'Suddenly I felt a jolt and got thrown off my berth. It took a while before I could understand what had happened,'
138 members of Bharat Scouts and Guides from West Bengal, mostly aged between 10 and 15 years, braved their way back to New Jalpaiguri railway station from Sikkim before heading home to Barrackpore near Kolkata to narrate their harrowing experience.
They groove to their own songs, over 80 in all. Their aim? To convey social messages. Meet Meri Zindagi -- the all-woman, Lucknow-based rock band.
The glass door of coach number C13 of 22303 Vande Bharat Express was damaged in the incident.
Mamata asserted that she has not spoken to anyone in the Congress on seat-sharing in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Torrential rains pounded the tiny Himalayan state of Sikkim and the tea growing region of North Bengal, causing landslides that cut off National Highway-10, the main road linking Gangtok with the rest of the country.
Within a couple of hours after performing the last rites of his mother Hiraben, who died at 99 in a hospital at Ahmedabad, Modi inaugurated the Vande Bharat Express connecting Howrah and New Jalpaiguri, and other development projects in Kolkata via video link from Raj Bhavan in Ahmedabad.
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The results for bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states will be declared on Friday in what is being seen as a major test for the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the polls in five states later this year and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
The seven seats -- Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Puthuppally in Kerala, Dhupguri in West Bengal, Dumri in Jharkhand, and Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura -- went to poll on September 5.
Vaishnaw said that the actual reason behind the accident could be ascertained only after dismantling the engine's equipment.
"Since some of them are in a critical condition, the death toll may go up," Jalpaiguri DM Moumita Godara Basu said, adding rescuers thoroughly searched each coach for survivors and bodies through darkness and thick fog.
On day three after a flash flood wreaked havoc in Sikkim's Teesta basin, the number of bodies recovered from the river and mud embankments downstream rose to 22, including seven army men.
The bypoll on September 5 is also a litmus test for all three political outfits, with the BJP hoping to check its erosion in its vote share and retain the seat, the TMC aiming to wrest the tribal-dominated assembly segment and the CPI(M)-Congress alliance hoping to regain its traditional seat.
The Sikkim Government has confirmed that 14 people have died so far in the flash floods that occurred in Sikkim in the early hours of Wednesday.
The release of water from the Chungthang dam led to a sudden increase in water levels up to 15-20 feet high downstream, defence spokesperson Lt Col Mahendra Rawat said.
Untimely rains during March have caused damage to rabi crops and may result in lower yields, a report said on Wednesday. Between March 1 and 21, cumulative rains have been 20 per cent more than normal, and in the past four days, it was 3-4 times more than usual, according to a report by Crisil Market Intelligence and Analytics. On March 21, the rain volume in central India was 1,600 per cent more than normal, the report said, adding that unfortunately, this ongoing harvest window for rabi crops has been lashed by an untimely torrent.
A new passenger train connecting Dhaka and New Jalpaiguri on the Indian side was inaugurated jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina via a video conference.
A 6.1 magnitude earthquake rocked the northeast region, including Assam and Mizoram, in the early hours of Friday, the National Seismology Department said.
Tribals constitute 7-8 per cent of the state's population, and are a deciding factor in 47 assembly seats and seven Lok Sabha constituencies spread across the Junglemahal districts of Purulia, Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Jhargram in southern Bengal and Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar in the north.
A senior citizen in West Bengal's Dhupguri area died allegedly after being administered the Covishield vaccine, prompting his family members to lodge a police complaint, an official said on Tuesday.
With a 20 hour average delay, the New Jalpaiguri Express is the queen among late-running trains.
Bankura continued to top the maximum temperature chart at 43.7 degrees Celsius, while Panagarh in Paschim Bardhaman district followed closely at 43.5 degrees Celsius, the weather office said.
At least 22 more people succumbed to the infection, raising the toll in the state to 10,480.
Over one crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the political fate of 342 candidates.
Protests were held in different parts of Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah, Birbhum, South 24 Parganas, Jalpaiguri districts, and Trinamool Congress supporters briefly blocked roads in some areas.
Over one crore voters in West Bengal will decide the political fate of 342 candidates on Saturday, when 45 assembly constituencies go to polls in the fifth phase, amid a raging second wave of COVID-19.
A six-member team of Central Forensic & Science Lab, led by Dr Chandranath Banerjee, has been investigating into the blast.
The Guwahati Siphung express derailed between Salakati and Basugaon in Assam's Kokrajhar District on Saturday, injuring at least two people.
'I'm also happy to receive support from back home in India, my coach and association officials are in constant touch. I've got another ticket for May 11, and hopefully, the situation will become normal by then, and I will return'
The Border Security Force is deployed along the LoC under the operational command of the Army as part of guarding the front against Pakistan.
The series of images highlight the danger elephants in the Indian forest face after a train line was built that cuts straight through the forest. Dozens of elephants are killed every year after being hit by trains -- which resulted in a speed limit being introduced for trains in a bid to save lives of elephants.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the damage caused by the earthquake in eastern India and has spoken to the chief ministers of Bihar, Assam and Sikkim, government sources said.
Eight powerful bombs were seized by the police from a train bound for New Jalpaiguri in adjacent West Bengal when it stopped at the Kishanganj railway station.
In a tragic incident Mahesh Thapa, a 27-year-old footballer who plays in the Bengal football league, died moments after a collision with the goalkeeper during a match in Jalpaiguri.
Within hours of assuming office, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday initiated a major reshuffle in the police hierarchy, transferring 29 top-level police officers, mostly those who were shifted by the election commission prior to the polls.
'From chaiwala he has now become Rafalewala. He speaks a bunch of lies,' the West Bengal CM said.
Normal life was partially affected in West Bengal on Thursday following a state-wide 12-hour general strike called by Left Parties and trade unions, with the Bharatiya Janata Party also calling a 10-hour bandh to protest against alleged violence by ruling Trinamool Congress in the recent civic polls.
The death toll in the MIG 27 fighter crash in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district rose to four with three more persons succumbing to their injuries while the black box of the jet was recovered on Sunday. Ranjit Roy, 25, died at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri today evening while teenager Purnima Rai and ten-year old Latika Roy succumbed to their burn injuries on Saturday evening, Jalpaiguri Chief Medical Officer (Health) Radharan Banik told reporters.
The naked body of a girl, who tried to save her father from being beaten by locals for failing to pay for a rented tractor at a village meeting and then refusing to follow a kangaroo court's order of licking spit, was found lying on railway tracks at Dhupguri in Jalpaiguri district.
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