in The Statesman on 17 October 2014.)

Technology triumphs over violence

EC PUTS TO USE VOTER VERIFIABLE PAPER AUDIT TRAIL MACHINES IN JADAVPUR

By bappaditya paul

Violence today trailed behind a new technological innovation that the Election Commission (EC) pressed into service in Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat with Bhangor of the Arabul fame being the only major exception.

Injured CPI-M activist Feroz Mollah at Bhangor.

The EC put to use in Jadavpur, the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines, which give confirmation to an elector that his/her vote has gone to the candidate s/he actually voted for. Jadavpur is one of the seven constituencies in the country and the only one in West Bengal that got a hands-on experience on this new technological leap.

But the exuberance over VVPAT got overcast by a number of violent incidents in Bhangor, which these days is known more for the Trinamul Congress strongman Arabul Islam than the excellent quality prawns that it cultures. Bhangor is one of the seven Assembly segments that come under Jadavpur LS seat.

At least 10 persons ~ six from CPI-M and four from Trinamul ~ were injured in poll violence that took place in several parts of Bhangor during the day.

The first strike came at Chakmaricha village at 6.30 in the morning when Saifuddin Mollah (35), a CPI-M agent for Poll Booth No 155 in Bhangor, was attacked on his way to the booth allegedly by Trinamul cadres. Severely bleeding from the head, Mollah reached the booth from where officials rushed him to hospital; his father, Gafur Ali Mollah, replaced him as the CPI-M agent.

A VVPAT machine attached to an EVM at a polling booth in Jadavpur LS constituency.

The next incident occurred at Poll Booth No 117 and 118 at Kathzala and Maniktala villages in Bhangor, when CPI-M agents and supporters were attacked with bricks and sticks, allegedly by Trinamul workers, for opposing false voting. Two CPI-M agents and three supporters were injured in the head and limbs making the party take them to the Kashipur police station demanding action.

Trinamul leader Arabul Islam contradicted this saying that it was the CPI-M that attacked their agent and supporters near the booths, injuring three. “The polling is extremely peaceful in entire Bhangor but the CPI-M will still cry foul. I have roved through areas like Polerhat I & II, Beota, Bamanghata, Chaltaberia and Sonpukur; there have been no violence. We will get a very good lead in Bhangor,” Mr Islam told a group of journalists in front of Kashipur police station.

Arabul Islam

Several voters, owing allegiance to the CPI-M, at Majerhat and Saihati villages in Bhangor-II block said that they stayed away from polling booths today as Trinamul workers visited their homes last night and asked them not to vote.

The voters in Baruipur East, Sonarpur South and Sonarpur North were however well off and were excited having a hands-on experience on VVPAT. “This is a very good step as we got a confirmation that our votes went the candidate we voted for. This technology should be emulated across India in all future elections,” said Mrs Sima Adhikary and her husband Mr Swapan Adhikary who voted at Booth No 17 at Naridanga JB School in Baruipur East.

Sujan Chakraborty

CPI-M Jadavpur candidate Sujan Chakraborty said, barring Bhangor, the polling in his seat today was by and large peaceful. “The EC did not play an effective role in Bhangor but we are satisfied with the arrangements elsewhere.” At 6 p.m., the poll percentage in Jadavpur stood at 79.63 per cent as against 81.46 per cent in 2009.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report first appeared in The Statesman on 13 May 2014)

EC brings 11 more Bengal LS constituencies under police observer watch

WITH THIS, NUMBER OF LS SEATS UNDER POLICE OBSERVERS’ PURVIEW RISES TO 21

In view of the Opposition’s allegations of Trinamul strong-arm tactics, the Election Commission (EC) has brought 11 more Parliamentary constituencies in the state under the purview of the police observers.

The police observers will keep an eye on the functioning of the police in the run up to the polls and will finalise the deployment of security forces during the election, including that of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF).

The Commission had earlier on 21 March named eight police observers for nine Parliamentary constituencies in the state out of the total 42. On that occasion, while seven police observers were assigned one constituency each, one observer was given the charge of two constituencies, that is, the Burdwan East and Burdwan-Durgupar.

In its latest order issued on 1 April, the poll panel has now brought 11 more constituencies under watch but without raising the numbers of the police observers. The eight police observers named already, will now look after 21 constituencies spread over the nine districts of Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore, Hooghly and the South and North 24-Parganas.Post the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, most of these districts are considered Trinamul Congress strongholds and there have recent instances of the ruling party leaders issuing direct or indirect threats to the Opposition.

The Trinamul Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal asking party supporters to “poison CPI-M workers as is done to rats” and the Trinamul sitting MP from Dum Dum Saugata Roy advising party workers to capture poll booths and warn CPI-M cadres to refrain from electioneering, are two major examples.

The 11 new constituencies that have been brought under the purview of police observers are ~ Behrampore and Jangipur in Murshidabad, Bolpur in Birbhum, Arambagh in Hooghly, Asansol in Burdwan, Ghatal in West Midnapore, Bishnupur in Bankura, Mathurapur and Jadavpur in South 24-Parganas, Barrackpore and Dum Dum in North 24-Parganas. Of them, Bolpur is considered the fiefdom of Anubrata Mondal, while Saugata Roy is in the Lok Sabha poll fray from Dum Dum.With the latest changes, police observer Mr Indu Kumar Bhusan will now look after Behrampore, Mushidabad and Jangipur, Mr A Natarajan Bolpur and Birbhum, Mr Padmakar Santu Ranpise Hooghly, Burdwan East and Burdwan-Durgapur, Mr Kripa Nand Tripathi Ujela Purulia and Asansol, Mr Niket Kaushik Arambagh, Ghatal and Midnapore, Mr L C Bhartiya Bankura and Bishnupur, Mr A K Singh Joynagar, Mathurapur and Jadavpur, and Mr Arpit Shukla will be responsible for Bongaon, Barrackpore and Dum Dum.

The police observers will start arriving in the state from 5 April and send law and reports directly to the EC in New Delhi.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report was first published in The Statesman on 4 April 2014.)

Congress fails to put up candidates even in half the panchayat seats in Bengal

By bappaditya paul

Out of the alliance with the Trinamul, the Congress has failed to put up candidates even in half of the panchayat seats in Bengal that are scheduled to go to the polls beginning 2 July.

The situation is such that the Congress is literally absent from the panchayat poll fray in 28 of the 329 blocks up for the three-phase rural polls. The Congress has put up candidates in 28,098 seats; the total number of panchayat seats in the state covering all the three tiers ~ gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and the zilla parishad ~ is 58,707.

Significantly, of the three tiers, the Congress is missing mostly in the gram panchayat seats that directly represent the villages.

This comes at a time when all the front-line Congress leaders in Bengal are asserting themselves like never before and the erstwhile Trinamul ally is even sometimes stealing the main Opposition space from the Left Front.

The Congress has lost the panchayat poll plot, particularly in the nine south Bengal districts ~ North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, East and West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia and Burdwan ~ that are going to the elections in the first phase. The total number of seats in the first phase is 36,006; the Congress has managed to put up candidates only in 11,708.

As compared to this, the Congress’ candidature count in the second and third phase is a little better. In the second phase, polls are to be held in Nadia, Birbhum, Mushidabad and Malda with the total number of seats being 14,379; the party has successfully put up candidates in 11,016 seats.

The third phase polls to be held in North and South Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar have 8,322 seats and the Congress is in the fray in 5,374.

Pradesh Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya blamed the twin reasons of weak organisational strength and the intimidation by Trinamul Congress for his party missing from many a panchayat candidates.

“The Trinamul has lured away a large number of the Congress workers across rural Bengal and has thus rendered our party organisation very weak at the grass-root level. As a result, we have failed to put up candidates in 28 blocks. We have particularly become very weak in Hooghly, Bankura, East and West Midnapore,” he said. “Criminal intimidation and atrocities by the Trinamul have worsened the situation for us in the remaining districts.”

He said now that the Congress has begun asserting itself, it would take “at least a year to rejuvenate the party organisation” in Bengal.

(The author is Senior Reporter, The Statesman, India. This was first published in The Statesman  on 22 June 2013.)

Noapara Metro Station to open in July

By bappaditya paul

Having failed to meet the railway ministry’s March deadline, the Noapara Metro station in Kolkata’s northern suburb is now likely to be thrown open to the public in the first week of July.

Noapara Metro Railway station, Kolkata.

Work on the new Metro station is complete and the mandatory clearance from the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), Eastern Circle, also came through in late May.

According to Metro Railway general manager, Mr Radhey Shyam, they were now imparting training to motormen (train drivers) on operating trains on the 2.59-km new route from Dum Dum to Noapara.

“The training is at an advanced stage and we have plans to commission the Noapara station for passengers soon,” the Metro GM said. Another senior Metro Railway official, attached to the operations wing, said that the “road-learning training” being imparted to train drivers would be over by the end of the month. After that they would be in a position to throw open the station anytime.“But it will be safe to say that the station will be opened in the first week of July.”

There has been confusion as to whether the new Metro station can be opened during the panchayat polls in Bengal scheduled to continue till 15 July as a Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is in force; but the State Election Commission secretary, Mr Tapas Ray, today clarified that MCC is effective only for the rural areas. Noapara Metro station comes under the joint jurisdiction of Baranagar and Dum Dum municipalities.

Metro Railway has a car shed at Noapara spread over a 147-acre premise; the new Metro station ~ which is an elevated one ~ has been constructed on the left side of the car shed at an estimated cost of Rs 182 crore.

The station has four platforms but initially the authorities will put two platforms into service for trains plying on the main Kavi Subhash (New Garia) -Dum Dum-Noapara Metro route; the rest two platforms will be put to use once the proposed Dakshineswar Metro route is opened.

Noapara Metro station will serve commuters from Sinthi More, A K Mukherjee Road and B T Road. It will take about five minutes for a Metro train to cover the distance from Dum Dum to Noapara, thus taking 54 minutes for an end-to-end trip from New Garia to Noapara.

As of now a Metro train takes about 49 minutes to cover the existing 25.23-km Metro route from New Garia to Dum Dum. Faced with a shortage of train drivers, Metro Railway is planning to operate only 50 trains up to Noapara in the initial stage and gradually increase the number of trains depending on the rush of passengers.

Metro Railway operates 270 trains on weekdays, 205 on Saturdays and 78 trains on Sundays at five, six, seven, eight, ten and 15-minute interval. The average number of daily Metro commuters is 6 lakh.

(The author is Senior Reporter, The Statesman, India. This report first appeared in The Statesman on 20 June 2013.)

Two montns on: retiring rooms at Kolkata airport new terminal still not ready

By bappaditya paul

The retiring rooms proposed for passengers at Kolkata’s N S C Bose International Airport new terminal are yet to be ready even as it is nearing two months since the terminal was made fully operational.

As a result fliers landing at the airport with connecting flights to catch are facing immense hardship; they are required to walk almost half a kilometre to access the existing retiring rooms located at the airport’s old international terminal building.

The new passenger terminal made fully operational on 15 March has provisions for 23 retiring rooms at arrival level. They are located at the arrival level mezzanine floor between the visitor’s area and security-hold; there is a stair and a lift aligned along gate number 3-C for accessing them.

A visit to the new terminal yesterday revealed that none of the 23 retiring rooms is ready yet ~ the ceiling, flooring and wall plaster works have not moved an inch, leave aside the furnishings. The airport management until now has only completed work for the attached washrooms. “If the work is expedited, still it would take at least two more months to make the rooms ready for occupancy,” said an official supervising the job.

N S C Bose Airport director, Mr B P Sharma, said they were in the process of commissioning the retiring rooms but he would not commit a specific deadline. “We’re in the process of awarding the tender for running the retiring rooms; the rooms will be handed over to some five-star hotel management who will operate them on lease,” Mr Sharma said.

The airport director said that in view of the delay, they were still running the old retiring rooms so that passengers were not inconvenienced. Located on the first floor of the old international terminal, there are six double-occupancy retiring rooms and a 14-bed dormitory that are allotted to transiting passengers for a charge ~ Rs 1,500 for a room and Rs 700 for a dormitory bed.

But the issue is that to access them, one has to walk almost half-a-kilometre from the new terminal. The distance is not long enough so cabs do not agree to ferry passengers and rickshaws are not allowed on the airport campus unless there’s a strike.

“Last week there was an occasion when a flier who landed here in the evening and had an early morning flight to catch had booked a retiring room in the old building. But he returned midway saying he felt scared to walk the distance; he spent the entire night sitting in the new terminal passenger lounge,” an airport official said accusing the management of being insensible to such plights.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report first appeared in The Statesman on 9 May 2013.)

‘Kishenji is dead, but movement is alive’

By bappaditya paul

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 http://www.thestatesman.net on 02 December 2011.)

Toy Trains Collide Near Tindharia