In an interview with CNN-IBN, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee spoke on a range of issues including her party's tiffs with the United Progressive Alliance, her six-month rule in the state and her plans to tackle Maoism.
Roshni Rai, who gathered runners from her native Darjeeling to run the 2012 Mumbai Marathon, won't take anything lying down. Certainly not, if her nationality is in question.
Processes are at an advanced stage for a number of assets of the Centre and central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to be monetised. The assets include office space, apartments, factories, land, power transmission assets, sports stadia, gas pipelines, and telecom assets.
More than a dozen schemes have been announced since the new government took over, with Naxal-dominated Jangalmahal finding a special place.
Intimate getaways offered in the form of homestays by hotels are proving to be the flavour of this extraordinary and difficult time. Not far from cities, they offer a pleasant respite from homebound lives, says Pavan Lall.
Power lines were snapped in Darjeeling and Kalimpong where Sunday evening's tremor was mainly felt and administration has been instructed to take necessary steps, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.
A couple has been arrested for allegedly ill-treating a 13-year-old domestic help, who is now recovering at a government hospital in Bangalore, police said on Sunday.
"I am slogging like a demon," Banerjee said recently. What she left out was that she's made sure that everyone at Writers' the red-bricked colonial structure that houses the state secretariat is doing the same.
Even though he loves direction, acting is where his heart lies.
Firmly opposing the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said her party would not allow any move to divide West Bengal.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Friday said the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, the new hill council to run the administration in the Darjeeling hills, is a step towards achievement of Gorkhaland, an indication that they are not going back on their demand for a separate state.
The first month of the new Mamata Banerjee ministry in West Bengal saw fast paced progress on two contentious issues -- the return of land to unwilling farmers of Singur and setting aside of the Gorkhaland demand for a bipartite agreement on Darjeeling.
Twenty-five children -- 12 girls and 13 boys -- have been selected for the prestigious award, which they will receive from the prime minister on January 23 and thereafter participate in the Republic Day parade, officials said.
As the first phase of assembly elections was underway, rediff.com's Indrani Mitra Roy toured north Bengal only to find that the Trinamool-Congress alliance has a few takers here. Most voters swore by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, a few referred to them as extortionists.
Concerned over the health of Sathya Sai Baba, several of his devotees, including foreigners Puttaparthi, have expressed confidence that he will recover soon.
"Nothing short of Gorkhaland is now acceptable for the morcha. No discussion on interim set-up anymore," Gurung told media persons after the GJM meeting at Kumani, on the border of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts.
Responding to West Bengal Chief Minister's appeal to the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha for abjuring violence and sit for talks, a prominent leader of the outfit on Thursday said it was open for dialogue, but only if the agenda is demand for Gorkhaland.
The Calcutta high court on Thursday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to file a progress report within four weeks on the disappearance of Nicole Tamang, the prime accused in the murder of Gorkha leader Madan Tamang.The CBI informed the court that it has already taken up investigation into Nicole's disappearance.All India Gorkha League chief Tamang was murdered in Darjeeling on May 21 last year.
CID sources said the inspector in charge of the case, Ardhendu Sekhar Pahari, was removed and departmental proceedings were being drawn up against him over the incident. Nicol is a close aide of GJM president Bimal Gurung and a central committee member of the party
In a stern two-page letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said stricter enforcement of lockdown norms was necessary to contain the spread of coronavirus in the state.
Polling for the 144-seat Kolkata Municipal Corporation is underway amid tight security arrangements.
'The TMC did not bother telling me, a sitting MLA for 20 years, why I was not being given a ticket.'
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung and its general secretary Roshan Giri have been named in an FIR filed by the police in connection with the murder of Gorkha leader Madan Tamang. Charges of conspiracy have been brought against the two besides Gurung's wife Asha, the chief of Gorkha Nari Mukti Morcha, the outfit's press and publicity secretary Harka Bahadur Chettri, vice-president Amar Lama and GJM police wing GLP's 'commandant' Ramesh Aley.
Activists of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, a regional organisation spearheading the demand for a separate state, stepped up their protest on Saturday for separate state of Gorkhaland, as they went on a hunger strike.
Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party member, currently an independent Member of Parliament from West Bengal's Darjeeling, Jaswant Singh on Monday found support from an unexpected quarter -- Leader of Opposition and BJP senior leader L K Advani.Singh had raised the issue of the hunger strike by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders in his constituency for a separate Gorkhaland state and sought support from both the treasury bench and the Opposition.
Home Secretary L C Goyal said 72 deaths were reported from the four states of Bihar -- 56, Uttar Pradesh -- 12, West Bengal -- 3 and Rajasthan --1.
With the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha having relaxed the indefinite bandh to demand Gorkhaland in the Darjeeling hills for four days from Independence day, its President Bimal Gurung said on Tuesday that the 'agitation' would be continued from August 19.
National Disaster Response Force personnel left the spot, while State Disaster Management Department personnel continued their rescue work at the accident site with cranes, earth movers and drilling machines.
On the occasion of Teacher's Day, TV celebs share memories of their favourite teachers.
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.
"The Morcha has lost faith in tripartite talks. Our participation in the talks at Darjeeling is very much uncertain. We will take a decision after we get some feedback from Delhi on our demand for Gorkhaland on the lines of Telangana," the outfit's central committee member Harkabahadur Chetri told PTI over telephone from Kalimpong.
The ruling Left Front and the opposition Trinamool Congress and the Congress on Friday united against the demand by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha for a separate Gorkhaland on the lines of Telangana. "We don't want division of Bengal," Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, said in Delhi.
With the Centre conceding to the demand for a Telangana state bifurcating Andhra Pradesh, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha on Thursday demanded for a separate 'Gorkhaland' should also be allowed and announced a three-day bandh in Darjeeling hills from December 14.
Gorkhaland supporters called for a bandh in Darjeeling for their own state, while Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh threatened to resume the agitation for a separate Harit Pradesh, as the planned statehood for Telangana sparked fresh demands to create new states.
Interrogation of the last three accused arrested in the suspected ISI-linked espionage racket by Delhi Police brought to fore a conflict within the spying ring which might have led to its busting.
The Army on Tuesday said its Court of Inquiry into the alleged scam involving a private land adjacent to Sukhna military station near Darjeeling was 'still in progress' and no conclusions have been drawn in the probe against the three Lieutenant Generals being questioned in the fraud.
Can Baichung Bhutia's Hamro Sikkim party pose a challenge to Pawan Chamling who has not lost an election in 24 years?
Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor today "due action," on Thursday, under the Army Act against four generals allegedly involved in the Darjeeling land scam but said dispensing of justice will not be swayed by external considerations like "personal biases" and "media pressure".
"Lieutenant General Avadesh Prakash has taken leave for ten days beginning Tuesday," senior Army officers said in New Delhi amidst speculation that he was asked to proceed on leave by Army chief General Deepak Kapoor.
Army chief Deepak Kapoor will take 'some disciplinary and administrative action' against the four Generals involved in a land scam in Darjeeling, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Wednesday. The ministry had received a report from the Army chief in this regard on Tuesday night and it was 'too early' for him to comment on the action to be taken against the Generals. "The defence ministry received a report from the Army chief," he said.
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