Kolkata Jan 25 PTI The Election Commission of India has decided to send illustrated Elector Photo Identity Cards EPIC to newly enrolled voters via post a senior official said on Tuesday The service will be launched on January 25 which is celebrated as National Voters Day the official said We will start sending the voter cards directly to the recipients by post The service will be officially launched on National Voters Day he said Talking more about it the official said that the Commission will also send a kit along with the identity cards of the new voters The packet will contain all the information including EVM voting method he said The National Voters Day will be observed across the country on Tuesday as an initiative of the Election Commission to raise the awareness of the voters The theme of this years Voters Day is Empowering Vigilant Protecting and Informing Our Voters he said PTI SCH RG RG

Kolkata Nov 30 PTI The West Bengal government is yet to formulate any definite regulation for private hospitals which are prescribing chemotherapy drugs to patients who were admitted at their establishments under the state-run health insurance scheme -- Swasthya Sathi an official said on Tuesday The state health department has set up an expert committee to frame a guideline that would restrict prescribing of certain high-value cancer drugs for Swasthya Sathi patients and push for cost-effective drugs The guidelines are yet to be framed regarding the restriction of prescribing high-value cancer drugs We may require more time to frame them as such a guideline cannot be framed quickly At the moment all the stakeholders are being consulted We are trying to frame it keeping in mind the cause of the common people We will be pushing for an official of the health department said According to some officials though the health department has been advocating for cost-effective chemo drugs for treating cancer patients there are complaints that a few government hospitals have been running out of low-cost medicines When pointed out at such complaints the health department official reasoned the lapse of the tender to approve vendors for the cost-effective medicines to treat cancer patients Such drugs are supplied by approved vendors through the central medical store The shortage is confined to a countable number of drugs and specific to only a few hospitals The supply will hopefully be streamlined in a fortnight said a health official Incidentally the department has asked all state-run hospitals to upload the invoice of chemo drug purchase to get the approval PTI SCH RG RG

Kolkata Nov 30 PTI A man has been arrested for allegedly harassing and threatening Bengali actress Arunima Ghosh police said on Tuesday Ghosh a film and television actress had lodged a complaint with the police regarding the harassment and threats of the accused a police officer said This man has been harassing the actress for the last two years He has been threatening to kill the actress On Sunday night he had gone to the actress house following which she lodged a complaint he added This is for the third time that the man has been arrested for the same offence police said PTI SCH RG RG

Kolkata Nov 27 PTI A man was run over and killed by a speeding bus in Salt Lake area on Saturday morning police said The man identified as Bhola Valmiki a resident of Bihars Gaya district had come to the city to appear in a job interview a police officer said The accident happened when the man was alighting from a bus near Benfish more in Salt Lake Sector V when another bus from Techno India side came speeding towards them and in the process he was mowed down the officer added Bystanders took him to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead The body has been sent to post mortem His family members have been informed about the mishap We will hand over the body once the post mortem is over he said Police seized the bus but the driver is absconding the officer added PTI SCH RG RG

Kolkata Nov 27 PTI Kolkata Police have arrested notorious gangster Sheikh Vinod for his alleged involvement in a Rs 45 lakh bank fraud case an officer said on Saturday Vinod was arrested from Kharagpur town on Friday the officer said Earlier sleuths of Kolkata Polices bank fraud section have arrested 11 persons in connection with their investigation into the matter he added According to police the fraud took place in the branch of a nationalised bank in the citys CIT Road area where one outsourced staff helped Vinod and his associates in the crime Vinod was earlier arrested by police in August in a fake call centre case PTI SCH RG RG

Kolkata Nov 23 PTI West Bengal on Tuesday reported 720 new COVID-19 cases 105 more than the previous day pushing the tally to 1611180 a health department bulletin said Ten new COVID-19 fatalities in the last 24 hours pushed the death toll to 19407 The metropolis reported four deaths followed by Jalapaiguri district two and one each from North 24 Parganas South 24 Parganas Howrah and Dakshin Dinajpur districts it said On Monday West Bengal had reported 605 new COVID-19 cases and 14 deaths The state now has 7914 active COVID-19 cases A total of 1583859 people have recovered from the disease so far including 741 during the day The COVID-19 recovery rate now is 9830 per cent while the fatality rate is 120 per cent the bulletin said The administration has so far tested 20071197 samples for COVID-19 including 36014 samples in the last 24 hours PTI SCH RG RG

Kolkata Oct 29 PTI Sleuths of Kolkata Police arrested one more person from West Bengals South 24 Parganas district in the early hours of Friday for his alleged involvement in the murder of a senior executive of a private engineering firm and his driver in the citys Gariahat area an officer said The total number of arrests in the case rose to four he said The prime accused and another associate of his however are still absconding The accused who is a Toto e-rickshaw driver by profession and is directly involved in the crime was picked up from Parulia in Joydebpur in the district at around 3 am on Friday the officer said He is one of the five persons who were present at the crime spot and took direct part in the crime He is a Toto driver We are investigating more into his role in the crime the officer said The accused is a resident of Joydebpur of Darikrishnagar in Parulia Coastal Police Station jurisdiction he added Acting on a tip-off Kolkata Police sleuths conducted a raid in South 24 Parganas districts Parulia and arrested him when he was trying to flee the officer said adding that the accused will be produced in the court on Friday The bodies of Subir Chaki 61 and his driver Rabin Mondal 65 were found with multiple stab injuries on their neck legs and back at different floors of the ancestral house of the executive in the southern part of the citys Gariahat area on October 17 PTI SCH RG RG

Kolkata Oct 26 PTI A day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee cautioned hospitals of strict action including cancellation of their licences in case they deny holders of Swathya Sathi cards from its benefits the West Bengal Health Department on Tuesday issued an advisory of restrictions on unspecified packages The swasthya sathi scheme launched by Banerjee on December 30 2016 offers a basic health cover for secondary and tertiary care up to Rs 5 lakh per annum per family For emergency accidentalsurgical cases an unspecified package may be allowed with a ceiling of medicine and diagnostic charges of Rs 5000 maximum in addition to cost applicable against days of hospitalization as per approved rate for initial treatment the advisory said Despite large number of packages being available many healthcare providers are treating patients under the category unspecified package for medical management cases and for certain surgical cases which may be blocked under specified packages it said According to the advisory in case a person is not carrying the card the same has to be searched with the Aadhar number of the beneficiary in the Swasthya Sathi web portal In case a person does not have any of the health card identification of the personissuance of new card will be facilitated in the hospital itself Similar arrangements should also have to be made for all PPP diagnostic centres the advisory said Under the scheme there are at least 1900 packages where a family can avail secondary and tertiary care cashless treatment up to Rs 5 lakh per annum from any of the empanelled hospital PTI SCH RG RG

Kolkata Sep 29 PTI A portion of an old two-storeyed building in the northern part of the citys Ahiritola lane collapsed on Wednesday morning in which two persons including a child are feared trapped under the rubbles police said A huge team of disaster management fire department police personnel from the local police station are at the spot an officer of Kolkata Police said So far four persons have been rescued We are trying to rescue two others still trapped under the rubbles There is a still a child and another person underneath he said The portion of the building at 9 Ahiritola lane where two families have been staying collapsed at around 640 am he said One of the two families managed to get out of the rubbles through a big gap but another family including a child got trapped under the rubbles Our men have pulled out four and are trying to rescue others he said Locals rushed to the spot and informed the Jorabagan Police Station who along with personnel of the fire department and disaster management department rushed to the spot the officer said adding that those rescued have been taken to a nearby hospital The entire building is in a very bad shape and we have to conduct the rescue operations very cautiously otherwise there are chances of another disaster he added PTI SCH RG RG

Kolkata Sep 25 PTI A middle-aged man who underwent a lung transplant operation at a city-based private hospital passed away three days after the complicated surgery was performed on him authorities said on Saturday The IT professional who had both of his lungs completely damaged due to the post-COVID-19 complications and underwent the transplantation on September 21 breathed his last at around 845 pm Friday an official of the hospital said Doctors had conducted a marathon surgery in their bid to give him a new lease of life after the vital organs of a 52-year brain dead person in Gujarats Surat was brought in a special flight to the city on Monday The recipient had developed complications following recovery from COVID-19 and was on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ECMO support for over three months but his condition had never improved A lung transplant is reserved for people who have tried other medications or treatments but their conditions havent sufficiently improved PTI SCH RG RG