Cong worker murdered in Karna village

The West Bengal government has suspended two women teachers in East Burdwan district on the charge of teaching pre-primary students from an English alphabet book consisting of a portion derogatory to the people with a dark complexion.

While presenting the alphabets with corresponding words and images, the book says U is for "Ugly". The illustration printed beside the letter is that of a boy with a dark complexion.

"The book is not part of the textbooks referred by the education department. It was introduced by the school itself. We have zero-tolerance for acts which instil prejudices into the minds of students," Education Minister Partha Chatterjee told reporters here on Thursday.

He said the two teachers of a local municipality-run school have been placed under suspension with immediate effect based on a preliminary investigation and stricter action would be taken against them later.

Though the school is now closed because of the lockdown, the matter came to light when the father of a student of the school was teaching him with the help of that book. He informed other parents and the education department was apprised of the issue, sources said.

Behrampur, Jun 7: A migrant labourer spent two days in jungle after allegedly being denied entry to a quarantine centre and his village in Behrampur.

According to a local from the village, no one helped the labourer. "He came from Chennai. He went to the police and block office but no one helped. Then, he went to the jungle."

Later, the police took him to the quarantine centre.

As per the Union Health Ministry, there are 2,608 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Odisha, including 996 active cases, 1,604 recovered/discharged/migrated and 8 deaths.