Kolkata Diary

CPM statewide stir on graft, lawlessness soon
CPM, the erstwhile ruling party of West Bengal, is all set to kick off protests against ongoing corruption charges against TMC leaders and lawlessness in remote pockets across the state. With this, the party aims to woo the electorate for next year’s panchayat elections . The party asked its ground-level workers to campaign intensively to highlight the three ongoing corruption charges — recruitment scam in schools, cattle smuggling and coal pilferage — at the village level to secure political dividend in the rural elections. Since the party witnessed a rise in its vote share in recent municipal polls, it’s expecting better performance in the panchayat elections compared to 2018. 

Bangladesh to send hilsa fish as Puja gift
Bangladesh has decided to send close to 2,500 tonnes of hilsa to Bengal as a ‘Puja gift’. The consignments will start reaching Kolkata shortly. In September 2021, Dhaka had agreed to send over 4,000 tonnes of hilsa to Bengal, the highest in recent times, but only 1,200 tonnes could be exported because of lack of time. In April, Bangladesh export minister Tipu Munchi had met CM Mamata Banerjee during the Bengal Global Business Summit. Later, he had raised the border issue with Mamata and even promised to visit the Benapole-Petrapole border to do away with glitches and expedite the process of goods clearance. 

‘Fast-track redressal for plaints from CMO’ 
Mamata Banerjee asked senior officials of the state administration to redress grievances lodged with the chief minister’s office (CMO) within seven days, after she came to know that some departments were taking more than three weeks to resolve the complaints related to government services. The chief minister issued the instructions during an administrative review meeting held at Nabanna, the state secretariat in Kolkata. Sources in the administration said the instruction hinted that more and more people are lodging complaints with the CMO apparently after they did not get satisfactory services from the government.

Pranab mondal 
Our correspondent in West Bengal pranabm@newindianexpress.com