Industry at Haldia, a major port and commercial hub, has been caught in the middle of this power transition. Consider this: RPG's power utility, CESC, is unable to erect evacuation towers due to land issues and the third phase of its ongoing expansion of 250 Mw has already been delayed by seven-eight months.
With the Communist Party of India-Marxist accusing the Trinamool Congress of having links with Maoists, its chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday dared the West Bengal government to arrest her if the charge is true.
Developments in Nandigram and Singur, where the government's bid to acquire farm land for industrialization ran into stiff resistance from locals and main opposition Trinamool Congress, have given enough worries to the ruling alliance.
Four columns of the army, comprising 360 personnel, conducted a flag march in Moulali, Mullickbazar, Ripon Street, Park Circus, Topsia, Beniapukur and adjacent areas throughout Thursday night, Police Commissioner Goutam Mohan Chakraborty told PTI.
Congress candidate Mausam Benazir Nur won the Sujapur assembly by-election in Malda district in West Bengal defeating her nearest rival Sheikh Ketabuddin of the CPI-M by 21,205 votes.
TMC on a roll, wins 13 out of 17 zilla parishads in WB
Nandigram remained in headlines throughout the year despite the West Bengal government cancelling the SEZ project of Indonesia's Salem Group in January following violence and political pressure on Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
In 2006, the Left Front won the Assembly elections in West Bengal on the basis of its pro-industrialisation campaign led by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Thousands on Wednesday took to the streets in Kolkata to join a silent procession of intellectuals, film personalities, writers, painters and people from other walks of life to condemn the "recapture" of Nandigram by the Communist Party of India (M).
The surprisingly strong opposition to land acquisition in Singur and earlier events at Nandigram, where local protests forced the government to scrap plans for a chemical hub, have induced investors keen on acquiring land in West Bengal to come up with compensation packages that can only be described as extravagant.
The CRPF has been questioning the villagers on the identity of the missing bodies, how they had disappeared, who had dug up the graves, and whether the land was used as a graveyard earlier, CRPF sources said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday slammed Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for standing by her "merchant of death" remarks against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, saying the United Progressive Alliance chairperson has breached all limits of "political decency" with her comments.
Showing Gandhigiri, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi went without light on Wednesday, after deciding to have voluntary power cuts at Raj Bhavan, triggering a spat with the Communist Party of India Marxist, which felt the gubernatorial post should be abolished. The action of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson came as an embarrassment to the Left government, with whom he had a run in last year, on its handling of the Nandigram issue.
The three leaders had at a public meeting on November 17 allegedly derided the court order of the previous day that had also directed the West Bengal government to pay Rs five lakh as compensation to each of the families of the 14 who died in the police action on March 14.
The Information Technology sector has been exempted from the purview of the agitation.
Land acquisition for special economic zones is stuck because of a year-old directive by the Empowered Group of Ministers that bars state governments from carrying out compulsory acquisition of land for the zones.
Of the three options suggested by the consultancy firm appointed by the CPI(M) government, Nayachar was feasible since it was government land, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen said at an all-party meeting.
The thinking heads of Bengal have taken to the streets demanding the chief minister's resignation. They have dubbed Bhattacharjee 'the Narendra Modi of Bengal.'
All shops and markets remained closed in both east and west Midnapur district.
State commerce and industry minister, Nirupam Sen, and secretary, Sabysachi Sen are in Mumbai and have held a series of meetings with industrialists in Mumbai, including Tata group chairman, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance and Ashok Hinduja of the Hinduja group.
The alternative location is to be selected by the state government, which has appointed Mott McDonald, an engineering and development consultancy, to identify a new location.
The CRPF has given a clean chit to DIG Alok Raj who was accused of rioting and not complying with the West Bengal government's orders during the panchayat elections at Nandigram in East Midnapore district. It said the allegations against DIG Alok Raj were found to be "baseless" in its internal inquiry.
Facing all-round attack over Nandigram, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee sought on Wednesday a 'fresh look' into the Centre's policy on SEZs, which he felt should be restricted to select industries. He also wanted the Centre to fix a ceiling on land for a particular type of SEZ and work out the percentage of land area to be compulsorily utilised for industries within that limit.
While villagers claim that the exhumed bodies belong to registered missing persons, CPI-M members claimed that the bodies were of party loyalists who were killed in an attack by Trinamool Congress activists.
A foreign visitor to the city agreed, but with a note of caution. "West Bengal as an investment destination remains to be first on the list for the Australian mining companies as this state is rich in minerals," said John McCarthy, Australian High Commissioner to India, in Kolkata to attend a seminar.
'If the CPI-M cannot mend relations with Dr Manmohan Singh, it may find that Congress boss Sonia Gandhi is still willing to talk.'
The government is contemplating imposing curfew in some areas of Kolkata at night.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday turned down the Trinamool Congress' demand that the land of the unwilling farmers at Singur, acquired for the Tata Motors small car project, should be returned.
The Communist Party of India - Marxist, which is under all-round attack over the unabated violence in Nandigram, on Monday accused the Trinamool Congress of taking the help of Maoists to create trouble in the area and insisted that normalcy will be restored there soon. Party General Secretary Prakash Karat said that the Trinamool Congress was indulging in certain activities as it had failed to win the confidence of people in a democratic manner.
Three Bhopal gas tragedy survivors' organisations have opposed West Bengal government's move to invite Dow Chemicals to the proposed chemical hub in Haldia after the state government failed to acquire land at Nandigram.
The hard-hitting statement came a day after Gandhi indicted the state government and CPI-M, saying the manner in which the recapture of villages in Nandigram was being attempted was totally "unlawful and unacceptable".
The much-awaited policy for mandatory rehabilitation of land owners displaced by industrial projects and SEZs might get delayed with the matter being referred to a Group of Ministers.
While man and a woman were reported killed when trees came crashing down on them in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, a 13-year-old girl died in a similar incident in adjoining Howrah. No casualties have been reported from Odisha yet.
It could be Nandigram all over again. Tension gripped the three panchayats near Paradip in Orissa on Wednesday
Trinamool Congress backs the BUPC, an anti-land acquisition front in Nandigram, which has witnessed violent protests on the issue.
"It can only be equated with the Jallianwala massacre. It's a planned killing under the leadership of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and it is highly condemnable," Chief Whip of Congress Manash Bhuniya told media persons.
The, villagers, backed by the opposition, were protesting the acquisition of land for a Special Economic Zone.
The West Bengal government signed an agreement with New Kolkata International Development Pvt Limited on Monday to develop infrastructure in the state, including health, education, industrial and housing complexes.
Mahasweta Devi has taken a break from writing and is engaged in social work these days.
Nandigram was Stalinised the same way Stalin had Siberia-ised Soviet Russia.
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