'Yaas' is likely to cross the Odisha-West Bengal coasts between Paradip and Sagar Islands around noon on May 26 as a very severe cyclonic storm with wind speeds of 155-165 kmph, Kolkata's Regional Meteorological Centre Deputy Director Sanjib Bandopadhyay said.
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.
IMD Director General Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said that 'Yaas' is likely to intensify into a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm by Tuesday evening and Chandbali is likely to witness the maximum damage caused by it.
A Central Reserve Police Force jawan of the specialised COBRA unit was killed and a Deputy Commandant injured in a fierce encounter with Maoists at Chiklam village in Jharkhand's Naxal-hit Ghatsila sub-division on Wednesday.
The system moved north-northeastwards at 20 kmph in the last six hours and is over west-central Bay of Bengal, 90 km from Gopalpur, 120 km from Puri and 210 km from Paradip, the weather office said in its 11.30 am bulletin.
According to the sources, he wrote to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee apprising her of his decision to resign from the party's primary membership.
The West Bengal government on Monday reinstated its seven senior officials who were removed from their posts early last month on the directive of Election Commission, to their previous postings.
Complying with the Election Commission's order, the West Bengal government on Wednesday removed seven officials from their existing posts and replaced them with different officials as desired by the poll panel.
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.
33-year-old Abhishek Banerjee has emerged as the most visible and significant leader in the party after his pishi (aunt), Mamata Banerjee reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
After the cartoon controversy in which a Jadavpur university professor was arrested, the West Bengal government has now issued showcause notices to two government college professors for appearing in a television programme where they allegedly made 'anti-government' comments.
Three Central Reserve Police Force commandos, who formed the strike squad that killed top Maoist leader Kishenji, have been named for President's police medals for gallantry on the eve of Republic Day.
Banerjee said the state is targeting to shift at least 10 lakh people to safer places in a bid to avoid any loss of life.
Slain Maoist leader Kishenji's body was identified by his niece Deepa Rao at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital morgue on Saturday morning as preparations were on for the post-mortem in the presence of forensic experts, police said.
Three Central Reserve Police Force personnel were on Tuesday killed by their colleague in the Silapara camp of the para-military force in Lalgarh in Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal, police said.
Shah, who was accompanied by BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargya, was greeted with slogans of 'Amit Shah zindabad', 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' by party workers at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata.
The security forces arrested Sunil Mahto, a key accused in the Jnaneswari Express derailment case, from Midnapore West district, a senior police official said.
In the increasingly bipolar West Bengal, Rediff.com's Sanchari Bhattacharya encounters a different campaign rally in Jhargram -- that of jailed leader of disbanded PCPA and alleged Maoist sympathaiser, Chhatradhar Mahato.
The body of slain Maoist leader Kishenji would be sent to his home at Peddapalli in Andhra Pradesh by the West Bengal government after conducting a postmortem in Kolkata.
Adhikari joined the BJP amid Shah's two-day visit to West Bengal ahead of the assembly elections in 2021.
Top Maoist leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji was killed in a gunfight in Kushboni forest in the Jungle Mahal area of West Bengal, according to media reports. On Wednesday, reports suggested that he and a close woman aide had in fact escaped from the area. According to the reports, the gunfight is still going on Jhargram. The police are looking for Kishenji's aide Suchitra Mahato.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asked Maoists to join the mainstream by laying down arms and promised that her government would provide them compensation and take care of their families.
G M Rao is looking for his son-in-law, who was in the S-3 compartment of the ill-fated Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express, which derailed near Jhargram in West Midnapore district in West Bengal on Friday morning.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday set a seven-day deadline for Maoists to lay down their arms, saying violence would not be tolerated any more. "I am giving you (Maoists) a seven-day ultimatum to lay down guns. Think over it. We will not tolerate any more violence. Killings and negotiations cannot go hand in hand," she told a rally in Jhargram.
Women in Birhandi village of West Bengal's West Midnapore District lodged a complaint on Saturday with the sub divisional officer at Jhargram, accusing security personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force of sexually assaulting them.Corroborating their charges, several villagers claimed that paramilitary forces tortured them during the anti-Maoist operations and they allegedly raped ten women in the village.
Suspected Maoists on Friday night blew up a community hall in Bandhgora village in Jhargram, police said.
Rediff.com's Sanchari Bhattacharya visits Jhargram and Jungle Mahal, one of the most volatile areas of poll-bound West Bengal, and tries to figure out whether the 'winds of change' would blow away 'the red bastions'.
Rediff.com's Sanchari Bhattacharya visits Jhargram and Jungle Mahal, one of the most volatile areas of poll-bound West Bengal, and tries to figure out whether the 'winds of change' would blow away 'the red bastions.'
Suspected Maoists have killed four political party workers separately in the Jhargram sub-division of West Midnapore district, police said on Friday.
In a major breakthrough, the joint forces killed top-ranking Maoist leader Sasadhar Mahato and arrested a person at Kapgari in the Jamboni police station area in West Midnapore district.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested an activist of the Maoist-backed People's Committee Against Police Atrocities from a village in Jhargram in connection with the Gyaneswari Express derailment, the police said on Tuesday.
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.
People's Committee Against Police Atrocities leader and one of the prime accused in the Jnaneswari Express derailment Bapi Mahato was arrested on Sunday by West Bengal police from Jamshedpur, a senior police officer said.
The IMD has also issued a red-coded warning alert to the Odisha and West Bengal coasts.
West Bengal and Odisha have evacuated lakhs of people from vulnerable areas to safety as severe cyclonic storm 'Yaas' is nearing the coast and is expected to make landfall near Dhamra Port in Bhadrak district early on Wednesday morning.
For the first time ever in the history of the Indian Railways, the Indian Air Force was used for rescuing victims at Jhargram heralding a new era in rescue operations at rail accidents sites.
With the Maoists striking once again, Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday accused the government of lacking "will power" to fight Naxals in a firm manner and suggested that all parties should be consulted on dealing with the challenge, which is assuming enormous proportions.
Mangled heaps of bogies lying off the tracks, passengers in bandages and plasters and a row of hearse vans lined up -- the scene at the site of the derailment of the Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express near Jhargram virtually resembled a war zone.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again led the BJP's campaign holding several rallies and stepping up his attack on Opposition parties, particularly the Congress.
Maoists blew up a building housing the office of a farmers' organisation and set afire a community hall in Jhargram sub-division of West Midnapore district early on Friday.
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