Prime Minister Narendra Modi has honoured Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain refugees by giving them citizenship through Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday and maintained there is no provision of stripping of anyone's citizenship in the new law.
The system, which moved towards Bangladesh from north Bay of Bengal at a speed of 56 kmph caused moderate to heavy rain and squally weather in West Bengal's coastal districts of South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur, dampening festive spirits on Deepavali and Kali Puja.
Odisha is bracing for heavy rainfall early next week under the impact of a possible cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, which is likely to skirt the state and move towards West Bengal and Bangladesh, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday.
A TMC worker, identified as 52-year-old Jiyarul Molla, was shot dead in Phulmalancha area in Basanti in South 24 Parganas district late on Saturday night while he was returning home, a police officer said.
The sources said Bose briefed Shah about the prevailing situation and his assessment of the polls marred by violence that claimed 15 lives.
The Kolkata connection of Lalit Jha sparked a political debate in the state, with West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar accusing TMC MLA Tapas Roy of being in "convenience" with Jha.
The CAA, enacted by the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2019, aims at granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
The Odisha government has asked all the district collectors to remain prepared for any eventuality, and directed the administration to evacuate people from low-lying areas in the event of heavy rain.
Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, has been at the centre of a political storm for nearly a month and has witnessed unprecedented protests over allegations of sexual abuse by scores of women against a local Trinamool Congress leader.
The rear windscreen of a car carrying Rahul Gandhi was damaged during the ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', with West Bengal unit president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleging that the vehicle was "pelted with stones" in Malda district, while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed the incident took place in adjoining Bihar.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday received wholehearted support from a group of women from the troubled Sandeshkhali area who met her after a Trinamool Congress rally in Kolkata, party sources said.
Rescue officials confirmed casualties in the incident, claiming to have already recovered 5 bodies from the heap of debris where the cracker manufacturing unit once stood.
The ED officers are conducting raids at 15 places in the state during the day and Sajahan's house is one of them, an officer said.
'The time has come for all those believe in a democratic India to stand up and be counted and to make a choice.'
The state declared only 4834 sensitive booths on which only CAPFs are deployed but actually, there were more sensitive polling booths, DIG Guleria said.
The repolling started at 7 am amid tight security with four central forces personnel deployed in each booth, besides state police. Till 11 am, 10.9 per cent voter turnout was recorded.
Another explosion "linked to illegal firecrackers" took place in West Bengal on Monday, the third such blast within a span of just seven days.
"My father and uncles are no more, our family is devastated," said an inconsolable Avijit, the son of Haran.
The Trinamool Congress supremo, who reached Khadikul village in this area, 11 days after the blast, also said the incident could have been averted if the state had received proper intelligence inputs.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party might conduct the Lok Sabha polls in December itself, claiming that all choppers have been booked by the saffron party for campaigning.
A team of CBI officers reached his residence in south Kolkata's Chetla area along with a large contingent of central forces in the morning, officials said.
Tension was palpable in the area, and a large police contingent was deployed to prevent any further flare-up.
Three persons, including two supporters of the Indian Secular Front (ISF), were killed and several policemen injured in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district as a clash broke out outside a centre where counting of votes for rural polls was going on, police said on Wednesday.
'We cried our hearts out as we saw our huts going underwater. It was hard to believe that I was fast asleep at the same spot just 15-20 minutes ago'
The court directed the State Election Commission, the state government and the central government to file affidavits dealing with all the allegations made in three petitions alleging malpractices.
Violence had rocked West Bengal's rural polls on Saturday, leaving 15 people dead while ballot boxes were vandalised, ballot papers torched, and bombs thrown at rivals in several places.
This takes the total number of apprehended persons in this case to nine, a police officer said.
The case has been handed over to the state CID from Baguiati police station under Bidhannagar police commissionerate, the official said.
West Bengal Governor Dr CV Ananda Bose on Friday said that political violence in the state must come to an end, after visiting Bhangore, where supporters of two political parties clashed a day before leaving three dead.
The Calcutta high court has asked the State Election Commission to explore the possibility of postponing the civic polls to four municipal corporations by four to six weeks in view of a surge in COVID-19 cases in West Bengal.
A 12-year-old girl was killed after she came in contact with a dangling live wire that got torn during the squall in Botanical Garden area in Howrah city, the police said.
The system moved north-northeastwards at 20 kmph in the last six hours and is over west-central Bay of Bengal, 90 km from Gopalpur, 120 km from Puri and 210 km from Paradip, the weather office said in its 11.30 am bulletin.
North Zone IG Neeraj Kumar Gupta said the man, who was a beggar, is suspected to have done the act "due to mental trauma", as he could not get any money from begging in the state.
All the four were found guilty of "conspiracy" to wage war against the government of India and sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment.
The court directed the state police to transfer all records and CCTV footage relating to the matter to the central government within two weeks.
The player, a resident of Barrackpore town in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district, allegedly forged documents, like Permanent Resident of Tripura Certificate (PRTC) and Ration Card, to play for Tripura, they said.
"Fake voter and Aadhaar cards have been seized from his possession. He is being interrogated. We are trying to find out how and when he entered into India," an official said.
Security forces were maintaining a strict vigil across West Bengal in view of Hanuman Jayanti celebrations on Thursday, officials said.
A Trinamool Congress legislator on Sunday threatened to not support any bill tabled by the government in the West Bengal Assembly in the future and abstain from voting in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls in the state if 'atrocities' on his loyalists allegedly by a rival faction continued, even as the Bharatiya Janata Party said the collapse of the Mamata Banerjee government was just a matter of time.
The court noted that no appreciable steps have been taken ever since an order was passed by it on June 13 to deploy central forces in sensitive areas for the poll process.
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