The Karachi-bound cargo vessel from Bangladesh carrying military hardware and explosives was kept cordoned off on Saturday at Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district with the captain disembarked and taken for questioning.
The assurance came hours after the Centre accused the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government of obstructing a central team deputed to assess the coronavirus ground situation.
As a child, on her way back home from school near Diamond Harbour in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas, Minu would would often imagine herself sailing across unknown seas with an imaginary friend -- London, Paris and America -- being her places of interest. However, her dreams got shattered early in life.
National Disaster Response Force personnel left the spot, while State Disaster Management Department personnel continued their rescue work at the accident site with cranes, earth movers and drilling machines.
Has Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee created a situation with dangerous overtones in Bengal? In the six years that she has been in power, her detractors feel she has overplayed the politics of appeasement.
The alleged mastermind in the Kolkata techie kidnap case and his two other associates were arrested on Wednesday and Rs 1.90 lakh paid as ransom was also recovered by the police.
An eyewitness said some people in a minibus and private cars were trapped.
Home tutor Puja Singh, who was caught on camera brutally beating up a three-year-old child at Lake Town in Barasat city of West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district, was on Saturday remanded in police custody by a court in Salt Lake.
The family members of Partha Bag, one of the victims of the mysterious fire at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai, have demanded a probe. Bag's relatives have said that the Central Bureau of Investigation should undertake the probe.Questioning the mysterious circumstances that led to the deaths of Bag and another research student, Bag's neighbours also accused BARC of not providing adequate security.
He is amazingly responsible for his age. At 10, Rahul Mir not only goes to school but also earns and contributes to his family.
According to senior Congress leader Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury, "It will be a mistake to consider that it was the BJP that created the disturbance. The Communist Party of India-Marxist worked in collusion with the saffron brigade to throw life out of gear in Bengal."
An FIR was lodged by the Trinamool Congress after a car trailed Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee when she was returning home from a meeting in Kolkata, but it turned out that the 'pursuers' were television journalists seeking an interview with her.
At least seven pilgrims were killed and nine injured, four of them seriously, when a stampede broke out at the Gangasagar mela in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal early on Thursday.
A fresh terror alert has been issued, this time it is Kolkata. Based on the interrogation of some Indian Mujhaideen cadres who are in custody, the Intelligence Bureau has informed the Ministry of Home Affairs that the outfit is targeting the eastern city.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said that the demand for smaller states does not mean that new states would be created everywhere.
For states like West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, where migration is high, the return of workers could be as much an opportunity as a liability. All states have launched portals to register migrant workers; additional fields like nature of employment and remuneration in the past 2-3 years are being added to help in skill mapping.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was on Sunday gheraoed twice by relief seekers in the state's South 24 Parganas, the district worst-hit by cyclone Aila, even as the government prepared a memorandum seeking assistance of Rs 1,000 for submission to the Centre.The chief minister had gone to Gosaba in the Sunderbans to see the extent of the disaster and distribution of relief materials.
Since September-October last year, when the real estate market was in deep recession, several developers had started offering gifts like a car or a parking space with flats. For example, Kolkata-based real estate developer RDB Group had decided to give a Nano car with flats at its residential project in Sonarpur, South 24-Parganas.
It is spring in Bengal, yet the scorching afternoon sun unleashed its unbearable heat as rediff.com decided to walk around Barrackpore, a sub-division under North 24 Parganas in West Bengal.
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.
Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman said "his party is not doing anything for the people", and that he felt "suffocated and helpless" as an elected representative.
BJP protest outside Mamata Banerjee's residence over attack on BJP leader Roopa Ganguly's convoy
Exodus of people continued from the Cyclone Aila battered islands of Sundarbans, to escape inundation by full moon high tide 'Bhora Kotal', which is expected to hit the area on Sunday. The fear of heavy rains due to yet another low pressure area in the sea, however, receded with the weather office saying there was no weather warning for any cyclone and rain was expected in the next 24 hours.
In a repeat of Sunday's mob fury during West Bengal Chief Minister's visit to cyclone-hit Gosaba, hundreds of cyclone victims on Tuesday heckled and jeered at Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, as he came out of a relief camp in Hingalganj in North 24-Parganas district. "You are an inefficient chief minister. You deserve a garland of shoes. What have you done for the development of the Sunderbans in the last five years," the hungry victims shouted at Bhattacharjee.
In the letter to the BJP, the West Bengal government said, "The areas proposed to be covered by the yatra are, because of publicity and propaganda, gradually turning into communally sensitive pockets. Intelligence reports indicate that public perception is that the religious overtones of the yatra will be turned into communal propaganda."
Results of the panchayat polls indicated a paradigm shift in state politics with the baton of main opposition party passing from the Left to the BJP.
'It did not start as a Hindutva slogan.' 'It started to tease the TMC and slowly it got internalised and the BJP started countering with Jai Shri Ram slogans because Mamata was getting provoked.'
Clashes were reported from Kharagpur in West Midnapore district, Narayanpur in North 24 Parganas, and Alipurduar town in north Bengal, among others.
The elections are not only a means for TMC to prove its wide, unopposed mass allegiance but also a way to bargain for national leadership among regional political parties in the road to New Delhi.
Gateway of India, Andheri, Oberoi Hotel and Navi Mumbai were places where these militants had already carried out dry runs -- a chilling reminder of 2006 Mumbai serial blasts.
Life in Kolkata came to a standstill even before Cyclone Aila hit on Monday, killing 17, including a woman, and injuring many. High-velocity winds and heavy rains lashed the coastal areas of the state from Monday morning. All flights, including international ones, at the NSC Bose International Airport were suspended from 1400 hours, airport sources said.
Train services of Eastern Railway were affected as irate supporters of Sourav Ganguly put up a blockade protesting his exclusion from the ODI squad.
A complaint has been lodged at the Barasat women's police station in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, where the 24-year-old Arjuna awardee has been booked under the IPC sections for rape, criminal conspiracy, causing miscarriage without the woman's consent and cheating, the police said.
A fire at a shopping mall selling garments left 11 persons dead and 18 injured at Sodepur in neighbouring North 24-Parganas district, close to Kolkata, on Friday
All 40 trawlers which went missing in the Bay of Bengal following a storm were traced on Monday, but two of them capsized leaving seven fishermen missing, officials said.
Soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona on Saturday said he was surprised by the response of the crazy fans who thronged in thousands to have a glimpse of him as he laid the foundation stone of a football school at Maheshtala in South 24 Parganas district. Blowing kisses in the air and waving to the crowd, the 48-year-old Argentine, dressed in a grey shirt and matching trouser, said he had not anticipated that his two-day visit would evoke such a huge response.
Mike Okoro struck in the 40th minute to earn Mohammedan Sporting a 1-0 win over a Peerless in the IFA premier division football league game.
The 10-day Ganesh festival began on Saturday under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, with devotees restricting celebrations to their homes and using online platforms to get 'darshan' of the Lord at temples, amid strict COVID-19 restrictions imposed by governments.
In the small-scale sector, the chief minister claimed to have created 12 lakh jobs.
Murshidabad district alone accounted for 18 deaths, mostly in clashes and bomb attacks between Congress and CPI-M supporters on Sunday, with Chief Medical Officer (Health) M G Mondal confirming 11 deaths at Domkol, two each in Raninagar, Lalgola and Kandi and one at Sagardighi. District Magistrate Subir Bhadra said one CPI-M activist was killed and another injured in an armed clash with Congress workers at Rezinagar, 40 km off Berhampore, on Monday morning.
