Visva to change weekly off

• CALCUTTA: The weekly holidays at Visva-Bharati will be Wednesday and Thursday, instead of Wednesday and Sunday, from next year. All departments, schools and administrative offices under the university are now closed on Wednesdays and Sundays. The decision to make Thursday a weekly off-day was taken at a meeting of Visva-Bharati's executive council at its Calcutta office on Saturday. Several teachers and non-teaching employees have been demanding two consecutive weekly offs. "The university wants the campus to remain open on Saturdays and Sundays so that it can invite academics from other institutions to deliver lectures on weekends," said Swapan Kumar Datta, the officiating vice-chancellor. The Santiniketan university has traditionally remained closed on Wednesdays as it is the Dikhsha Divas of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore. The five-day week was introduced in 2012 with a Sunday off every week. The university is planning to set up a second campus on an 110-acre plot in Sriniketan. A delegation of officials will visit Delhi to discuss the matter with the HRD ministry, Datta said.

JU rally

• JADAVPUR: A section of teachers, officials, researchers and students of Jadavpur University will organise a rally against consumption of alcohol and drugs on the campus on November 1.

Eight held for ticket scam

• SALT LAKE: Eight men were arrested from the gates of Salt Lake stadium for selling World Cup tickets in the black market on Saturday evening. Many of the tickets were complimentary passes . The tickets for Saturday's matches between Brazil and Mali at 5pm and between England and Spain at 8pm were all sold out. The 27,000-odd complimentary tickets handed out by FIFA to all stakeholders , including government agencies and sponsors, were in high demand.

CU renovation

COLLEGE STREET: Calcutta University has decided to start renovation of its senate hall from next month. Vice-chancellor Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee said on Wednesday, the hall, which sustained damages over the years, would undergo renovation. The syndicate room would also be repaired.

CISF jawan held

• BARUIPUR: Police on Friday arrested CISF jawan Pravash Sardar and two others on charges of intimidating and harassing the cops on duty during a procession at Raipur in Champahati. The police said some youths, who were allegedly drunk, were making indecent gestures at the residents of the area when Ujjal Das, a policeman on duty, protested. The police alleged that Pravash and his friends then attacked the cops.

JEE schedule

• SALT LAKE: The JEE board will publish a calendar on the board's website www.wbjeeb.in next week, announcing the schedules of all exams it will hold next year. The board will conduct 10 entrance exams next year. The decision has been taken to make students aware of the schedule in advance instead of updating the schedules in phases, said a board official.

Cup buses

• SALT LAKE: The transport department ran 600 buses on Saturday to ferry football fans from different parts of Calcutta to the Salt Lake stadium and back. A team of senior officers monitored the movement of the buses through the Pathadisha app and another team of officers were posted in a control room inside the Salt Lake stadium.

Suicide

• KASBA: Ramprasad Naskar, 25, was found hanging at his Rajdanga home on Friday. He had used a dupatta to hang himself. Police said there were no marks of external injury. The body was sent for post mortem.

SRFTI director falls ill

• EM BYPASS: The director of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Debamitra Mitra, fell ill early on Saturday after being confined to her office by students since the previous evening. She had to be taken to a nursing home. Mitra suffers from hypertension and shortness of breath. Sources said both conditions aggravated following the gherao. The director stayed at the nursing home for an hour and left for home around 4am.The students had confined Mitra to her room to press for unconditional revocation of the expulsion of 14 students who had refused to move to a girls' hostel from one that was shared by both girls and boys.

Harass charge

HARIDEVPUR: Police have launched a search for a person who allegedly molested a resident of Thakurpukur Cooperative Housing Society, Phase I. The woman has alleged she was assaulted after she protested the "unwelcome physical contact" around 10.30am on Friday.

Theft arrest

GARIAHAT: A domestic help was arrested on Saturday by officers of Gariahat police station for stealing Rs 50,000 cash and jewellery worth Rs 1.5 lakh from an apartment in a housing complex in Gariahat. According to the police, the theft was committed while the flat owners were away on October 22.

Petition

• CALCUTTA: People for Better Treatment (PBT), an organisation that fights for victims of medical negligence, moved a petition in Calcutta High Court on Wednesday, asking the SSKM Hospital authorities to provide information about treatment received at the hospital by former transport minister Madan Mitra. Mitra was admitted to the hospital while he was in judicial custody in the Saradha money laundering case. The case will be heard by Justice Debangshu Basak on Monday.

Solar lighting

• BALLYGUNGE AND HAZRA: Solar lighting was inaugurated at Maddox Square in Ballygunge and Jatin Das Park in Hazra on Tuesday evening. Solar panels have been installed in both parks to generate electricity. Deshapriya Park on Rashbehari Avenue was the first park in Calcutta where solar lighting was introduced a few years ago.

Fire

• EM BYPASS: A fire broke out in a lamp post at Madurdaha off the EM Bypass on Saturday morning. One fire tender doused the flames, said a fire brigade official.