HARD BALL: Mukherjee (left); Globe Cinema

Kolkata mayor Subrata Mukherjee wears many hats: MLA, Trinamool Congress leader, perennial “youth leader”. But the latest one he’s donned says “Tough Guy”. Tired of waiting for about 1.5 lakh establishments to pay their property tax and clear other dues, Mukherjee declared he would cut off their water supply by April 1 if they did not pay up. “They owe the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (kmc) more than Rs 300 crore,” he says. “I will do whatever it takes to recover the money.” The kmc is now drawing up a list of the defaulters, which will include households, Central and state government institutions, entertainment centres, restaurants, hotels, hospitals and cinema halls.

Among the first to be felled was Globe Cinema—one of the few Kolkata theatres that screens English films—after it refused to pay an alleged Rs 39 lakh in arrears in three days. This has Kolkatans worried that other theatres may close down too. Talk about bad timing—a slew of Oscar nominees are slated to be screened at the city’s cinema halls, notably The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and A Beautiful Mind. Asks miffed movie buff Rina Jaiswal: “Does the mayor want us to go to another city to catch the Oscar favourites?” Not a pretty picture.

—Labonita Ghosh

GOLDEN PUMPKIN

WRONG NUMBER: Mookherjee says he was out of town

Satyabrata Mookherjee, Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers, is a most unfortunate man. He got his name on the front pages for practically the first time in his short political career—and only because he’s been accused of calling international sex lines from his state-paid telephone. Mookherjee, a well-known Kolkata lawyer, was one of the bjp’s two winners from West Bengal in the 1999 Lok Sabha election. On March 26, while Parliament debated poto, Biplab Dasgupta, cpi(m) MP from Mookherjee’s home state, held a press conference for the explicit purpose of publicising Mookherjee’s residential telephone bills.
From the Delhi number 3792868, Dasgupta alleged, 34 calls were made to “dirty” chat lines. The polemical Marxist has written to the prime minister saying that while “people struggle to find food and shelter ... a minister wastes public money in lakhs to whet his sexual appetite.” An alarmed Mookherjee said he wasn’t in Delhi when the calls were made: “If any of my employees made such calls without my consent, I can’t be held responsible.” Wonder if he has an Internet connection at home.

SIGNPOSTS

AWARDED: The Italian “International Woman of the Year” award, to Kiran Bedi, joint commissioner, Delhi Police.

DIED: Suhas Agashe, 60, veteran journalist and uni’s chief of bureau, western region, in Mumbai.

DIED: Sinam Dususow, 80, veteran Congress leader of Arunachal Pradesh, in Itanagar.

APPOINTED: Ghulam Nabi Azad, president of the Jammu and
Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee.

ARRESTED: Ravi Sidhu, chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission, for accepting a bribe, in Chandigarh.

LAUNCHED: Ten Sports, a tv channel promoted by Sharjah cricket baron A.R. Bukhatir.

APPOINTED: B.S. Shastri, chairperson of the National Commission of scs and sts. He is a Lok Sabha member.