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.
Mamata asserted that she has not spoken to anyone in the Congress on seat-sharing in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
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.
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.
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.
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 6.1 magnitude earthquake rocked the northeast region, including Assam and Mizoram, in the early hours of Friday, the National Seismology Department said.
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.
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.
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.
With a 20 hour average delay, the New Jalpaiguri Express is the queen among late-running trains.
At least 22 more people succumbed to the infection, raising the toll in the state to 10,480.
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.
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.
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.
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.
'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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
'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 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.
This is the ninth IAF Aircraft crash since January this year. "The aircraft was on a routine training sortie from the Hashimara airbase and crashed at around 1310 hours, nearly 15 kilometres from its take off base near New Jalpaiguri," IAF officials said.
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.
The CID had unearthed a child trafficking racket earlier this year under which babies and children were allegedly sold, some to foreigners, through illegal adoption deals.
The Officer-in-Charge, New Jalpaiguri police outpost, Pankaj Thapa told PTI that the blast took place when four students of Gatebazar Railway school were roaming around in the area and picked up a bottle appearing to have some jelly like substance inside it.
One person was killed and 55 passengers were injured when 14 bogies of Brahmaputra Mail derailed about 15 km from New Jalpaiguri junction on Sunday night.
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.
In a scathing indictment of the state police chief A B Vohra, the court observed that he had not cared to even monitor the situation in Jalpaiguri.
Born with six toes on each foot, Swapna is stubborn from childhood, said the secretary of the Jalpaiguri District Athletics Association Ujjal Das Chowdhury, who has followed Swapna's career from close quarters.
Security agencies are apprehensive that the Jalpaiguri blast is merely an indicator of the unrest triggered by fundamentalist outfit Jamaat-e-Islami along the India-Bangladesh border, says Vicky Nanjappa
A cup of tea saved Narayan De from the blast in a coach of the Haldibari-Jalpaiguri passenger train that killed eight persons at Belakoba station near Siliguri on Monday.
'Expect very heavy rainfall at some places in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar along with sub-Himalayan West Bengal comprising of Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, including Sikkim, parts of Arunachal Pradesh, and parts of lower Assam, Rangia downward like Barpeta, Goalpara, Dhubri along with parts of Meghalaya.'
