Kharif crops were sown in only 4.15 lakh hectares against the target of 28.27 lakh hectares till July 21 or only in 14.71 per cent of the arable land.
Of the deceased, five were from West Bengal, two each from Jharkhand and neighbouring Assam and one from Mizoram's Lunglei district, the official said.
The allegations drew sharp reactions from the ruling TMC, which condemned the "vulture politics" of the saffron camp, further requesting it not to politicize the death.
Recorded versions or bhajans being recited by those present at the temples were played out at around 5 am to counter the morning azaan being recited on the loudspeakers.
'Justice B V Nagarathna has excellent human qualities and is a stickler for the law.'
She has been called again on Wednesday for a fresh round of grilling.
The victim, who suffered severe burn injuries in the incident, was declared "brought dead" by doctors when she was rushed to a nearby hospital on Friday, police said.
The Maoists shot at and injured two persons, blew up a culvert and burnt down four vehicles at Chatra as they ended their two-day Jharkhand shutdown.
Ten Maoists were killed in an encounter with a splinter group of the Communist Party of India-Maoist near a village of Chatra district, police said on Thursday.
The tragedy occurred at Bukru village under Shregada within Balumath police station limits when the girls had gone to the pond for immersion after Karma Puja, a major festival in Jharkhand.
Jharkhand mining secretary Pooja Singhal, earlier arrested and remanded to the custody of the ED in a suspected money laundering case, was suspended by the Jharkhand government on Thursday, an official said.
The 39-year-old was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate from Ranchi after the agency conducted multi-city raids against him, Singhal, her businessman husband Abhishek Jha and others, on May 6.
The fate of 189 candidates, including 15 women nominees, will be decided in the first phase of the polling in Chatra, Gumla, Bishunpur, Lohardaga, Manika, Latehar, Panki, Daltonganj, Bishrampur, Chhatarpur, Hussainabad, Garhwa and Bhawanathpur.
Sources claimed that Singhal was "evasive" in her replies and hence was arrested.
Mukesh Ganju, stated to be the mastermind of the murder of the journalist, is absconding.
A senior journalist of Hindi daily Hindustan was shot dead in Bihar's Siwan district on Friday nigth by unidentified gunmen, police said.
After the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was cleared by Parliament, violent protests broke out in Guwahati.
'Rahul Gandhi was given the impression that if the seat was given to me, then the alliance would be broken in all 40 seats.'
The MeT department has warned of rain or thunderstorm at isolated places in the state in the next two days.
The agitators belonging to 70 organisations, led by KMSS and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad, gathered at the secretariat to protest against the passing of the bill in the Lower House of Parliament.
Maoists blew up a panchayat office in Jharkhand's Lohardaga district, police said.
Lalu's word is final in the RJD when even when he is serving a long jail sentence after being convicted in fodder scam cases.
"If you show us (threaten us with) ED, we will also send proof against BJP leaders to the agency. A section of BJP ministers and leaders is hand in glove with the coal mafia. They even stayed at hotels run by them during elections," she said.
Hemant Soren was also formally elected as the JMM legislature party leader.
A lawyer and indigenous Muslim students organisation -- All Assam Goriya-Moriya Yuva Chatra Parishad -- filed separate FIRs against Hajela in Dibrugarh and Guwahati.
The feud in Uttar Pradesh's first family had ended on Saturday after Akhilesh restored all but one portfolio of Shivpal and promised to support him as SP's state unit president, a post from which he was himself removed three days back triggering the power tussle with his uncle.
Maoists exploded a series of landmines in the forests of Latehar district and exchanged gunfire with security personnel early on Thursday before the polling began for the Chatra Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand.
After successfully blocking construction at the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation's 2000 MW Lower Subansiri Hydro-electric Project at Gerukamukh in Dhemaji district of Assam, the anti-dam brigade comprising several organisations were on Thursday called for negotiation by the Assam government in Guwahati.
The IUML alleged that the bill violates the fundamental Right to Equality of the Constitution.
Though a pyrrhic victory for the BJP, the party he chose to align himself against his former mentor Banerjee, it nevertheless is being seen as a morale booster for the saffron party as his former party, the Trinamool Congress under Banerjee's leadership, has garnered an overwhelming 213 seats out of 292 seats which went to polls.
A mass protest mobilised by anti-dam protestors from Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS), All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) on Thursday stopped a turbine component that was being transported to the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri Hydro-power Project in Dhemaji district of Assam.
The degeneration of the health conditions of the people, especially tribal women and children, and water contamination are some of the most serious impacts of coal mining in Jharkhand, notes Nitish Priyadarshi.
Maoists attacked a police patrol party and opened indiscriminate fire, leaving three policemen, including an officer, dead in Jharkhand's Chatra district.
A Reliance Power General Manager Manoj Kumar Ojha was killed on Wednesday when two armed men suspected to be members of a splinter Maoist group fired at his vehicle in a village in this district, the police said.
Protesting farmers, who have been holding their fort at the Singhu border for over 20 days, are keeping monotony and boredom at bay by adding new books to their reading list -- day after day.
Students in large numbers hit the streets in Mumbai on Monday to express solidarity with the students of the Jamia Milia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University protesting against the amended Citizenship Act as agitation against the new law in other parts of the country found resonance in the metropolis.
Maoists on Thursday blew up a police jeep, killing a policeman and injuring four others at Jaranga village in Jharkhand's Khunti district. Inspector-General of Police V Deshmukh said the jeep overturned under the impact of the blast. He ruled out the possibility of a landmine causing the blast. All the injured victims have been admitted to a hospital in Ranchi. The Maoists also blew up a middle school, Anant Madhya Vidyala, at Pratappur in Chatra district.
RJD leaders and workers miss Lalu's rustic charm and unique campaigning style.
Union minister Ramvilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party will contest six seats in Jharkhand, where the party was excluded by three other United Progressive Alliance partners in the seat-sharing arrangement. LJP candidates will contest for Palamu, Chatra, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, Koderma and Jamshedpur seats out of 14 Jharkhand LS seats, party spokesman Sanjay Singh told PTI in Patna on Tuesday. =
Though earlier it was suspected to be a landmine blast, later prima facie it seemed the explosives were hidden in a box which exploded during a search.