2.5-3 mn sq ft of warehousing space to come up in Bengal in 3 yrs: Report

 West Bengal will see a fresh supply of 2.5-3 million sq ft of warehousing space over the next three years with an investment of around Rs 750 crore to meet rising demand from e-commerce firms, according to realty consultant Vestian.

In its report 'Looking East: Warehousing in Kolkata', the US-based property consultant highlighted that Kolkata and adjoining areas currently have 17.2 million sq ft of organised warehousing space.

This accounts for 10 per cent of the total warehousing stock in the top 8 cities of the country. The region witnessed an absorption of nearly 3.1 million sq ft in 2019, depicting a slight year-on-year decline of 3 per cent.

"Going forward, nearly 2.5-3 million sq ft of warehousing space is likely to come up across the state in the next 18-36 months at an approximate investment of Rs 750 crore," the report said.

More than 80 per cent of the total upcoming supply will be concentrated in and around the Kolkata clusters.

Shrinivas Rao, CEO APAC, Vestian, said, The COVID-19 crisis, despite its apparent calamitous connotation, has heightened the opportunity and significance of several sectors as well one of them being the warehousing sector in the country."

Given the importance of Kolkata in the entire eastern and north-eastern region, he said it is only a matter of time before the region becomes a prime warehousing centre, substantiated by a number of prominent infrastructure projects.

"The fact that e-commerce has received a boost during the pandemic would only serve to strengthen the warehousing sector in the region," Rao said.

As per the report, the average rental trend across the warehousing clusters in the region has remained mostly steady. The current values are recorded in the range of Rs 17-22 per sq ft per month. The compounded annual growth rate for rents during 2016-2019 has been 4-7 per cent.

Listing the demand drivers, Vestian said Kolkata has location advantage being the gateway to the entire north-eastern provinces.

Kolkata's well-connected transport corridors and strategic location, that abet port-related activities as well, have facilitated it to serve several important consumption centres in the region, the report said.

Besides its location advantage, factors such as GST, higher penetration of e-commerce and an active 'hub and spoke' distribution model have led developers and PE funds to look towards the eastern region, it added.

While industries such as FMCG, cement, pharma and third party logistics (3PL) players traditionally led warehousing demand in the region, the recent rise in demand could largely be attributed to the fast paced growth of the e-commerce segment, the consultant said.

West Bengal achieves 99.9% rural household electrification: Official

 West Bengal has achieved 99.9

per cent rural household electrification with Darjeeling district getting completely electrified, a senior official of the state Power department said on Saturday.

With two remote villages Gorkhay and Samanden on the fringes of Singalila National Park getting connected to power, another 20,000 connections have to be achieved by the state to attain 100 per cent electrification, the official said.

"We have now little more than two crore power connections in the state and we now are left with about 20,000 connections to achieve 100 per cent household electrification," the official told PTI.

"However, 100 per cent electrification will continue to be a dynamic number as new household are being added on a daily basis," he said.

The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) had chipped in funds to electrify the villages that could not be brought under the ambit of the central scheme. The project cost for the two villages was Rs 1.1 crore.

Of the 37,960 villages in the state, Rural Electrification (RE) Department of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) has already electrified all the 37,960 villages.

In addition to that service connections have been provided to rural households. Electricity to 38,47,996 rural BPL/APL households has been provided under different completed rural electrification schemes, the official added.

Owner of Bengal firework unit where explosion killed 4 persons arrested

The owner of a firework unit in West Bengal, where an explosion killed four persons, has been arrested, police said on Saturday.

Four persons, including two women, were killed and one person was seriously injured in an explosion at a firework manufacturing unit in Naihati in North 24 Parganas district on Friday.

Noor Hossain, owner of the factory, has been arrested from Amdanga area in the district on Friday night and a suo motu case of accidental murder along with other sections has been registered against him, a senior police officer said.

"We are interrogating Noor Hossain," the officer said, adding that a forensic team will visit the explosion site on Saturday.

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar earlier in the day sought a probe into the explosion, saying the administration should be held accountable as there are allegations that crude bombs were being manufactured in the factory.

Bengal governor says communication 'black hole' ruining higher education

In a fresh salvo at the TMC government in West Bengal, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has said there is a "policy paralysis" in the state's higher education system, and that he is not consulted in the affairs of universities despite being the chancellor.

Dhankhar also said that a "black hole" exists in the West Bengal's higher education ministry in terms of communication with him.

The Governor said he was "pained" at not being consulted over the recent appointment of the vice-chancellor of Sanskrit College and University in the city.

"In the ministry of higher education, there is a black hole in terms of communication with the chancellor. There is a policy paralysis and I am worried about it. I am doing everything under the sun to see that the education scenario in the universities improves," Dhankhar told PTI in an interview.

Dhankhar has been at loggerheads with the state government on a number of issues since assuming charge in July.

For the first time, West Bengal may be casting votes on religious lines

For the first time in the history of independent India, West Bengal is expected to be voting largely on religious lines following discontent with state chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s appeasement of minorities, especially the Muslims. Both, the Hindu orthodox families and non-Bengalis in the state are looking at the BJP as their saviour.

Runa Sen, a homemaker from one of the older rich families from Kolkata North, notes that even at the time Kolkata (then Calcutta) witnessed the ‘Week of the Long Knives’, when the country was partitioned in the name of religion, Kolkata and the state at large, didn’t vote on religious lines in the ensuing election of 1952.

“Elections used to be on the lines of development, policies and ideologies between a moderate Congress and the communist-socialist Left Front. But times have changed now. It’s come to a point where Muslim immigration from Bangladesh has become a core issue and how political leaders are giving ground to Muslims particularly from Bangladesh for votes,” she notes.

Incidentally, in its quest to bag seats, the TMC roped in popular Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed, who is popular in rural Muslim-dominated belts of West Bengal, to seek votes in Raiganj, a Muslim-dominated constituency. The party repeated the same thing by bringing in Ghazi Abdul Noor, another Bangladeshi actor, who attended a political rally in Dum Dum. Both were told by the Centre to leave India.

Such instances haven’t been taken lightly by a majority of traditional Bengali Hindu families of North Kolkata.

During a poll campaign in Kalimpong, when BJP president Amit Shah vowed to oust the illegal Muslim immigrants from this state while give citizenship to Hindu and Buddhist migrants, the attendees had cheered with joy and the ripples of appreciation were also felt in the metropolis.

Political observers like Biswanath Chakraborty note that the BJP has been very successful in this state in polarising the population and over the years, there have been numerous instances of religious riots across the state.

Lok Sabha Election Results 2014

Party Vote Share Vote Share Change Seats Won Seats Change

Trinamool Congress 39.05% +8.13% 34 +15

CPI (M) 29.71% N/A 2 -13

BJP

17.02% +10.88% 2 +1

Congress 9.58% -3.85% 4 -2

He notes that to gain political favour with the Muslims, who account for 28 per cent of the state’s population, Banerjee in the past offered several dollops to them, like setting up of Haj houses for pilgrims and a new campus for Aliah University, besides sanctioning some 400 madrasa hostels and scholarships for Muslim students.

But the most controversial move, which angered a large section of Hindus and projected the BJP as the saviour, was the Imam and Muezzin allowance of Rs 2,500 and Rs 1,500. respectively, which the chief minister proposed in April 2012. Although it was struck down by the Calcutta High Court after the then BJP state general secretary Asim Sarkar challenged it, Banerjee maintained she will provide all assistance to the Muslims.

For a debt-ridden state like West Bengal, this allowance would have potentially led to an outflow of Rs 126 crore annually.

“This hadn’t gone well with the Hindus, who asked why Hindu priests were denied such allowance and if at all, in a secular country like India, this was feasible. Polarisation actually started gaining momentum since then and not just now as it is being projected. Under all circumstances, polarisation is a reality now in this otherwise pseudo-secular state”, Chakraborty said.

Moreover, Banerjee’s recital of Islamic verses and her association with Muslim festivals like Eid were also frowned upon from a section of the orthodox Hindus.

A Bihari migrant driver, Tarakeshwar Shaw, who is a voter in the Kolkata North constituency asked, “How can the chief minister, herself being a pundit Brahmin, recite Islamic verses or associate herself closely with Muslims”.

On the other hand, the TMC as well as Banerjee herself vehemently, have been projecting the chief minister as a devotee of goddess Kali – one of the most popular Hindu deities in West Bengal.

West Bengal Assembly Election Results 2016

Party Vote Share Vote Share Change Seats Won Seats Change

Trinamool Congress 44.91% +6% 211 +27

Left Front 26.39% -14.91% 32 -29

BJP 10.16% +5.56% 3 +2

Congress 12.25% +3.15% 44 +3

While a majority of the Muslims, via various rights and religious forums pledged their support for Banerjee, Shaw and many other Bengali and non-Bengali Hindus of limited financial means openly admit their support for the BJP. Shaw claimed that during the erstwhile Left Front rule, state policies and schemes weren’t directed at appeasements of particular religions.

Meanwhile, as discontent grew, the BJP gained momentum in the state. During the 2014 general elections, the BJP had a 17 per cent vote share which was an 11.86 per cent increase over the 2009 general elections, while in the 2016 Assembly elections it won three seats with a vote share to 10.16 per cent. Furthermore, in the 2018 Panchayat polls, it tapped 5,779 seats thereby becoming the main opposition party in West Bengal.

BJP’s state vice president, Chandra Kumar Bose, who is contesting from the Kolkata South constituency, believes that in this year’s polls, its vote share will increase by 38-40 per cent.

He is of the opinion that even though the TMC or other parties like the Left Front and the Congress will get the Muslim vote, if at least 65 per cent of the Hindus vote in favour of the BJP, the party can easily bag a satisfactory number of seats.

According to Bose, BJP is growing its presence among the Bengali Hindus which account for 48 per cent of the total vote base from this state and the party is okay with fighting this election without Muslim support.

Bose pointed how the anger and frustration of Hindus forced Banerjee to react with her rhetoric changing to recitation of Sanskrit shlokas, Chandi Paath and other Hindu religious verses during her poll campaign, along with touting her government’s work in temple restoration and new projects; which otherwise was previously missing.

Panchayat Election Results 2018 at Gram Panchayat Level

Party Seats won Vote Share

Trinamool Congress 38,118 78.4%

Left Front 1,713 3.4%

BJP 5,779 11.9%

Congress 1,066 2.2%

“In the 2017 Durga Puja, her order of restricting idol immersion during the Muharram celebration was struck down by the Calcutta High Court. This was a setback for her,” Bose added.

The state’s BJP president, Dilip Ghosh had then alleged that besides curbing religious rights during Bengali Hindu festivals, Banerjee was also attempting introduction of Urdu-Arabic words in Bengali language.

However, the alleged desecration of Vidyasagar’s statue during BJP president Amit Shah’s rally, which the TMC has projected to be a “Bhojpuri” and “Dhokla” invasion on West Bengal’s culture may help her gain some favour with the middle-class and educated Bengalis in the last phase of polls.

But as Chakraborty cautions, that it may have been too late for Banerjee to appease a section of Bengali Hindus who now view the BJP as their saviour.