State commerce and industry minister, Nirupam Sen, and secretary, Sabysachi Sen are in Mumbai and have held a series of meetings with industrialists in Mumbai, including Tata group chairman, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance and Ashok Hinduja of the Hinduja group.
The alternative location is to be selected by the state government, which has appointed Mott McDonald, an engineering and development consultancy, to identify a new location.
The CRPF has given a clean chit to DIG Alok Raj who was accused of rioting and not complying with the West Bengal government's orders during the panchayat elections at Nandigram in East Midnapore district. It said the allegations against DIG Alok Raj were found to be "baseless" in its internal inquiry.
'It did not start as a Hindutva slogan.' 'It started to tease the TMC and slowly it got internalised and the BJP started countering with Jai Shri Ram slogans because Mamata was getting provoked.'
Facing all-round attack over Nandigram, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee sought on Wednesday a 'fresh look' into the Centre's policy on SEZs, which he felt should be restricted to select industries. He also wanted the Centre to fix a ceiling on land for a particular type of SEZ and work out the percentage of land area to be compulsorily utilised for industries within that limit.
While villagers claim that the exhumed bodies belong to registered missing persons, CPI-M members claimed that the bodies were of party loyalists who were killed in an attack by Trinamool Congress activists.
A foreign visitor to the city agreed, but with a note of caution. "West Bengal as an investment destination remains to be first on the list for the Australian mining companies as this state is rich in minerals," said John McCarthy, Australian High Commissioner to India, in Kolkata to attend a seminar.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday turned down the Trinamool Congress' demand that the land of the unwilling farmers at Singur, acquired for the Tata Motors small car project, should be returned.
The government is contemplating imposing curfew in some areas of Kolkata at night.
'If the CPI-M cannot mend relations with Dr Manmohan Singh, it may find that Congress boss Sonia Gandhi is still willing to talk.'
Three Bhopal gas tragedy survivors' organisations have opposed West Bengal government's move to invite Dow Chemicals to the proposed chemical hub in Haldia after the state government failed to acquire land at Nandigram.
The Communist Party of India - Marxist, which is under all-round attack over the unabated violence in Nandigram, on Monday accused the Trinamool Congress of taking the help of Maoists to create trouble in the area and insisted that normalcy will be restored there soon. Party General Secretary Prakash Karat said that the Trinamool Congress was indulging in certain activities as it had failed to win the confidence of people in a democratic manner.
The hard-hitting statement came a day after Gandhi indicted the state government and CPI-M, saying the manner in which the recapture of villages in Nandigram was being attempted was totally "unlawful and unacceptable".
The much-awaited policy for mandatory rehabilitation of land owners displaced by industrial projects and SEZs might get delayed with the matter being referred to a Group of Ministers.
It could be Nandigram all over again. Tension gripped the three panchayats near Paradip in Orissa on Wednesday
Trinamool Congress backs the BUPC, an anti-land acquisition front in Nandigram, which has witnessed violent protests on the issue.
"It can only be equated with the Jallianwala massacre. It's a planned killing under the leadership of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and it is highly condemnable," Chief Whip of Congress Manash Bhuniya told media persons.
The, villagers, backed by the opposition, were protesting the acquisition of land for a Special Economic Zone.
The West Bengal government signed an agreement with New Kolkata International Development Pvt Limited on Monday to develop infrastructure in the state, including health, education, industrial and housing complexes.
Mahasweta Devi has taken a break from writing and is engaged in social work these days.
Nandigram was Stalinised the same way Stalin had Siberia-ised Soviet Russia.
This is the second bandh on the Nandigram issue in less than a fortnight after the state was paralysed by Trinamool Congress' 'halt Bengal' on October 31.
The Mondols were taken in by the 'Kajla Janakalyan Samiti', formed seven years ago in Contai Deshapran block in east Medinipur district, an NGO supported by various other organisations and individuals, which works with displaced and trafficked families and trains them in ways to earn alternate livelihood.
The Maharashtra government has turned down Centre's proposal to scale down the size of Reliance Industries' Maha Mumbai Special Economic Zone
As the House re-assembled at 1600 hours, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee appealed to members to discuss the contentious water-sharing issue in a dispassionate and responsible manner.
Repeated requests by Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal failed to restore normalcy forcing him to adjourn the House.
Amid a raging controversy over acquisition of land for special economic zones, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said on Saturday the government has an 'open mind' about 'refining' the SEZ policy.
The Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Communist Party of India finalised a strategy to put pressure on the CPM to maintain coalition dharma
Members of a Trinamool Congress-backed body torched a police watch-tower and uprooted fence posts at the Tata Motors' small car project site.
West Bengal, the chief minister said, has come a long way as far as industrial growth is concerned and now the responsibility lies on the people to take it to the next level.
The I&B minister's banning of AXN channel and threatening to ban 4 more channels for so-called obscene content has surprised many.
The affected community must share in the gains from the use of its land for development.
Admitting that the bombs were hurled, Chandannagore SDPO Kalyan Mukherjee said the incident occurred at around 2130 hours in the sleepy village of Singur in West Bengal's Hoogly district.
Streets in Kolkata wore a deserted look as most private buses, mini buses and taxis remained off the roads.
'Nandigram is as much a blot on India in the new millennium as Gujarat 2002. Both massacres are similar. Very similar.'
West Bengal's Left Front government is working on a proposal to find a solution to the stand-off over acquisition of land in Singur for Tata Motors' car plant, veteran CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu said on Friday.
When land was allotted to PSUs in the past, care was taken to ensure this was wasteland - it makes sense to do the same for private industry today.
Is the CPI-M willing to acknowledge that its cadres were involved in the violent incidents in Nandigram?
LN Mittal, who is a frontrunner for acquiring a 51 per cent stake in Sesa Goa from Mitsui and has announced plans for projects in Jharkhand and Orissa worth Rs 40,000 crore each, is planning a $2 billion (Rs 8,600 crore) foundation.
A clause pertaining to this would be incorporated in the proposed rehabilitation and resettlement policy being prepared by the ministry. The policy will be submitted to the Cabinet soon.
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