CMYK Rs. 3 KOLKATA SATURDAY, 14 MAY, 2022 PG-12, YEAR—8, ISSUE—349 (RNI NO.: WBENG / 2014 / 56803) Morning India ED raids ‘Bangladeshi’ nationals in the state posing as ‘Indians’ with fake papers MAY 14 SATURDAY 34 34 29 MI News Service, Kolkata: The Enforce- Precipition: 10% Humidity: 70% Wind: 26 KM/H ment Directorate(ED) on Friday said it has raided multiple premises of Bangladesh nationals and their associates in West Bengal as part of an investigation against them on charges of undertaking fraudulent financial deals worth crores by "posing" as Indians. Searches are being carried out at 10 locations in the state. West Bengal shares an over 2,216km-long international boundary with Bangladesh. The federal agency said that premises linked to Bangladesh nationals like Proshanta Kumar Halder, Pritish Kumar Halder, Pranesh Kumar Halder and their associates across the state of West Bengal are being raided. It is alleged that Proshanta Kumar Halder has been posing as an Indian citizen by the name of Shibshankar Halder after having managed to fraudulently obtain various government identities like a ration card Bengal headmaster barred from entering school for almost a month MI News Service, Kolkata: In a rare ver- dict, the Calcutta High Court on Friday barred the headmaster of a state-run school from entering school premises till June 10 for holding back the salary of a teacher for two years. That is not just enough. A single judge bench of Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay has even directed the local police to post two armed personnel at the school gate till that date to ensure that the guilty headmaster cannot enter the school till the time mentioned. The person in question is Sheikh Safi Alam, the headmaster of Golapbari Pallimongal High School in Barasat sub-division of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. Raju Jana, a teacher of the same school, filed a petition against Alam alleging that the latter had held back his salary for two years from 2018 to 2020. The case continued for a long time and Friday was the date of the final hearing. Justice Gangopadhyay ordered Alam to be personally present at the court. During the final hearing, Justice Gangopadhyay asked Alam whether he had any authority to hold back the salary of a teacher of the school where he is the headmaster. However, Alam did not have any answer to the question. The judge then pronounced his verdict, barring the errant headmaster from entering the school premises till June 10 and also asked the local police station to ensure that by posting two armed guards at the school gate till that time. Justice Gangopadhyay, recently came to the headlines after he ordered state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee to appear for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) within hours for integration pertaining to recruitment irregularities in West Bengal School Service Commission. Although that order was stayed a division bench on the same day, but by that time, Justice Gangopadhyay had attracted ire of the Trinamool Congress-affiliated lawyers of the high court, who boycotted his bench for 21 days. A resident waits with her belongings as she prepares to vacate her house after cracks appeared in the structures of the neighbourhood, likely to have been caused by metro railway construction in the area, at Bowbazar, in Kolkata on Friday. KMC mulls to demolish houses damaged in Bowbazar MI News Service, Kolkata: Kolkata Municipality (KMC) is thinking of demolishing the houses damaged by the Metro. After inspecting the damaged houses on Thursday, the municipality's building department submitted a report to Mayor Firhad Hakim. According to the report, 14 damaged houses have been suggested to be demolished. But before that, the municipality will check the health of the house and soil with Jadavpur University. Only then will the Calcutta Municipality make the final decision on the future of the houses. It is learned that this report has also been submitted to the office of the Chief Minister. The Mayor of Kolkata Firhad Hakim held a meeting on Friday with Metro Railway authorities for this sudden debacle. The Kolkata Metro Railway has been asked to test the soil condition in Bowbazar to decide the fate of the buildings that have developed major cracks, the city's mayor Firhad Hakim said on Friday. The Mayor further added that the buildings cannot be razed suddenly without consulting experts and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has already appointed a committee of specialists from the Jadavpur University to examine the stability of those buildings in Durga Pithuri Lane. "Ours is a land composed of silt. We need to find the current situation in the earth and that is why we have asked the Metro Railway authorities to appoint earth experts to evaluate it," said Hakim "They should see how much water has seeped into, which could be dangerous for the metro construction as well and at the same time it is not a good idea to rebuild the houses without proper soil testing” he further added. The Mayor has asked reports from earth expert, because “even if we rebuild the houses, they may not be intact for the next 50 years.” Mayor said. To the Mayor these are very old buildings, hence, even a small disturbance underneath can cause damage to the structure, At least 12 buildings in the congested central Kolkata locality have developed major cracks, following which 232 people were moved to different hotels. Water entered the Howrah-bound under-construction tunnel of the East-West Metro from water pockets created due to the heavy rains. This resulted in the washing away of soil and sand, causing structural damage to the buildings. KMC building department engineers have already inspected the buildings, which have developed cracks, besides checking the condition of the neighboring houses. In August 2019, a tunnel boring machine hit an aquifer, leading to severe ground subsidence and collapse of several buildings in the same area. Construction in the area was underway for the East-West Metro project, which will connect the twin cities of Howrah and Kolkata. The construction works were suspended following the incident. On Wednesday night, cracks appeared in several houses in Durga Pituri Lane, Ward No. 46 of Boubazar in Metro Rail. Metro work has been suspended since the disaster. Mayor Firhad Hakim will hold a meeting with KMRCL at Purbhaban on Friday. About 30 houses in Durga Pituri Lane were damaged in the Metro disaster two years ago. This time about 14 houses were damaged. Accidents in 2019 also caused cracks in these houses. At that time KMRCL repaired the houses and brought back the residents. Local councilor Bishwarup Dey said most of the houses here are in poor condition due to Metro work. The same thing is happening to him again and again. Houses could be damaged again if the metro is launched. So a high level committee needs to be formed. Crisis deepened as to sudden cave-in of roads at Barabazar near Nandaram Market in Central Kolkata on Friday afternoon creating panic among the residents. A section of residents alleged that this is due to the construction of Metro railway which reportedly cracked houses along roads in Bowbazar area. Although the authorities ruled out the possibilities of caving-in of roads due to the construction of East – West Metro railways. Monsoon's onset at Kerala likely on May 27 MI News Service, New Delhi : The much-awaited Southwest Monsoon is likely to knock on Kerala's door on May 27, against the normal onset date of June 1, the IMD announced on Friday. The monsoon's arrival is eagerly awaited as it has a deep impact on India's agriculture and economy and hence termed as the real Finance Minister of India. "This year, the onset of southwest monsoon over Kerala is likely to be earlier than normal date of onset. The monsoon onset over Kerala is likely to be on May 27 with a 22. model error of plus or minus four days," the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. In the Indian monsoon region, initial monsoon rains are experienced over south Andaman Sea and the monsoon winds then advance north-westwards across the Bay of Bengal. As per the normal dates of monsoon onset/progress, the southwest monsoon advances over the Andaman Sea around May "In association with enhanced cross equatorial winds, conditions are becoming favourable for advance of Southwest Monsoon into South Andaman Sea, Nicobar Islands and some parts of southeast Bay of Bengal, around May 15," the IMD said. Past data suggest that there is no association of the date of monsoon advance over the Andaman Sea either with the date of monsoon onset over Kerala or with the seasonal monsoon rainfall over the country, the IMD pointed out. Indian Embassy to resume operation It's Elon Musk vs Parag Agrawal at Twitter as platform suffers in Kyiv from next week MI News Service, New MI News Service, Kyiv: The Indian Em- bassy in Ukraine, which was temporarily operating out of Poland, would resume its operation in Kyiv from May 17. "The Indian Embassy in Ukraine, which was temporarily operating out of Warsaw (Poland), would be resuming its operation in Kyiv w.e.f. 17 May 2022," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement. The Embassy was temporarily relocated to Warsaw on March 13 due to the deteriorating security situation in the wake of the Ukraine conflict. While conveying the decision to temporarily relocate the embassy to Poland, MEA had said the situation will be reassessed in the light of further developments. "In view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Ukraine, including attacks in the western parts of the country, it has been decided that the Indian Embassy in Ukraine will be temporarily relocated to Poland," the MEA had said. Russia started its military operation in Ukraine in the last week of CMYK February this year which resulted in a large-scale humanitarian situation. Under operation Ganga, India had facilitated the safe return of 22,500 Indian nationals, most of them students, studying in various universities in Ukraine. India on Thursday reiterated its stand for diplomacy amid the Ukraine conflict and said humanitarian measures should not be politicized at a time when the impact of the situation on the education of children has been severe. Addressing the UNSC briefing on Ukraine, India's Deputy Permanent Representative Ambassador R Ravindra also said the food security challenges emanating from the Ukraine conflict require India to respond by going beyond the existing constraints. "Since the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict, India has stood for peace, dialogue and diplomacy. We believe that no solution can be arrived at by shedding blood and at the cost of innocent lives, especially those of women and children," he said. Delhi: With Elon Musk put- ting the $44 billion Twitter deal temporarily on hold on Friday, serious questions now linger on the future of the platform that is battling multiple issues -from employee exodus to users leaving amid the 'free speech' call that will drive hate speech and abusive content. Musk now wants to know how many Twitter accounts are spam or fake, before he invests a huge sum of money. The sudden realisation came when the microblogging platform revealed in a filing earlier this week that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5 per cent of its monetisable daily active users (mDAUs) during the first quarter (Q1). Amid this, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal sacked a couple of key executives in a bid to "take the team in a different direction". Agrawal, who himself faces sacking once Musk takes over, fired consumer product leader Kayvon Beykpour and head of revenue product Bruce Falck. A "disappointed" Beykpour tweeted: "The truth is that this isn't how and when I imagined leaving Twitter, and this wasn't my decision. Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction". "While I'm disappointed, ❑ Continue PG 3 (from the state of West Bengal), an Indian voter ID, PAN (permanent account number) card and an Aadhaar card. As per ED, his associates have also done the same thing. Sources say, that the ED has ascertained that these Bangladesh nationals have also managed to float companies in India on the basis of fraudulently obtained identities and have even purchased immovable properties at various places, including in posh areas of Kolkata, As per ED, Proshanta Kumar Halder and his associates are accused in a multimillion financial "fraud" in Bangladesh. They embezzled thousands of crores of Bangladeshi Taka and siphoned them off to India among other countries. On the other hand, the ED on Friday raided a number of Kolkata-based construction companies and its promoters ❑ Continue PG 3 Plea against Delimitation Commission in J&K, SC seeks Centre, EC response MI News Service, New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought reply from the Centre, the Jammu and Kashmir administration, and the Election Commission (EC), on a plea against the constitution of the Delimitation Commission to redraw the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the Union Territory. Counsel representing the petitioners submitted before a bench headed by Sanjay Kishan Kaul that the delimitation exercise, which was carried out recently, was contrary to the scheme of the Constitution, as the alteration of boundaries could not be done. The bench, also comprising Justice M.M. Sundresh, then asked counsel why the petitioners did not challenge the constitution of the Commission, which was formed some time ago. As counsel contended it is the Election Commission, as per delimitation order, which is empowered to do any changes, the bench further queried from the petitioners' counsel as to why his clients did not challenge the formation of the Commission itself? Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the plea contends that delimitation can be conducted only by the EC and not the Delimitation Commission. While objecting to some submissions, the bench told counsel that Kashmir was always part of India and just a special provi- sion was removed. Mehta said their case is that after Article 370 is gone, the census will only take place in 2026. He further added that delimitations are of two types: one based on geography done by the Delimitation Commission, and the other, by the Election Commission in connection with reservation of seats. The petitioner' counsel further argued that the government will place the delimitation order before Parliament, which would further complicate the matter. To this, the bench asked why the petitioners didn't take it up two years ago. After hearing the arguments, the top court issued notice to the ❑ Continue PG 3