Kolkata confidential

Women rule
At a recent event of Metro Railway that saw a galaxy of Tollywood stars along with political bigwigs and was hosted by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee,the presence of ‘women power’ seemed to be the talk of the day. As unruly crowd started to spill over the canopy and podium set up for the inaugural programme of flagging the first Metro service from Tollygunge to Garia Bazar,the security personnel deployed at the spot found it very difficult to manage the women.
Though Railway Police Force personnel were present,the lack of women constables caused a lot of chaos.
Following Mamata’s spectacular success in the recent elections,womenfolk are seen hanging around her in all the functions she attends but that day they crossed all limits by not only barging into restricted areas but also threatening journalists and securitymen and then complaining to Mamata about women being manhandled.
Scared,the security personnel remained mute spectators.

Helping hand
Railway officials,who recently organised a function to distribute awards among railway employees for excellence in performance,were taken aback when they saw their minister Mamata Banerjee standing through the entire function and handing over prizes to all the 268 railway employees and nearly 100 other awardees. According to Railway officials,the annual award distribution ceremony had seen ministers distribute a few shields and awards with the rest being handed over after the function by some other official. “I have attended this function earlier and usually only a few initial awards are distributed by the minister and the rest is handed over off stage later. Here our minister handed over all the prizes herself. It inspires people,” said a senior railway official.

Warm gesture
It was Thursday evening. Fire Minister Pratim Chatterjee,also an accomplished Tollywood actor,was leaving Writers’ Buildings after a day’s work. Just then representatives of the Artistes’ Forum of Tollywood who included stars like Mithun Chakraborty,Sabyasachi Chakraborty,Rituparna Sengupta were entering the Writers’ Buildings to hand over their donation to the chief minister’s relief fund. And as they saw the senior artiste coming to the VIP lift,they touched his feet to take his blessings. Visibly moved,the minister patted their backs in affection and left slowly.