Kolkata: After two years of rule, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appears to have squandered the overwhelming mandate voters gave her, but as West Bengal gears up for panchayat polls, it seems that the TMC has the advantage as the Left is yet to regroup.
Rattled by the Saradha meltdown and a spate of suicides, Trinamool faces the uphill task of addressing cries of lakhs of anguished investors and agents. With allegations of Trinamool patronage to the ponzi scamsters, Mamata's only advantage is that the Left in disarray.
"There is no major challenge to Trinamool. CPM hasn't got its act together in Bengal, it is true that collapse of ponzi schemes particularly Saradha has created a crisis," TMC MP Saugata Ray....
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07:59 AM, May 20, 2013
Kolkata: With the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal coming up with a draft textile policy to attract investment to revive the sector, leading industry lobbies have expressed hope that the policy roadmap would help the industry to grow significantly. States like Maharashtra and Gujarat unveiled their new textile policies in 2012 to woo investors. "A policy was necessary. It will surely help Bengal's textile sector grow rapidly. The roadmap...
04:54 AM, May 20, 2013
New Delhi: In a run up to the Lok Sabha elections, BJP President Rajnath Singh on Sunday reorganised the party's poll machinery. Rajnath made Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah in charge of the party's affairs in key state Uttar Pradesh. Shah will be assisted by party members Trivendra Singh Rawat, Rameshwer Chaurasiya and Satyendra Kushwaha. The BJP President also made Varun Gandhi in charge of the...
07:41 PM, May 19, 2013
Burdwan: West Bengal Agriculture Minister Malay Ghatak on Saturday said he has received a letter threatening to kill him and his family unless he resigned from the Cabinet and quit Trinamool Congress. "I saw the letter this evening. It was sent by post from Kharagpur in West Midnapore district on May 13 by N Rama Rao of Indian People's Liberation Army," Ghatak told reporters. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the...
07:59 AM, May 19, 2013
Kolkata: Bringing out an assessment report of West Bengal's Trinamool Congress government, two days before it completes two years in office, the Congress on Saturday alleged that the regime was moving in a negative direction and was clueless about the course it wanted the state's economy to take. "We do not expect that within two years, they will be able to change the face of the state but the direction...
05:20 AM, May 19, 2013
Kolkata: The West Bengal State Election Commission on Saturday wrote to the state government seeking a change in the schedule for the panchayat polls and the bunching of districts in each phase. The state government had issued a notification on Friday proposing three-phase polls. Nine districts are to go to the hustings July 2, and four each July 6 and July 10. The SEC's latter has sought a regrouping of...
04:15 AM, May 19, 2013
New Delhi: A Delhi-based couple was arrested from Kolkata for duping several banks by forging documents, police said Saturday. Kamal Kishore Shukla, 60, and his wife Shashi Shukla, 53 were arrested on May 15 from Kolkata. The duo had obtained housing loans from different banks against a single property in Vaishali area of Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, adjoining Delhi, with the help of fake documents and had even sold the same...
11:26 PM, May 18, 2013
Kolkata: West Bengal chit fund scam accused Sudipta Sen and Arvind Chauhan have been remanded to judicial custody till May 22. The court has reserved order on the third accused Debjani Mukherjee as she is in hospital. Mukherjee was admitted after complaining of stomach ailment. Meanwhile, Congress workers protested in Kolkata against TMC leader Kunal Ghosh, who is alleged to have links in the case. On Friday, the manager and...
04:23 PM, May 18, 2013
Kolkata: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has sought a report from West Bengal officials on the death of an eight-year-old student after he was allegedly assaulted by his teacher in class. The commission took up the matter after a report on CNN-IBN. The NCPCR has asked the South 24 Parganas district administration for a detailed report on the circumstances around the student's death. The eight-year-old, a...
10:21 AM, May 18, 2013
Kolkata: Opposition parties in West Bengal on Friday demanded deployment of central paramilitary forces in an all-party meeting convened by the State Election Commission to ensure proper, free and fair panchayat elections. "We need adequate protection for candidates and the voters though every state of the polls - filing of nomination, campaigning, polling day as also counting. The ground situation is not conducive for that. In various local elections across...
04:47 AM, May 18, 2013
Kolkata: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Friday said the recent visit of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to Darjeeling has removed the "miscommunication" between the West Bengal government and the party. GJM leader Harka Bahadur Chhetri said, "There was a miscommunication with the the state...the problem is over now with her (Mamata) recent visit to the Darjeeling hills for development work for the people there." Blaming a section of the people...
12:51 AM, May 18, 2013
Sources said that one of the two players is an Indian while the other is an international player. ...
10:38 PM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: Against the backdrop of recent chit fund controversy in West Bengal, a Parliamentary committee on Friday slammed such schemes with demands for putting in place a single regulator to oversee their functioning or scrapping them altogether. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance closely scrutinised the functioning of such schemes which recently led to a series of suicides in West Bengal. Senior officials from RBI, CBDT, SEBI, Corporate Affairs...
07:40 PM, May 17, 2013
Kolkata: The West Bengal Election Commission on Friday announced dates for the Panchayat elections in the state. The elections will be held in three phases on July 2, 6 and 10. The results will be announced three days later. The state government's demand for a two-phase polling was earlier shot down by the Calcutta High Court. The state election commission though said that the court order was not clear on...
04:55 PM, May 17, 2013
Kolkata: Alleged corporal punishment left an 8-year-old dead in South 24 Parganas in West Bengal. The student died after his head was allegedly banged against the wall by a teacher. The incident happened at the Nirdeshkhali school at Basanti in South 24 Parganas. The child was beaten up on May 15 as a punishment for throwing bags across the classroom during the class. The accused teacher has been arrested. More...
01:38 PM, May 17, 2013
Kolkata: The West Bengal government achieved 7.6 per cent growth in GDP compared to the national average of 4.96 per cent during the last financial year. In industry, the growth rate was 6.24 per cent against the national average of 3.12 per cent, Finance Minister Amit Mitra claimed while releasing three books on the completion of two years rule of Mamata Banerjee-led government on Thursday. In agriculture, the state recorded...
01:29 AM, May 17, 2013
Kolkata: West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee led government on Thursday released a performance report, claiming the state has clocked a growth rate higher than that of the overall country during the nearly two years it has been in power. The performance report showcasing the achievements of the state government was released at the state secretariat, four days before the regime completes two years in office. Making public the report titled "Powering...
11:35 PM, May 16, 2013
Kolkata: There were differences at a meeting on Thursday between the State Election Commission (SEC) and the West Bengal government over fixing dates for the three-tier panchayat elections after the Calcutta High Court's direction that the two mutually agree on it. "We suggested certain dates and they (state government) also placed some dates for the panchayat election to be held in three phases as per the High Court order," State...
06:10 PM, May 16, 2013
Kolkata: Saradha group chairman Sudipta Sen, who has been accused of cheating lakhs of investors of their money running into thousands of crores, on Wednesday opposed a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the complaints against him and his companies in an affidavit filed before the Calcutta High Court. He claimed before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi that the Special Investigation Team...
10:20 AM, May 16, 2013
Kolkata: Cyclonic storm 'Mahasen,' which lay over west-central Bay of Bengal, has moved eastwards and is now about 730 kms south-southwest of Kolkata, according to the regional meteorological centre here. The system is now located in the west-central bay and is likely to intensify further, move in northeast direction and cross the Bangladesh coast close to Chittagong on Thursday night, it said. Under its impact, rain or thundershower may occur...
10:40 PM, May 15, 2013
