Security forces were maintaining a strict vigil across West Bengal in view of Hanuman Jayanti celebrations on Thursday, officials said.
The deep depression over central Bay of Bengal is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm by Sunday evening and after changing course in a northeastward direction from northwest.
In two separate attacks, suspected Maoists triggered a blast on the railway tracks in Jharkhand's Giridih district, damaging its fish plates, and also blew up a mobile tower in Hazaribag, the police said.
Polling began at 7 am on Saturday for 44 seats in the fourth phase of the West Bengal assembly elections amid tight security, officials said.
The amended Act has put the entire Northeast region and West Bengal on the boil as people fear that it might exacerbate the problem of illegal immigration.
At least 12 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) reached West Bengal on Saturday morning as the state prepares to go to elections, officials said.
These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Assam and West Bengal to lay the foundation stones of several projects.
At least 22 more people succumbed to the infection, raising the toll in the state to 10,480.
Maoists blew up a railway track near Gaya late on Friday night, disrupting traffic on the Gaya-Mugalsari route of East Central Railway.
An African footballer was found dead on railway tracks on the Mumbai-Howrah route in Janjgir-Champa district of Chhattisgarh, police said.
The Opposition party asked whether the prime minister will take responsibility for the 'deadliest rail tragedy' of this century.
Assam witnessed violent protests against the Citizenship Act since December 11.
West Bengal CID claimed that two of its teams in New Delhi and Guwahati were restrained on Wednesday morning by the local police in the respective places from carrying out investigations into the cash seizure from three Jharkhand MLAs.
Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday appealed for peace and asked "Hindu brothers" to ensure that minorities are protected, as prohibitory orders remained in force after post-Ram Navami violence in two towns of the densely populate Hooghly district.
'No linen, blankets and curtains shall be provided inside the train. Passengers are advised to carry their own linen,' an order by the Railways said. The order also said that there would be no provision of 'tatkal' and 'premium tatkal' accommodation and there will be very few stoppages during the journey.
Talking to reporters at the accident site, he said the issue is of electric point machine, a vital device for railway signalling, and electronic interlocking.
'Why has this turned out to be one of the greatest humanitarian crisis that has caught the Centre and the states in a bind with no answers to this unexpected tsunami?' asks Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).
In his letter to Modi, Kharge hit out at the railway minister for seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe, saying the law enforcement agency is meant to investigate crimes, not railway accidents.
'Because of the callous attitude of the railway administration, they don't take care of safety.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the poll-bound states of Assam and West Bengal on Monday to launch and lay the foundation stones of several projects.
The coverage for coronavirus infection will be available from day one of the infection in all the health insurance policies, says Amit Chhabra.
The New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express was at a slow speed while it was passing through a platform of the Baruipara station, around 27 km from Kolkata, when two front wheels of the engine jumped the tracks, Eastern Railway CPRO Samir Goswami told PTI.
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.
The engine of Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Shatabdi Express detached near Jaugram station in Burdwan district on Howrah-Burdwan section of Eastern Railway on Friday.
'Kavach', which literally means armour, is being promoted by the railways as the world's cheapest automatic train collision protection system.
Only asymptomatic passengers with confirmed e-tickets will be allowed in these trains and they will have to report at the station at least 90 minutes ahead of the scheduled departure.
With this phase, election will be over in 424 seats and polling in the remaining 118 seats will be held on May 12 and 19.
Over 200 houses were damaged, scores of people were rendered homeless and nine persons were injured as storms lashed pockets of three districts of West Bengal since last night.
'When I talk to my colleagues in the Railways, they say 'aadmi toh bohot hai, lekin matlab ka aadmi ek bhi nahi hai (the Railways has a bloated workforce, but doesn't have employees with have the skillsets that matter)'.'
The banned Communist Party of India-Maoist rebels blasted railway tracks in Bihar's Jamui district and torched a portion of Ratanpur station in adjoining Munger early on Sunday during a bandh called by them, disrupting train services on the Patna-Howrah main line for more than 7 hours.
The collapse of the eastern grid disrupted normal life in Jharkhand, which witnessed power failure in several parts of the state and delay in train services on Tuesday. The 509 Down Howrah-Banaras Express was stranded at Rohini station in Deogarh district, while the Ispat Express and Santragachi Express were detained on Chakradharpur-Howrah route from 1.30 pm, sources in the Chakradharpur Railway Division said.
Muslims across the country have joined the agitation, apprehending that the move could be a precursor to a country-wide NRC.
With Cyclone Phailin set to hit Odisha and Andhra Pradesh coasts on Saturday evening, rail, road and air traffic has been badly disrupted in the states.
"Convict him or acquit him," an anguished Supreme Court observed on non-framing of charges on an accused jailed for 11 years over serial blasts in multiple Rajdhani Express and other trains in 1993.
Railway officials also indicated that possible 'sabotage' and tampering with the electronic interlocking system, which detects the presence of trains, led to the Friday accident.
Several trains, including three Rajdhani Express trains, have been stranded at various places following blockade put up at Parsabad railway station in Koderma district by a Bharatiya Janata Party member of Legislative Assembly and his supporters.
When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tables her Budget on February 1, the numbers could be something to cheer.
'If it weren't for Om Puri, a whole range of our big city experiences wouldn't have found their honest representations on the screen.'
Protests broke out in some states on Friday, including Delhi's Jama Masjid and stone-petling at policemen in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj and Saharanpur, over the controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad by two now-suspended Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries with demonstrators in Jharkhand injuring a few policemen while authorities in Jammu imposed a curfew in few areas and parts of Kashmir observed a shutdown.
