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A concrete construction erodes into the ramshackle school "building", which operates out of a makeshift shed spread over 13 cottahs of the Wakf estate, and a board hangs outside Ghari Ghar Young Association.

A club house is being erected adjacent to the school by the Prince Rafiuddin Wakf Estates Mutwallis Committee, and according to school authorities, it encroaches upon the land donated to the schools by the Wakif of the estate, Prince Rafiuddin, grandson of Tipu Sultan. A senior official of Kolkata Municipal Corporation's Borough-X alleged the club house was being built with the tacit support of CPI-M strongmen in the area.

"The staircase they are building has even damaged parts of the school building," Mr Serajul Islam, headmaster of Mollahat Junior High School, said. The school has about 150 students. With a tin roof shed, the classrooms of the school are no less than furnace. A lazy ceiling fan blows hot air past flushed faces of the students. Garbage is heaped all over the schools' "campus", which also houses the Mollahat Primary School with 135 students.

The first major event since their launch - IYCN's Delhi Youth Summit on Climate (DYSoC) - will be held on May 28 and 29, in Teen Murti Bhawan. Eighty young people will come together to set the agenda on climate change for Delhi.

The DYSoC is in association with UKbased Lead International's India chapter, Fountain of Development, Research and Action, the UNESCO and the Youth Parliament Foundation. Registration forms can be downloaded at iycn.in.

"There has been no real `Indian' youth movement on the issue of climate change. When Kartikeya, a key member of IYCN, attended the UN Cli- mate Change Conference in Bali in De- cember as part of a US youth delega- tion he was shocked that there was no representation of the Indian youth at such an important conference," says Govind Singh, a Ph.d scholar at Delhi University's School of Environ- ment Studies.

And so Kartikeya Singh, a Compton Mentor fellow (a US fellowship) who is working on renewable energy resources in India, and Govind envisioned this youth coalition.

Officials said that a decision to form this empowered board was taken as per a resolution taken in the mayor-in-council meeting of the KMC held on 9 May this year. "In earlier cases the DG (Project Management Unit) was entitled to take decision on water body related issues. His suggestions were sent to the MMiC (environment) based on which a final decision was arrived at," officials said.

According to a circular issued by the municipal commissioner, Mr Alapan Bandopadhyay (municipal commissioner's circular no. 09 of 2008-09) the empowered board will prepare a list of existing water bodies in the 141 wards of KMC. A similar list was prepared by former mayor Mr Prasanta Chatterjee.

The West Bengal Government School Teachers Association has suggested a list of physical activities including yoga, sports and games to the school education department, which can be introduced for school students.

Apart from the annual sports in winter, very little is being done to encourage students to take part in outdoor activities. Only a single period in a week is allotted to physical education. However, some schools ignore this and at times even this single period is not given in the time table.

According to sources close to the Governor, Mr Gandhi had taken this austerity measure to set an example and hence would like to continue with the power cuts at Raj Bhavan which he feels would enable power to be supplied elsewhere.

The state power minister, Mr Banerjee, today met the Governor at Raj Bhawan around 4:30 p.m. and briefed him about the latest power situation in the state, armed with statistics of both the state electricity board and CESC for the past two weeks beginning from 1 May. Mr Gandhi had announced his decision to initiate power cuts in Raj Bhavan on 6 May.

Work on the muchdelayed project will begin in June near Belgachia to ease traffic chaos on Jessore Road.

KMDA has decided to leave the existing sewerage and drainage systems untouched at Belgachia as these were damaged at Dum Dum. The 20 families, staying in a slum near the site, will be relocated to prevent overcrowding near the Patipukur underpass.

Initially, the Kolkata Improvement Trust was assigned the job of building the underpass at Patipukur and transport minister Subhas Chakraborty laid the foundation in 2001. But the government dilly-dallied and the initial cost of Rs 6 crore has escalated to Rs 19 crore.

"All problems have been sorted out. The tendering process has begun and work will start in June," said a KMDA traffic and transportation sector official. The project will be completed in 18 months.

It has also joined hands with the West Bengal government for floating a joint venture company to take up infrastructure projects, which includes development of a 35,000 square feet commercial space in Kasba, with a project cost of Rs 20 crore.

Speaking after a press conference on the launch of a studio apartment, Xanadu, Sanjay Jain, joint managing director, of the company said, the real estate company was executing two projects—Xanadu and Siddha Pine-- in the city, and two other projects were in the pipeline.

The upcoming projects of the company include a service-cum-shopping and residential project in Rajarhat and another residential project-cum IT project spread over 40 acre in Rajarhat, with about 1,000 flats.

Apart from Kolkata, Siddha is also executing township projects in collaboration with the Rajasthan government.

The company hopes to complete all its upcoming projects in Kolkata by 2011.

Last year, the turnover of the privately-held company was Rs 50 crore . In the next two- hree years, the company aimed to achieve a turnover of Rs 800 crore, said Jain.

A KMC official said the civic body could not remove hoardings from the BBD Bag area, which has been named a world heritage zone, thanks to resistance from the PWD. "Though several agencies have responded to our appeal and removed their hoardings from near heritage buildings in BBD Bag, some hoardings are still standing because the PWD has given them a clean chit," said a KMC official.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, however, said all hoardings need to be shifted from BBD Bag, as it is a heritage zone. "I will take the matter up with the minister concerned so that KMC faces no hindrance when it tries to remove hoardings from BBD Bag area," he said.

Private advertisement agencies are also loath to bring down their ads, some even from heritage buildings. One such hoarding from Park Mansion on Park Street was removed by KMC's advertisement department during a recent drive.

Even the interview of OBC candidates at IIM, Calcutta on Thursday has been stayed.

The HRD ministry reacted quickly, saying it would move the Supreme Court.

CREAMY CATCH    

• Calcutta HC admits petition, arguing that OBC quota at IIMs goes against SC verdict; stays interviews.
  
• Petitioner says SC had ruled that graduates will not be considered for OBC quota as they were part of the creamy layer.

"There are around five sector offices under the Sandeshkhali block and each sector office is situated at a distance of 14 to 15 kilometers from the BDO office. The polling booths are located in remote pockets where networks of mobile phones cannot reach. Even fixed landlines are not available in the vicinity. So, in these circum stances, radios become an effective means of communication," said Ambarish Nag Biswas, HAM radio operator.

A team of eight radio operators has already reached there and set up temporary radio stations to transmit messages from the sector office to the office of BDO. The operators use Morse code to relay messages.

"We had to seek prior approval from the Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) wing of the ministry of Communications to shift base," said Nag Biswas.

The HAM operators had also been involved in the previous panchayat elections of 2003 when they were called in by the district administration of South 24-Parganas.

Shoaib Akhtar grabbed all the first four wickets for a mere 11 runs in a spell of three overs. He wasn`t even required for his fourth over.

On the second ball of the match, Shoaib sent back Sehwag and there was no looking back after that. The fielding was sharp and accurate and the number of direct hits, to go with the two run-outs, kept the pressure on Delhi.

Chasing 134, Delhi boys were reeling at 104 for seven when Sourav Ganguly brought in Shukla to bowl for the first time in the 18th over of the innings and Shukla bagged three wickets for six runs from five balls and the Delhi Daredevils were all out for 110 in 17.5 overs.

Kolkata have edged out Delhi in the points table and are now placed fourth.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the works and tender committee held in the conference room of Unnayan Bhavan, recently. The project will be constructed on turn key basis. The committee has advised the wing resposible for setting up the pumping station to invite fresh tenders.

A senior KMDA official said, steps have already been taken to augment the supply of drinking water to south Kolkata and the fringes where the population growth is very high. Hectic construction activities are going on in the southern fringes and to cope with the situation, it is necessary to increase the supply of drinking water. Steps have already been taken to do away with deep tube wells as the ground water level has been receding in the city particularly in south Kolkata.

The civic authorities and the water investigation directorate have already imposed restrictions on deep tube wells. A committee headed by the municipal commissioner has been set up to prevent unauthorised sinking plant of deep tube wells.

He said that work is being going on so that there is a remarkable rise in the supply of drinking water in the city by 2010. It may be recalled that the KMC has already decided to impose water tax in the city. Also, thrust will be to reduce wastage of drinking water.

The state health department has decided to initiate the liver transplantation from SSKM Hospital, state's premiere health care establishment. The department has started installing required infrastructure at the institute of liver diseases of the hospital to make the plan successful. Most of the required infrastructure have already been installed and the rest would be installed soon, the hospital authorities said.

"We will send a doctor from the Institute of Liver Diseases to get the required training in Mumbai where liver transplantation is being performed for the past few years," the director of Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research at SSKM Hospital, Dr PK Deb, said.

A departmental meeting was held today on this issue but teachers could not find any solution to the problem. The Vice-Chancellor was informed so that he can look into the legal aspects. It was later decided that the matter will be taken up in the syndicate meeting.

It might be recalled that the English department had published an attendance list where 97 students were marked `discollegiate' candidates which means that since they do not have 55 per cent attendance they would not be allowed to appear for the final examinations. Around 230 students were to appear for the examination this year, out of which, 97 students have been marked as `discollegiate'.

Following the publication of the list, students staged a protest in front of the Calcutta University saying that they should have been informed three months in advance. That would have given them a scope to increase their attendance, they said. The students had also demanded that all the students including the `discollegiate' and `noncollegiate' to appear for the examination.

Students also requested CU authorities to hold special classes for these candidates so that they could improve their attendance. However, teachers of the department do not consider it to be a feasible option. "There are difficulties in conducting classes three weeks before the examination," an English teacher said. Moreover, since this is a Supreme Court directive, conducting special classes for `discollegiate' students involves a lot of legal complications, the teacher added.

CU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Suranjan Das said: "The issue is still being discussed."

The 2008-09 session will end in April next year as usual. "We had planned to start the academic session from January 2009. But then, this year's session ought to have been started in April instead of May. The time has passed for that," said school education minister Partha De.

"We will have to phase out the process and end the session a month early every year. This means from next year, the session will run from April to March, March to February in the following year and then, from February to January," explained De. The school education department has allowed 65 holidays for the 2008-09 session.

Schools affiliated to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education have also been asked to reduce the number of unit tests for Class X from four to two.