Kolkata’s Blue Makeover Has Some Seeing Red

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:26:58 +0530

Kolkata’s Mayor recently said that the city will be painted entirely in blue. Everything from footpaths to flyovers to public parks will sport a blue color. This is an attempt to uniformly blend blue and white colors in the state.

As per the state’s mayor Amlan Lahiri, the ruling party Trinamool Congress has said that there needs to be a necessary color code for the capital city. The blue and white colors were meticulously decided keeping in mind their non-controversial traits.

The Story Behind the Colors

Mr. Lahiri states that the recent move has nothing to do with politics in the state. But analysts say there might be a different angle to it. “Red has always been the color that dates back to Kolkata,” Rajat Datta, a history professor at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University said, referring to the color of the left-wing Communist Party of India (Marxist) which ruled the state for more than three consecutive decades until 2011. “It appears to be an attempt to rid Bengal of its red legacy,” he added.

The Trinamool Congress’s supremo Mamta Banerjee has said that using the colors from the tricolor has its own set of disadvantages. “Saffron is associated with the BJP [Bhartiya Janata Party] while green is pro-Islamic,” explained Sarvani Bandyopadhyay, a sociology professor at the University of Calcutta. This explains the party’s “politically convenient” choice of white and blue, she added, echoing that the initiative is an attempt to erase the state’s leftist legacy.

It came as no surprise that the state’s major opposition party spoke sternly about the move. “The city is being color coordinated at the expense of negating development,” Tapan Kumar Sen, a senior leader of the CPI (M) told India Real Time. “Public money is being squandered on this useless project,” he added.

Even the yellow taxis, which are symbolic in the city, would be painted in blue. Taxi Association members have said that it is a wiser option to allocate money for state transport rather than spend the same on coloring them.

Another Friendship Train Likely Between India and Bangladesh

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:14:05 +0530

The Indian Railways is in the process of starting a train service called the Maitree Express between the cities of Khulna and Kolkata. Khulna is a city, which is located in the southwestern region of Bangladesh; it is considered to be an important trade centre in the country. This is being implemented after the neighboring country of Bangladesh sent a proposal to start the train service.

“Last month, Indian Railways received a proposal from Bangladesh railway containing details like proposed route. The final decision will be taken at an inter-governmental railway review meeting”, said an official.

As per the proposal, this Khulna-Kolkata Express train will go via the Bangaon town in the 24 North Paragnas district of Paschim Banga and the Jessore district in Bangladesh. Sources suggest that this deal was mooted by the Bangladesh government for the first time when Indian Prime Minister visited the country last year.

Chandralekha Mukherjee, executive director (information and publicity), Indian Railways, said, “There is some talks about such a train, though I am not aware of the details. A meeting is scheduled to take place in the second week of January, where the matter is likely to be discussed.”

If this proposal comes through, this train will be the second of its kind connecting both the countries after Bangladesh gained freedom in the year 1971. East Bengal Mail, Barisal Express and East Bengal Express were the three trains connecting the countries earlier. This railway closed down after Pakistan and India waged a war against each other in the year 1965. The Barisal Express earlier used to ply between Kolkata and Khulna.

The Maitree express was started after 43 years linking Dhaka and Kolkata. The train has not been a viable option for many in the recent times because of the cross border formalities.

“The total capacity of the train is 275. It used to carry about 40 passengers when it started. Now average booking is 50 per cent, The journey time in the train for a distance of about 538 km (120 km in India, 418 km in Bangladesh) from Kolkata to Dhaka is about 11 hours, including four hours for completing customs and immigration formalities on either sides of the border”, a spokesperson of the Eastern Railway said.

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Kolkata’s Blue Makeover Has Some Seeing Red

Another Friendship Train Likely Between India and Bangladesh