All police stations and Central Reserve Police Force camps in the three Maoist-hit districts of West Bengal have been put on high alert and Railway Protection Force has been asked to keep vigil on trains and tracks ahead of Wednesday's 48-hour Bharat bandh called by ultras.
Four Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters and a party worker were shot dead by Maoists on Friday after they suspected them to be police informers and their bodies dumped on the highway at West Midnapore and Purulia districts, the police said.
A demand for autonomy for three tribal-dominated districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia in West Bengal was made on Saturday by a top Maoist leader, who also justified the Gorkhaland statehood issue.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed on Monday that he had got specific information on the Trinamool Congress' link with the Maoists and warned the party not to join hands with it to put the Communist Party of India-Marxist in trouble.
The battle to recapture Lalgarh from Maoists began in right earnest on Thursday as the police and central forces today stormed the area smashing a human shield of tribal agitators with a barrage of teargas shells and lathi-charges. A 600-strong mob of tribals armed with lathis, axes, spears, bows and arrows blocked the road when the security forces arrived and shouted at the police asking them to apologise for alleged atrocities, a PTI correspondent on the spot saw.
There was no possibility of holding talks with Maoists or tribal group PCPA, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee said on Sunday even as he maintained that law and order in Naxal-infested Lalgarh and adjacent areas has improved but more work needs to be done.
The Centre has assured the West Bengal government that it would not withdraw the 1,700 personnel of central security forces from the three Maoist-hit districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, even though assembly elections in adjoining Jharkhand is round the corner.
School teacher and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Ranjit Duley, kidnapped by the Maoists at gunpoint from a school in Bankura district on March 4, was released unharmed in West Midnapore district early on Tuesday morning, the police said.
A police officer and a Maoist were killed and two others injured in a gunfight between the security forces and the ultras at Sarenga in Bankura district, the police said on Thursday.A group of armed Maoists shot at and injured local Communist Party of India - Maoist leader Tarashankar Patra late on Wednesday night. On getting the information, police and joint forces rushed to the spot, and a gun-battle ensued.
The location of the landfall is north of Dhamra and south of Bahanaga, close to Bahanaga block, on the coast, around 50 km of Balasore, he said.
The silence in the room was deafening except for the occasional muffled whimpers.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was re-nominated on Sunday by the Congress from the Jangipur seat in West Bengal for the coming Lok Sabha polls
A Communist Party of India - Marxist leader was shot dead by suspected Maoists at Barikul in Bankura on Saturday. Rameshwar Murmu, the local committee secretary of CPI-M, was forcibly taken away from his residence at Bhulagara in the wee hours of Saturday by an armed group of 15 men, who pushed aside his wife and son, saying Murmu deserved to be killed for his 'anti-people activities'. Soon, the family heard gunshots and Murmu's body was recovered by security forces.
Arrested Communist Party of India-Maoist spokesperson Gaur Chakraborty was on Wednesday remanded in police custody for 14 days, even as another member of the group and his wife were nabbed in Bankura district on charges of waging war against the state.
Normal life was affected for the second day on Tuesday in West Bengal's Maoist-infested districts of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura during the 48-hour bandh called by the ultras in five states to protest the offensive by security forces against Naxalites in Lalgarh.
A former female Maoist, once arrested on the charge of murdering a Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, but released for lack of evidence, now says she wants to stay away from extremists and join the police force.
The first group of securitymen arrived at Lalgarh police station, which had been cut off by the tribals since November last year, with the police saying that it was a 'partial victory'.
Floods in West Bengal have claimed over 40, with water levels rising arlamingly in East Midnapore, North and South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah, Birbhum and Burdwan districts.
The death toll due to Monday's havoc caused by Cyclone Aila in West Bengal rose to 45 on Tuesday.
Life in Kolkata came to a standstill even before Cyclone Aila hit on Monday, killing 17, including a woman, and injuring many. High-velocity winds and heavy rains lashed the coastal areas of the state from Monday morning. All flights, including international ones, at the NSC Bose International Airport were suspended from 1400 hours, airport sources said.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
About 6,500 persons were sheltered in 67 relief camps opened in various districts.
Personal and healthcare major Emami group on Tuesday announced setting up of a bio-diesel plant at Haldia, the first in West Bengal, with an investment of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion).
In the wake of growing interest by large industrial groups in West Bengal, the state government has embarked on a plan to revive a number of small airports in the state apart from developing a new airport in Kolkata with private participation.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party, which has often been mocked by opponents for not having a well-defined ideological plank, seems to have finally found its calling in Bengali sub-nationalism, as a section of top party leaders feel only an 'inclusive message of regionalism, which the Bengalis can identify with, will counter the aggressive nationalism and Hindutva practised by the saffron camp'.
Please, let us not be scared of multinational corporations
Ten-year old Ismail was was given the role of the convict and three others were enacting the roles of the hangman, doctor and jail superintendent.
He had conveyed the wish to his father Bangshidar and brother Bikas when they had last met him at the Alipore Central Jail in Kolkata a few days ago.
Railway proposes to complete 273 kms of new lines including Chandigarh-Morinda-Ludhiana, Kakinada-Kotipalli and Hassan-Bangalore.
Results of the panchayat polls indicated a paradigm shift in state politics with the baton of main opposition party passing from the Left to the BJP.
The elections are not only a means for TMC to prove its wide, unopposed mass allegiance but also a way to bargain for national leadership among regional political parties in the road to New Delhi.
High voter turnout was recorded in the assembly polls in Assam and West Bengal where an estimated 82.02 per cent and 79.51 per cent of the voters cast their ballots till 5 pm.
They refused to even accept the official communication about the rejection of the mercy plea by the President.
His parents have threatened to commit mass suicide if he is hanged.
Mamata announced that over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) would be invested in developing the Aerotropolis project which, she felt, would ultimately change the industrial scenario in the region comprising Burdwan, Birbhum, Bankura and Purulia distracts.
'The power of love is the greatest power in the world.' 'Add a smile and you can conquer the world,' Bengali actor June Maliah, the Trinamool Congress's candidate for the Medinipur constituency, tells Swarupa Dutt/Rediff.com.
Hundreds were injured in the hailstorm, which left a trail of destruction.
The owner of a rural chit fund firm, active in two south Bengal districts, died on Thursday in Hooghly district taking the ponzi scheme fiasco deaths in the state to 14.
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The polling for the sixth phase on May 12 covers 6 states and one Union Territory.
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