Democracy under surveillance

THE West Bengal government is set to establish a three-tier bureaucratic system to monitor the three-tier panchayati raj system. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made the announcement on November 3 after a meeting with district administrative officials.

The secret garden

Worlds can change within minutes, or kilometres. It was the bumpy six-hour ride from Kolkata to a tiger reserve in the largest riverine delta in the world, that told me this. Hopping islands in the Sundarbans onboard Rs 1 ferry rides, on rickety cycle vans dancing on puddles, and walking on slippery brick ways, the arduous journey is not for the big cat though. I am to witness the beginning of a stupendous task: documentation of life in its myriad hues.

Hunger stalks government schools in West Bengal

Eighty-seven per cent school children in four districts of West Bengal are undernourished right at the entry level. The shocking numbers are from the yet unpublished report of Project Dipankar, a child tracking system initiated by the department of school education in the state. The project tracks the educational performance of standard I students and their nutritional status.

Yummy but harmful

NEXT time you salivate at the sight of a juicy, yellow rasgulla, consider this: the dye used to colour it could be harmful.

Return of bird flu in India raises alarm

West Bengal has completed culling of chicken after a spate of unnatural bird deaths reported in some poultry farms in Nadia district's Tehatta block. While it has been confirmed that the organism infecting the birds is the H5 strain of influenza, it is still not known if it is the mutant variety. On August 29, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization had raised concerns that the virus circulating in Vietnam and Cambodia are a mutant variety. India was identified as one of the countries at risk of contracting this mutant.

Land bill gets diluted on way to Parliament

On September 7, a draft of the Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill of 2011was tabled in Parliament which was different from the one published in July for public comments. The changes in the draft now seem to favour agencies acquiring land rather than the land owners. Certain features offering safeguards and better compensation to farmers have been diluted, say activists.

“Why can’t people be given right over timber?”

Ajit Banerjee The former district forest officer in Midnapore, West Bengal, initiated the first JFM experiment in Arabari in 1972. Excerpts from an interview:

Panel submits draft of West Bengal land use policy

An expert committee set up by the West Bengal government to draft the state’s land use policy has submitted its recommendations to chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The draft suggests, among others, that land for industry be bought directly from owners. It also does not approve of special economic zones (SEZs) in the state.

Stop passing the buck

This refers to the editorial “When business rules our kitchens” (June 16-30, 2011).

The swing

Former chief minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi, recovering from a historic drubbing in the recent assembly polls, might find solace in the superlative his home constituency earned during the election. Kilvelur assembly constituency in Nagapattinam district has recorded the highest turnout of women voters in the state—95.57 per cent. This is also the highest among the four states and a union territory that went to polls this year.