TIMES CITY* THE TIMES OF INDIA, KOLKATA | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2015

DISPERSING TIGERS OF KAZIRANGA, ORANG MAYFIND A NEW HOME AT BUXA RESERVE | 4

BRITISH SABOTAGE AGENCY HAD ORDERS TOELIMINATE NETAJI AFTER HIS DISAPPEARANCE | 6

Kolkata: AC buses may have made com-muting comfortable, but the bid to earnrevenue through advertisements hasmade women concerned for their safety.

The ads on translucent polyfilmscover the glass windows, making it verydifficult to view the interior of the bus-es. This is making many women thinktwice before boarding such a bus.

Gouri Purohit, a college student, re-calls the jitters she felt when she got intoan Esplanade-bound bus on VIP Road ona rain-soaked Friday evening in June. “Iimmediately realized I had made a mis-take: I was the only woman in the busand the conductor was drunk,” she toldTOI on Monday. She got down at Baguiatibecause the “ambience inside the buswas not comfortable”.

“If I could have seen the inside of thebus, I wouldn’t have boarded it. It was aFriday night so there were not too manycommuters. I strongly feel that these ad-vertisements should go. I hear there areCCTV cameras inside these AC buses,but are they monitored real time? Evenif they are and something nasty hap-pens to a woman inside a bus, can the au-thorities send help immediately?” shewondered.

A majority of women commutersshare her apprehension. It’s worse forthose commuting from Salt Lake or NewTown because they would have to swal-low their fears since it may be the last

bus they would get that evening.In February 2012, after the Park

Street gang-rape, police cracked downon cars with tinted windows. The driveintensified after the Nirbhaya rape andmurder in Delhi. The law says that sideglasses on vehicles must allow 50% lightinside, but the rule seems to have beenjunked by state-owned AC buses.

Bengal does not have any policyframework for advertisement in com-mercial vehicles, either. In the last fouryears, at least six crimes against womenhave been committed inside publictransport in Kolkata and its outskirts. In

July 2012, a woman was molested insidean AC bus going to Durgapur from Kas-ba. This has prompted an NGO, AscentWelfare Organization (AWO), to file aPIL in high court regarding advertise-ments on AC buses.

AWO president Dhiraj Nathani fearsa heinous crime may take place becausethe advertisement covers the entirebody and the rear of AC buses. “Who willbe responsible if a Delhi-type incidentoccurs inside the bus? As a citizen it ismy responsibility to point this out to theauthorities,” he said.

“Along with objecting to the fully cov-

ered advertisement on AC buses, wehave also asked for an advertisementpolicy for public vehicles and outdooradvertising policy, which the state doesnot have,” said AWO advocate Sabyasa-chi Chatterjee. “We are not against ad-vertisement on public transport but itshould be regulated. Delhi and some oth-

er states have such policy,” he said. Nathani pointed out that Bangaloredoes not allow fully covered advertise-ment on AC bus.

Managing director of West BengalSurface Transport Corporation Nilan-jan Sandilya admitted that there is nooutdoor advertisement policy in thestate but argued that the inside of ACbuses is visible at night when the cabinlights are on. “Yes, during the day, the in-side is not visible but at night whenlights are on, one can see,” he said.

CSTC MD B Dasgupta said that thereis round-the-clock monitoring of CCTVcameras. However, Nathani and manycommuters are not convinced. “At night,

even when the lights are on inside thebus, it is not easy for someone outside tosee. Say, something happens with a wom-an inside the bus. Is it possible for theCSTC or WBSTC control rooms to reactwithin 5 minutes?” he asked.

Meenakshi Mohta, a student of Cal-cutta University, agreed with Biswas. Sodid Ayoni Mukherjee, a software engi-neer with TCS.

When asked about the commuters’concerns and the filing of the PIL, DC-traffic V Soloman Nesakumar said hewould look into the Supreme Court rul-ing in this regard. “If there is any rulingwe shall inform the authorities and hopethey will co-operate,” he said.

Bengal Does Not Have Policy On Advertisements In Public Transport

Safety jitters in ad-covered AC busesUdit Prasanna Mukherji, KrishnenduBanerjee & Dwaipayan Ghosh TNN

The semi-opaque ads have triggered security concerns women passengers

I feel that anything that has to do with public should be open and transparent. There should not be any ads that block the vision of a commuter

Pallavi Chatterjee | ACTRESS

If any wrong deed happens inside the bus, people won’t be able to see or understand. Passengers won’t be able to seek an outsider’s help

Ayoni Mukherjee |SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Yes, during day, the inside of the bus is not visible. But at night when lights are on one can see the interior from outsideNilanjan Sandilya | MD, WBSTC

It is quite difficult for people to look out of or into the bus. If there’s a mishap inside the bus, people from outside cannot help and neither can those inside the bus seek helpChandrima Saha | PVT FIRM EXECUTIVE

I try to avoid AC buses at night when I am alone. I am against ads on AC busesMeenakshi Mohta |STUDENT

Our city is safer than some other metros. So I do not think that ads on AC buses could be a major hazard to womenLopamudra Mitra | SINGER

Pele and Kolkata. The chants still reverber-ate. The euphoria among the city’s fans stillrings a bell with the legend. And the warmth

has only doubled back home. The good thing is weare in for a repeat. A sequel after 38 long years.

Yes, Pele will be in Kolkata between October11-14 for a number of events with the city’s digni-taries, sports administrators and fans. It is onlynatural that he is coming back to Kolkata first tokick off this historic tour of India lasting a week.No other city will burn the midnight oil and stand sleepless at Dum Dum as his flight touchesdown. No other city will go wild reminiscing the1283 goals scored by the greatest footballer of alltime. No other city can host a unique evening fea-turing Pele in conversation with our very ownSourav Ganguly.

Speaking of the visit, Dileep Singh Mehta,chairman of the Multicon Group, the prime mov-er behind the visit suggests, “Pele is an emotion.And during the festive season the emotion will beall the more powerful. We thought this could bethe best festive gift to the city and its millions ofsports fans.”

But is he well? Till recently there were seriousconcerns over his health. He had even been ad-mitted to the ICU a good many times. Satadru Dut-ta, advisor to the tour and one who met Pele on be-half of the organizers over the weekend at his SaoPaulo residence, “He is absolutely fine and iskeen to come back. He remembers the grand re-

ception we had accorded him in 1977 and thistime, the Durga Puja season is an even greater at-traction.”

So what can Kolkata expect from the legend?And why is Pele still special in the city’s imagina-

tion? To go back to one of Moti Nandi’s classics,Striker, it was the agent from Santos who comes tosign Prasun Bhattacharyya to play for the clubthat Pele had played for. And Prasun could not be-lieve his eyes when it was revealed that the legend

himself would meet him. For Prasun, it was adream. But for the millions of football fans in Kol-kata it is a dream that will soon come alive.

When in Kolkata, Pele will “meet the educa-tors and students at the NSHM Knowledge Cam-

pus (sponsors of the event), participate in a con-versation with Sourav Ganguly, attend a charitydinner and will also be the guest of honour in thefirst home game of Atletico de Kolkata.”

The organizers are keen that he meets some of the players from the 1977 Mohun Bagan teamthat had held his team to a 2-2 draw at the EdenGardens.

Can his visit give a fillip to Kolkata football?Will it mean that the city, once considered themecca of Indian football, gets back some of itslost glory? Will Kolkata fans, who still flock towatch Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, turn up forfootball’s greatest in the same manner that theydid for Maradona?

Most importantly, the would be 75 year old,should also serve as an inspiration to a genera-tion that had grown up watching him. At 75 hestill travels the world. Still captivates fans. Stillpromotes Brazil and the game of football. SaysRupali Basu, President Apollo Gleneagles hospi-tal and health care partner of the event, “He is arole model who proves that you are still young at74. For us health care providers, this is the mostimportant message that a person can offer.”

And on 13th October when Atletico-de-Kolka-ta takes on Kerala Blasters at the Salt Lake stadi-um, three special men will be at the ground. Pele,who is ATK’s special guest, Saurav as co-owner ofATK and Sachin Tendulkar as owner of the Kera-la Blasters. The three together in one specialframe- can the city’s sports fans ask for more?

(The writer is a sports historian)

38 years on, Pele rules Kolkata heartsGOOD OLD DAYS

Some of the pictures of Pele’s Kolkata visit signed by the legend

Boria Majumdar

Kolkata: The Archaeological Survey ofIndia (ASI) has filed an FIR against LalitGreat Eastern hotel for unauthorizedconstruction near the Currency Build-ing, a national monument built in theItalianate style in 1833.

The heritage hotel, located just over100 metre from Currency Building inBBD Bag, has undergone extensive rede-velopment with a new block being con-structed between two heritage blocks,one of the Victorian era and the other ofthe Edwardian era. ASI, which appearedto have been in slumber while KMC sanc-tioned the plans and construction wentahead, has now woken up and slapped anotice on the hotel for violating the An-cient Monuments and ArchaeologicalSites and Remains Act. The ASI wantsthe contemporary block razed.

According to superintending archae-ologist AK Patel, the hotel that is locatedin the regulated area did not seek approv-al from the National Monument Author-ity (NMA) while going ahead with itsplans. “Taking permission is not option-al but mandatory. Details of the proposedstructure have to be submitted to NMAthrough the regional office of ASI. Sincethis was blatantly ignored, we have la-belled the construction illegal and filedan FIR on June 15, 2015, with the HareStreet police station,” said Patel.

ASI regional director PK Mishra,who is competent authority for NMA(Bengal), said there could be no excep-tion to the Act. “We will go to any extentpossible to curb blatant violations of the

Act, including seeking legal redress. Wehave already moved court against devel-oper Shishmahal Construction Pvt Ltdfor constructing a building at 8 StrandRoad, which is 117 metre away from Met-calfe Hall, also a national monument,”said Mishra.

Incidentally, the Lalit Great Easterntoo is located at a similar distance fromCurrency Building. Sources at the hotelsaid the management had replied to anASI show-cause notice. But when ap-proached by TOI, Lalit Great Easternspokesperson refused to divulge the con-tents of its reply or comment on the mat-ter. General manager Rakesh Mitra wasunavailable for comment.

The hotel has also been hauled up by

KMC for delay in restoring the Victorianera heritage block 1. While the hotelopened two years ago with the new con-temporary block and the restored Ed-wardian heritage block 2, the restorationof the Victorian block has surpassed thedeadline of last quarter of 2014.

While Lalit Great Eastern is the mosthigh-profile property that is in the dock,others that have been similarly hauledup by ASI include Amber Restaurant'sdevelopment on Waterloo Street andWest Bengal Financial InfrastructureDevelopment Corporation at 10 OldCourt House Street. FIRs have beenlodged against Deepak Khullar of Am-ber and the MD of WBFIDC for carryingout construction without NMA sanction.

Unauthorized constructionglare on heritage hotel

Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay & Subhro Niyogi TNN

(Top) The contemporary block that ASI wants to berazed; (above) the Victorian block; (right and left) theoffices of Shishmahal Construction and WBFIDC

Kolkata: From Rishi Loma-pada to King Shantanu, fromDevavrat to Bhagirath andmuch more… New York andNew Jersey have been intent-ly listening to podcasts aboutthe ‘Mahabharata’.

From downloading freepodcasts on iTunes, to listen-ing to them on Stitcher Radioand even logging on to the des-ignated website, the new gen-eration Indian diaspora ishooked on to this re-telling ofthe epic. Interestingly, a Ben-gali from Kolkata and analumnus of IIT-Kharagpur,Sudipta Bhawmik, has beenpodcasting these along withan Israeli friend, Avi Ziv.

It’s a partnership that hasbeen working well for the twoNew Jersey-based electricalengineers. The podcasts arein English and use a dramaticstorytelling form with asoundtrack. The stories arewritten and re-told by Bhaw-mik and Avi is responsible forthe sound designing.

While ‘Mahabharata’ is aproject they have just takenup, they are already popularfor their programmes on NewJersey’s EBC Radio, which fo-cuses on news, art and culturefrom South Asia.

What has perhaps cap-tured the imagination of theyoung subscribers is that‘Mahabharata’ is actually thelongest poem ever written,with over 100,000 shlokas(couplets) and over 200,000 in-dividual verse lines and longprose passages.

“With about 1.8 millionwords in total, the ‘Mahabha-rata’ is roughly 10 times the

length of the ‘Iliad’ and the‘Odyssey’ combined,” thepodcast proudly states in itsopening lines everytime,something that has beenshared hundreds of times onFacebook among fans.

“The kids of this genera-tion, the Millennials, don’thave the time to read thebooks or watch television se-rials that were popular withthe previous generation.They prefer a medium that isportable, mobile, and accessi-ble anywhere, anytime. I waskeen to introduce them to thisfascinating story and real-ized that podcasting is thetechnology that meets theirneeds. They can download theepisodes on their smart-phones or iPods, and listen attheir convenience and that isexactly what has happened,”Bhawmik said.

Listeners also tune in toEBC Radio (AM frequency1170) for episodes broadcaston the first, third and fifthSaturdays of the month.

“It is amazing, the way thestories are presented. I havebecome a fan and have got aclass full of lawyers hookedon to the podcasts,” saidChhandasiki Das, a law stu-dent at Denver.

IIT-Kgp alumnuswows US with‘epic’ podcasts

Jhimli.Mukherjeepandey@timesgroup.com

‘MAHABHARATA’ FOR THEMASSES: Sudipta Bhawmik

Kolkata: Parents of Mahade-vi Birla World Academy stu-dents squatted in front of theschool gates on Monday de-manding rollback of the man-agement’s decision to returnto the all-girls format. Threeyears after opening its gatesto boys, the school recentlyput up a notice that only girlswould be considered for ad-mission from 2016-17 session.

On Monday, the manage-ment had called for a meetingwith ‘representatives’ of theguardians. “The meeting wasscheduled at 3pm and westarted assembling around12.30pm. However, around2pm, the authorities put up aposter and called off the meet-ing,” said the mother of aClass-I boy.

The notice read: “We havecome to know that there isconfusion in the minds ofmany parents about the date,time and venue of today’smeeting with the manage-ment. Parents have not con-

firmed their presence in to-day’s meeting. In view of thiscommunication gap, true rep-resentation of the parentsmay not be there in the saidmeeting.” Parents squattedon the road to protest themove but kept the exit wayclear for schoolbuses.

Demanding that principalAnjana Saha meet them at thegate, the guardians refused tobudge even as police officerstried to placate them. Eventu-ally, a senior officer had toplay the messenger and car-ried the message from theguardians to the principal,who finally agreed to meetthem.

“It is very unpleasant tosee parents sitting on theroad. This incident will scarethe children too. On Thurs-day, the management willmeet a six-member team ofparents,” Saha told the gath-ering.

The parents resented the‘six-member’ clause. “Sixpeople can’t represent 300-odd parents,” they argued.

Parents protestschool’s U-turnon co-education

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Guardians squatted in front of the school till late Monday night

Pics: Kamalendu Bhadra

Basabdatta Sarkar