Rejecting the demands for withdrawal of security forces and release of prisoners by Maoist-backed tribal agitators, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee on Tuesday night said the police have been asked to move to the detained Rajdhani Express to rescue the passengers."We can't just accept such demands like withdrawal of security forces and release of some prisoners," the chief minister told a press conference in Kolkata.
After a meeting with Buddhadeb, Indrani -- the wife of officer-in-charge of Sankrail police station, Atindranath Dutta -- said they had conveyed to the chief minister Maoist leader Kishenji's demand that the women arrested by joint forces in West Midnapore district be released immediately.
A poll update from Maharashtra's Nashik, where Raj Thackeray is on fire
Railway minister promises jobs for land deals for the project.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee visited ailing Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu in a hospital in Kolkata on Saturday evening and said she was praying for the speedy recovery of the 95-year-old leader.
A 15-year-old boy was killed and four others were injured on Monday when the owner of a tea estate allegedly fired at angry protesters, who set ablaze two garden factories and the owner's residence near Guwahati, the police said.
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.
Four Eastern Frontier Rifles jawans were killed in a surprise assault by Maoists in Gidhni in West Midnapore on Sunday, hours after Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wrapped up a two-day visit to the violence-hit district. Claiming responsibility for the killings, top Maoist leader Koteshar Rao alias Kishanji dared the central government to deploy as many forces as they wanted in the embattled area.
Hours before Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's visit to Naxal-infested Midnapore on Saturday, three youths were shot dead by Maoists in Kusbani jungle in the district.Bullet-riddled bodies of the three youths -- Lakhi Das, Jayram Mandi and Manoranjan -- with their limbs tied with ropes, were found on a road near Kusbani jungle, police sources said. The Maoists had left behind posters near the bodies of the three, claiming that they had been 'punished'.
After two days of self-introspection, Karat, the party general secretary, retains his hold and instead the West Bengal lobby along with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will now be taking "corrective measures at the organisational and governmental level."
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee admitted on Thursday that there was a definite lack of alertness on the part of the forces leading to the massacre of 24 jawans by Maoists in West Midnapore district.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday described Union Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee's remark as "juvenile disorder" after she demanded his arrest saying there was violence in the state whenever he was away.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Sunday finalised a plan to rectify the 'wrong trends' in the party under which guidelines were formulated for an austerity drive and to make its ministers more accountable.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has announced that 10 per cent reservation in jobs would be given to socially, educationally and economically backward Muslims.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who paid homage to CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu, described the Marxist patriarch as a politician of "high values" and said he would be missed by all.
The Communist Party of India - Marxist Politburo on Saturday began a two-day meeting to finalise a document, to deal with its organisational problems, which led to its rout in the recent polls in its strongholds of West Bengal and Kerala. The purpose of the meeting is to give final touches to amend and strengthen its 'rectification document' that had been prepared several years ago. The meeting is being attended by all top leaders barring CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
A directional landmine blast took place at Baroa, 17 km from Salboni, from where the West Bengal CM, Paswan, state industry minister Nirupam Sen and industrialist Sajjan Jindal were returning after laying the foundation stone of Jindal Steel Works plant, police said.
Buddha countermands Forward Bloc's rejection of German wholesaler's permit.
Call for fiscal autonomy to Union Territories with Assemblies may get louder with 'special status' to J&K in the Finance Commission, say experts.
"This is applicable for the entire country, all states and we have accepted it. But how to implement it is the government's business," Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told media persons after a cabinet meeting in Kolkata.
"Through the Singur discussions on September 5, 6 and 7, I saw earnest participants showing a rare spirit of accommodation. That spirit needs to be operationalised," a Raj Bhavan release said. Invoking Rabindranath Tagore, the Governor said, Jiban jakhan shukai jai koruna dharai esho (when the heart is hard and parched up, come upon me with a shower of mercy."
The Communist Party of India-Marxist has moved away from the people and the image of the party has dented as evident from the recent election results, including that to the Lok Sabha, according to senior party leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Trinamool Congress has refused to attend the all-party meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday, to seek suggestions for expediting relief work in cyclone-affected areas, dubbing the whole exercise as 'suspect'.The chief whip of the TC parliamentary party in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay told PTI that the whole exercise was 'suspect' as the meeting will take place so many days after the cyclone hit Bengal.
On Monday, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had rejected the chief minister's offer of talks and stuck to her demand for returning 400 acres of land to 'unwilling' sellers of land.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was on Sunday gheraoed twice by relief seekers in the state's South 24 Parganas, the district worst-hit by cyclone Aila, even as the government prepared a memorandum seeking assistance of Rs 1,000 for submission to the Centre.The chief minister had gone to Gosaba in the Sunderbans to see the extent of the disaster and distribution of relief materials.
In the wake of the joint operation against the Naxalites in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal, the chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, will meet the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 11. On the same day, he will have a separate meeting with the Union home minister P Chidambaram on the joint operation against the extremists in the state. Both the meetings are scheduled to be held in the morning.
Kolkata's security agencies are in a tizzy following reports of a possible terrorist strike in the city, especially after four mobile SIM cards used by the terrorists, who struck Mumbai, were said to have been acquired in West Bengal.
Chances are any such disruption will not occur on the major shipping lanes but on some edge of the ocean between India and China. Even if there is no actual disruption, the costs of averting one can be punitive. The setting for this is provided by the energy shortage both countries face, says Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
The company wrote to the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-led Left front government seeking clarification on the agreement in the wake of conflicting reports about the return of project land to farmers. A Tata group spokesperson confirmed that the company had written a letter to the government.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 19 to discuss the demand for Rs 1000 crore for relief and restoration work in cyclone Aila-hit areas.
A look at the star arrivals.
Shortly after scrapping the proposed IT township project -- Vedic Village -- at Rajarhat near Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said late on Wednesday that the two IT majors must be retained in the state, reports the Indian Express.
Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member Sitaram Yechury on Sunday said that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will remain West Bengal's Chief Minister, laying to rest speculation that he would be replaced.
A parallel meeting called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha on Tuesday passed a resolution demanding creation of a separate state of Gorkhaland.
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha on Friday rejected the West Bengal government's offer for talks on the Darjeeling issue on June 18, saying the agenda of development of the hills was "irrelevant" when the main issue was a separate state of Gorkhaland.
The students, Eben Murmu of class VII of Lalgar Ramkrishna Vidyapith, Buddhadeb Patra, a student of class VIII and Goutam Patra, a student of class IX, both of Kantapahari Vivekananda Vidyapith were arrested from Bansbar village which is around 40 km away from the site of the blast.
Nandigram remained in headlines throughout the year despite the West Bengal government cancelling the SEZ project of Indonesia's Salem Group in January following violence and political pressure on Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was on Sunday discharged from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences as doctors declared him fit to go home after 26 days of stay at the Intensive Care Unit, family sources said.
The Centre on Friday asked the Maoists in Lalgarh area of West Bengal to lay down arms and come for talks. Home Minister P Chidambaram said he endorsed the appeal of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to the Maoists and the tribals to come for talks.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday said he had called Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata and urged him to resume work at Singur.
