City: Kolkata

Shankari Halder finally dreamed of steering her life in the right direction when she became a commercial cab driver in Kolkata, early this year. The 36-year-old was one among the 10 women who were trained to operate a first-of-its kind cab service in Kolkata. Christened as Pink Taxis, these 10 cabs were launched primarily with the aim of providing a secure and safe commute environment for women, who often find it risky to travel in cabs driven by male chauffeurs. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee flagged off the first fleet of 10 taxis painted in pink and white from Nabanna, the…

“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.” This quote from Russian-American author and philosopher Ayn Rand’s bestseller, The Fountainhead, aptly describes everything that happened at Rabindra Sarovar since early morning on November 2nd well into the following day, as an order from the country’s green court -- the National Green Tribunal (NGT) – was brazenly flouted to allow the conduct of Chhat Puja in the Sarovar premises. An earlier story on Citizen Matters had detailed all the precautions and steps that had been taken to protect the national lake from toxic…

Following a strict order from the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), custodian of the Rabindra Sarovar Lake in Kolkata has taken several steps to ensure that Chhat Puja is not held in the lake premises this year and its biodiversity is protected. As a result, for the second time in the history of its existence, Rabindra Sarovar will remain closed on November 2 and will open on November 3 after 11 AM. The only other time that the lake was completely closed down was during the Aila Storm in 2009. Spread over 192 acres, Rabindra…

An exhibition celebrating Climate Diplomacy Week has raised new hope for saving the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW). While conscientious adults have already doing their bit, this time, young residents of the neighbourhood, along with some school students, are getting ready to take up the role of ambassadors and work towards saving the East Kolkata Wetlands. Crisscrossed by creeks and canals, the EKW are the world’s largest fully functional organic sewage management system and were designated a "wetland of international importance" under the Ramsar Convention on 19 August 2002. In the marshy land east of Calcutta, 248 species of birds and…

In roughly a week from now, the city of Kolkata will be transformed into a spectacular carnival, a moving stream of countless heads, as tens of thousands descend on its roads to celebrate Durga Puja. In the capital Kolkata, this marks a magical celebration of not only the homecoming of Goddess Durga and her four children – Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh -- but of art, creativity and life itself.  During the festival spanning five-days, Kolkata is decked up like a bride. ‘Pandals’, which look more like film sets these days, pop up across the city, where devotees will seek…

Pinku Das, a fair, young, bespectacled man, was an usher in Ujjala, a well-known single screen theatre in the southern part of Kolkata. He had stepped into his father’s shoes who was also an usher in the same theatre. Over time, as he became absorbed in the world of films through his work, Pinku Das began to dream of becoming a scriptwriter and he did (with a few Bengali popular hits to his credit today.) It is said that the founder of the iconic New Theatres, Birendranath Sirkar, was once driving by on the main road when he saw a…

25-year-old Aparajeeta Bhattacharya lives in New Town, a fast growing satellite city on the fringes of Kolkata. She works in a private company just four kilometres from her house within the New Town limits and regularly travels in the newly-introduced air-conditioned electric buses, which she says are convenient and also good for the environment. “The electric buses are almost silent and also friendly for the environment, as they do not consume fossil fuel and emit toxic gases. We should all strive to do something for a better environment,” she says, adding that the fare is also reasonable at just Rs…

The weather is sultry and the temperature is scorching in the Raipur locality of Jadavpur, off South Kolkata. The furnace-like conditions have forced residents to stay indoors. But Meena Nag is unmindful of the heat and is getting ready to wash a bucket full of clothes near a pond in the locality. The 60-plus woman says that water supply is often erratic in the locality and the low pressure of water in the taps means it takes a long time for the bucket to get filled up, causing long queues that often end in mild altercations. “We face water crisis…

It is perhaps one of the worst healthcare crises to have befallen the state of West Bengal ever, with the impasse in state-run hospitals showing no signs of resolution even as the strike by junior doctors in Kolkata and neighbouring districts enters the fifth day today. In fact, ripples of what started on the premises of the Nil Ratan Sarkar (NRS) Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata are now being felt in cities and towns across the country, with doctors everywhere expressing solidarity with their counterparts in Kolkata. According to latest reports, the Indian Medical Association has called for a…

Milan Bhowmick has been farming on his two acres of land in the East Kolkata Wetlands for over thirty years now. He grows brinjals, cauliflower and other vegetables. His land lies close to the Dhapa dumping ground where the solid waste of the city is dumped. The 45-year-old says that the solid waste from Dhapa was composted to produce fertilizers for the farm even till a few years ago, but the increasing presence of plastic and other toxic waste in the dump has now forced him and other farmers to discard the practice. “A proper mechanism to deal with the…