Fear of Red: Mamata banerjee for new beacon colour

KOLKATA: Red — the colour — has never gone down well with the Trinamool Congress. And West Bengal transport minister MadanMitra, it seems, has taken up the job of wiping the colour out of the state too seriously. Taking the Supreme Court order to limit rampant use of beacons a step ahead, the transport minister has decided to ban red beacons in the state and suggested use of green or blue flashers instead.

"There is no problem if ambulance or disaster management vehicles use blue or green flashers. The government is already working on a proposal to bring the change in colour," the minister said on Saturday.

On August 5, the apex court, while hearing cases related to unauthorized use of sirens and beacons, held that the offence should be dealt with strongly and exemplary fines should be imposed on offenders. The court has asked the Centre to frame rules to restrict the use of red beacons only to persons holding constitutional posts.

The Trinamool Congress government has apparently grabbed the SC order to bring about the colour change. However, the government has kept the governor's car out of its ban-red-beacon diktat.

When asked whether the state government had a definite choice of colour, the minister told TOI that those who were entitled for its use could use blue, green or any other colour except red. "The colour red has to be removed from the beacons. Colours such as green or blue could be used in its stead," the minister said.

The proposal has already been sent to the chief minister for her approval. The matter is likely to come up in the next cabinet meeting.

Mamata's apathy to the red colour is known to all. Immediately after coming to power, the Trinamool government had painted all government buildings—some of them red in colour—blue and white. A few prominent buildings such as Writers' were spared because of their 'heritage' status.

This was not all. In a hasty drive, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation had spent huge money to paint boulevards, road dividers and boundary walls of public property blue and white.