1. Sealdah Flyover Closed for Health Check-Up

The Sealdah flyover was shut down to traffic for four days from 6pm on Thursday to facilitate a safety audit and repairs on the structure. Engineers of the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), that maintains the flyover, went to the structure and started inspection on Thursday evening. An engineer said that the flyover would be closed for four days to facilitate load-bearing tests.

According to the officer, the four-day period — from the afternoon of 15 August to the afternoon of 18 August — an engineering consulting agency would mount loaded trucks of capacity ranging between 25 tonnes and 75 tonnes on the flyover.

(Source: The Telegraph)

Also Read: Cracks Appear on Kolkata Flyover Which Had Collapsed in 2013

2. Bengal: Sovan Switches to BJP With Associate

Trinamul Congress leader Sovan Chatterjee and his close associate Baishakhi Banerjee joined the BJP on Wednesday amid a drama indicative of reluctance of a section of leaders in the saffron camp over their induction.

“I joined the BJP to combat the politics of negativity in Bengal. I support the development agenda under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah,” Chatterjee said at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi.

He was Calcutta’s mayor and most trusted aide to Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee.

(Source: The Telegraph)

Also Read: Ex-TMC Leader Sovan Chatterjee Joins BJP

3. VHP: Jai Shri Ram Chants to Resonate on Every Occasion, Bengal to Lead Nation in Going Saffron

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Surendra Jain on Wednesday said that Jai Shri Ram chants will soon resonate on every occasion and that the state will lead the nation in going saffron.

“During the freedom struggle, Bengal showed the way. Now once again, Bengal will show the way to the country as now it is going towards saffron. Mamata didi did a mistake by stopping Durga Puja. In the past two years, lakhs of people have participated in Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti festivals in the state,” the joint general secretary of VHP said on the sidelines of the launching event of VHP’s fortnightly magazine, Hindu Vishwa, here.

(Source: The Indian Express)

Also Read: Pune: VHP Workers Booked for Display of Weapons in Procession

4. Calcutta High Court Commutes Lalgarh Leader Chhatradhar Mahato’s Life Sentence

Calcutta High Court on Wednesday commuted the life sentences of the face of the Lalgarh movement, Chhatradhar Mahato, and three of his associates, Sukhshanti Baske, Sogun Murmu and Sambhu Soren, to 10 years of imprisonment.

The division bench of Justices Md Mumtaz Khan and Jay Sengupta also acquitted two other accused in the case — Prasun Chatterjee and Raja Sarkhel.

While delivering the order, Justice Md Mumtaz Khan observed: “The prosecution failed to prove that Chhatradhar Mahato and three others had waged war against the state. They were merely involved in conspiracy for doing an illegal act.”

(Source: The Telegraph)

5. Principals for 85 Colleges in Bengal to Be Recruited by December

Principals will be recruited in 85 colleges by the end of December to meet Mamata Banerjee government’s target to have permanent heads in all the 550 state-aided colleges in the state.

In each of these 85 colleges, a teacher-in-charge, the senior-most among the faculty, is running the institution in the absence of a principal at present.

(Source: The Telegraph)