Seminar for engg students

• MADHYAMGRAM: The Camellia Institute of Technology, a private engineering college in Madhyamgram on the northern fringe of the city, organised a seminar on Smart Technology for Societal Development and Creation of Scientific and Technical Glossary, in collaboration with the Commission of Scientific Technology Terminology, under the human resource development ministry, on Tuesday. The objective of the two-day seminar is to create a scientific and technical glossary in Hindi and Bengali. The Centre has taken an initiative to create the glossaries to enable engineering and technology students from rural areas to understand the course better, Shiv Kumar Choudhury, assistant director of the commission, said. Saikat Maitra, the vice-chancellor of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, said he supported the initiative to create a scientific and technical glossary in regional languages but insisted that students coming from vernacular schools should be offered more opportunities to develop their English skills to compete in the global market.

Hospital upgrade

• CALCUTTA: The state will set up a four-bed critical care unit at Frasergunj hospital in South 24-Parganas. The state cabinet on Tuesday approved the proposal along with a proposal to upgrade Kotulpur rural hospital in Bankura to an 80-bed facility. The cabinet sanctioned 15 technical posts for the purpose. A minister said the demand for upgrade of the hospitals had been long pending. A total of 20 posts have been approved.

Salt Lake pile-up

• SALT LAKE: Several cars and autos were involved in a pile-up near the Punjab National Bank island in Salt Lake's Sector I on Tuesday morning. The cars suffered dents as a signal turned red suddenly and drivers failed to apply brakes on time. No one was injured.

Renovation

• SHYAMBAZAR: The Calcutta Municipal Corporation has started renovating Birendra Krishna Bhadra Mancha, an auditorium on Balaram Ghosh Street in Shyambazar. Sources in the civic body said the roof of the auditorium needs repair and the seats need to be replaced. Work will be completed in six months, said a civic engineer.

Two arrested

• NEW TOWN: Two men were arrested from New Town on Tuesday and five litres of codeine, a banned cough syrup, seized from them. Jakaria Ansari, 23 alias Babu and Bhanu Kumar, 23, were picked up by a police team near Eco Park. The duo are from Jharkhand but were staying in a rented accommodation near Nawabpur in New Town.

Fire scare at SSKM Hospital

• CALCUTTA: A leak in an oxygen cylinder triggered panic in the medicine ward of SSKM Hospital on Tuesday evening. The cylinder was kept in a corridor on the fourth floor of the main building. "A patient was being administered oxygen. The cylinder started making a sound when its flow was regulated," said a senior official of the hospital. Two fire tenders that are kept on the hospital premises reached the spot and the cylinder was removed.

Travel expo

CALCUTTA: Travel India 2017, a conference and expo on travel and tourism, started at a city hotel on Tuesday. The event, organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce will conclude on Wednesday. Tourism minister Goutam Deb, who was present at the event, said Bengal is working towards promoting opportunities to enhance foreign and domestic tourists. A hospitality training institute is being planned in Gajoldoba in north Bengal, along with resorts, an ayurvedic spa, youth hostel, bird-watching centres, golf course, boating, elephant and jeep safaris through public-private partnership, the minister said.

Railway inspection

• HOWRAH: The general manager of the Eastern Railway, Harinder Rao, flagged off a renovated diesel locomotive with new bogies at the Jamalpur workshop on Tuesday after conducting an inspection of the facility and a review meeting. He visited different departments at the workshop, including the crane manufacturing unit, production engineering unit, wagon repairing unit, diesel locomotive unit and the chemical and metallurgical laboratory.

Probe centres

• CALCUTTA: The state government will set up five investigation centres to prevent crime against women. Partha Chatterjee, the state education minister, said the state cabinet approved the proposal on Tuesday. One of the centres will come up in Calcutta and the rest in the districts. The locations will be finalised soon.

Complaint against Air India

• CALCUTTA: An associate professor at the Indian Statistical Institute in Bangalore has accused Air India of harassment before he was to board a flight to Calcutta on December 17. Kaushik Majumdar said he had been asked to remove the wires of his wheelchair battery, which he refused to do. Majumdar said he had removed the battery itself, as instructed by the ground staff of the airline, but explained to them that detaching the wires would be a hassle. Majumdar said he was forced not to take the flight. He lodged a complaint with the airline later. An Air India official said battery-operated wheelchairs were not allowed on flights for safety reasons.

Racket busted

• GARIAHAT: A sleaze racket being run out of an apartment building on Rashbehari Avenue near Gariahat was busted on Monday. Seven women and four men were arrested.

Snatch arrest

• CALCUTTA: A man was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly snatching a gold chain from a woman on December 2. The accused, Murad Talukder, 37, of Bongaon, had allegedly targeted Sutapa Chatterjee, a 54-year-old resident of Survey Park. She was seated by the window of a bus that had stopped at the Hudco crossing when the snatcher struck.