Kolkata Diary

Parents told to car-pool wards to school
The parents of all students at La Martiniere for Boys have been told to arrange for car-pool to drop their children off to school. The authorities said the school will not take any responsibility if anyone, ignoring the advice, is stopped by the traffic police from April 1. A circular issued on Thursday states if any parent ferries his ward in a private car and the vehicle is prevented or stopped by the traffic police from reaching the institute, the school cannot be held responsible for it. The circular cited auto emission and rising pollution as reasons for the decision.

Governor nod to motor tax amendment Bill
Governor Jagdeep Dhankar has given his consent to the Mamata Banerjee government to table the West Bengal Motor Vehicle Tax (Amendment) Bill, thereby paving the way for bike taxis to be formally accepted as a mode of public transportation in the state. Thousands of bike taxis operate in Kolkata and a bulk of them is engaged in food delivery business. Presently, they are not commercially registered and operators are penalised in the event of a police crackdown. Bike taxi operators said the conversion into commercial vehicle will mean they will be considered as contract carriage operators under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules and will be charged yearly tax of `8,000.  The governor and the chief minister have been at odds over a number of issues in the recent past.

ISC physics practical exam extended
The ISC physics practical examination had to be extended by half an hour on Thursday because of alleged “confusing instruction” about a compulsory question. The question, carrying nine marks, asked the examinees to carry out an experiment in electricity using a certain voltage. The confusion stemmed from the fact that the experiment could not be performed with that voltage. While in some schools, the examinees were told to do the experiment at a suitable voltage, at others, the students were asked to take readings till a lower resistance to match the voltage. 

Wait for power connections to get shorter
The wait for an electricity connection for residential as well as commercial establishments will get shorter, as the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will give permission to lay cables within four days of receiving an application. The four-day target has been fixed following a World Bank prod as the lender will consider the performance of Kolkata while ranking India in its global Doing Business Report, a KMC official said. He said steps would be taken to improve the ease of doing business in the city.