As Odisha and West Bengal are bracing for a severe cyclonic storm, governments of both states started evacuating people and while deciding to close educational institutions in vulnerable areas.
'This is becoming the new normal. Accountability of @AshwiniVaishnaw ji is zero. The GOI has no answers whatsoever'
The cyclonic storm is likely to make landfall between Bhitarkanika National Park and Dhamra Port in Odisha early Friday with wind speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour (kmph), it said.
'To this day, not a year passes when Bollywood does not head to Kolkata to train its cameras on the magnificence of the bridge and the flow of life that pulses along the river across which it spans,' says Saibal Chatterjee.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday expressed her grief and solidarity with the family of a trainee doctor, who was sexually assaulted and murdered at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has detained a suspect in connection with the knife attack on actor Saif Ali Khan at Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh. The suspect was traveling by a Mumbai-Howrah train and held at Durg in the afternoon. Mumbai Police were informed about the development and their team will reach here by late evening.
The engineering marvel defines the Kolkata skyscape.
15 people injured; those with minor injuries were provided an immediate compensation of Rs 5,000, and one with serious injuries was given Rs 25,000.
The anti-corruption unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation also searched the residences and offices of those engaged in supplying materials for the management and care of patients.
More than 150 express/passenger trains running through South Eastern Railway jurisdiction have been cancelled in view of the severe cyclonic storm, an SER official said.
Ten wagons of a rice-laden goods train from Gondia to Guwahati derailed between Bortalao and Darekasa section of Nagpur division on Monday night.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers on Friday conducted simultaneous search operations at the residences of Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, and three of his associates in connection with alleged financial irregularities at the institute, an officer said.
Police said they began lathicharging and tear gassing after the agitators managed to breach the barricades at some locations and attacked the security personnel.
The Railway Protection Force found the bomb and the Bomb Disposal Squad has arrived at the station to deactivate the explosive.
The police on Friday claimed to have arrested 'a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader' along with 10 others on charges of running a sex racket in a hotel in West Bengal's Howrah district, while the state's main opposition party denied any association with the accused individuals.
From the function at the Esplanade metro station, the PM also inaugurated the Kavi Subhash-Hemanta Mukhopadhyay section of the New Garia-Aiport line and the Taratala-Majerhat section of the Joka-Esplanade line of the Kolkata Metro, the country's oldest metro network.
A businessman in West Bengal's Howrah district was allegedly assaulted and his house vandalised after a kangaroo court session was convened by a local panchayat pradhan and Trinamool Congress leader to resolve his marital dispute.
A civic volunteer, identified as Chandan Das (31), died on the spot when he allegedly touched a live wire in Bud Bud in Purba Bardhaman district. The incident happened when he was out with a police team, they said.
Glimpses of the preparations in Odisha and West Bengal for Cyclone Dana which is expected to make landfall between October 24 and 25.
A fracture in the rail line was responsible for the Howrah-Kalka Mail accident that claimed 70 lives last month, the preliminary report submitted to Railway Ministry, claimed.
Kolkata experienced a unique and powerful display of civic solidarity when residents turned off their lights for an hour from 9 pm on Wednesday and came down to the streets with burning candles to protest the murder of the doctor at RG Kar hospital and to express support for the deceased doctor's family.
Train services in the Kharagpur-Tatanagar section of South Eastern Railway were suspended on Wednesay after the railways received information that Maoists might target Mumbai-Howrah Duronto Express.
According to weather officials, wind speeds along and off the Odisha-West Bengal coasts are anticipated to reach 60 km/h from October 23, increasing to 120 km/h from October 24 night to October 25 morning.
An angry Banerjee slammed a minister, a former Trinamool Congress mayor and a few bureaucrats for their "below-par performance".
The state police have called the scheduled rallies, support for which has been mainly garnered over social media platforms, as "illegal" and "unauthorised", and said they have taken necessary precautions to allay apprehensions about potential law and order situations during the march.
At least 21 people, including a woman and child, were killed and over 30 injured when a private bus collided with a trailer in Howrah district on Sunday.
Rausan Ali Mondal, a mason by profession, slipped and fell into the 30-feet deep well at Eksara village in Howrah district at around 3.30 on Sunday, hours after rescuers pulled out the body of four-year-old Mahi from a deep borewell in Haryana where she was trapped for the last four days.
Train services resumed on the busy Howrah-Chennai route on Sunday, 36 hours after the derailment of the Coromandel Express, which claimed nine lives and severely affected the rail traffic. One track was thrown open to traffic today morning after removal of all mangled bogies and repair of power channels and rails near the Jajpur-Keonjhar Road railway station, about 100 km from Bhubaneswar, East Coast Railway officials said.
The Mysuru-Darbhanga Express train was given a green signal to pass through the main line, however, it entered a loop line already occupied by the freight train.
Vishal Kaith's twin saves in the tiebreaker helped defending champions Mohun Bagan make a splendid comeback from two goals down to edge star-studded Bengaluru FC 4-3 (2-2 after full-time) to reach the Durand Cup final for a record 30th time in Kolkata on Tuesday.
This is the first cyclone in the Bay of Bengal this pre-monsoon season.
The Howrah Lok Sabha by-election to be held in the shadow of Saradha chitfund scam will be a test case for the Mamata Banerjee government's popularity and for the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist to gauge their standing in West Bengal prior to the 2014 general election.
The landfall process of the severe cyclonic storm Dana was complete on Friday morning and the system took at least eight and half hours to enter the landmass, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
In an outbreak of communal violence, 25 houses were torched and as many ransacked in three villages of Howrah district on Monday after which curfew was clamped in the riot-torn areas. Superintendent of Police Niraj K Singh said trouble erupted on Sunday night when a person went to a jewellery shop owned by Ashis Parui and told him to mortgage some gold ornaments.
Several long-distance trains were cancelled following the horrific triple train crash in Odisha's Balasore district, in which 50 people were killed and 350 others were injured, an official said.
As severe cyclonic storm 'Remal' initiated its landfall process between the coasts of Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal on Sunday evening, authorities took swift action, evacuating over 1 lakh people from vulnerable areas of the state to safety.
Fire broke out in the building at around 4.45 am and six fire engines were rushed to the spot soon after, fire brigade officials said.
Trinamool Congress candidate Prasun Banerjee on Wednesday won the Howrah Lok Sabha seat in a by-election defeating his nearest rival, Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate Sridip Bhattacherjee, by over 27,000 votes.
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