The bomb attack on West Bengal minister Jakir Hossain snowballed into a political controversy with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleging that it was a preplanned conspiracy as certain people were 'pressuring' him to switch over to another party, while opposition parties demanded National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the issue.
A youth was arrested in Malda district of West Bengal on the charge of making a derogatory remark against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Facebook.
The meeting was earlier planned to discuss price rise and formulate an action plan to combat it. But as Union agriculture, food and civil supplies minister Sharad Pawar is in Maharashtra and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is camping in Kolkata, the meeting has been rescheduled for October 19.
Mamata said she wanted 600 acres of land for the proposed rail coach factory.
The details of assets and liabilities of the ministers for the year 2008-09 have been made public by the Prime Minister's Office.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she was ready to quit if she cannot prove that the Communist Party of India-Marxist was misusing central security forces brought for anti-Maoist operations in West Bengal.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday called up Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee after which the key United Progressive Alliance ally decided to attend a meeting of the ruling coalition in Delhi on July 14.
Heavy rains packed with gusty winds lashed Odisha and parts of southern West Bengal as the landfall process of the severe cyclonic storm Dana was complete on Friday morning with no loss of life.
Banerjee, who rushed to the spot in the city's central business district, announced the state government will pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of those killed in the blaze and government job to a kin of each victim.
Protests against the Waqf Act turned violent in parts of West Bengal on Friday, with demonstrators setting ablaze vehicles, disrupting traffic and rail movement, and injuring several policemen. The unrest erupted in Suti, Murshidabad district, where protesters defied prohibitory orders, hurled stones at security personnel, and torched police vans and public buses during processions. Police responded with lathi charges and tear gas, while some officers were forced to seek refuge in a nearby mosque. Similar protests were held in Malda and Kolkata, prompting Governor C V Ananda Bose to direct the state government to take swift action against those responsible. The governor also contacted Union Home Minister Amit Shah and held discussions with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, which was recently passed by both houses of Parliament, aims to improve the management of Waqf properties, safeguarding heritage sites and promoting social welfare.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced Yuva air-conditioned (AC) trains to be introduced for the youth whereby one would have to pay Rs 299 for distances upto 1,500 km and Rs 399 for distances upto 2,500 km. The Railways will also start non-stop trains, Turonta for the first time in history. The 12 trains include - Howrah-Mumbai, Chennai-Delhi, Delhi-Pune, Howrah-Delhi, Kolkata-Amritsar, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Delhi-Jammu, Delhi-Allahabad.
The Trinamool Congress, which has asked Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi to quit his post, on Saturday rejected his demand that party supremo Mamata Banerjee should say so in writing to him. "Nothing will be given in writing," Trinamool Congress parliamentary party leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhay told reporters when he was leaving the state secretariat with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, after a meeting which lasted over three hours.
'This is becoming the new normal. Accountability of @AshwiniVaishnaw ji is zero. The GOI has no answers whatsoever'
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled central government alleging that there were attempts to suppress the cause of the train accident in Odisha.
The funding for Metro Railway projects will be hiked by 5 per cent.The Kolkata Metro will be extended inside the city.
Disagreeing with the formula of hike of one paisa or two paisa per km, Mamata said, "In railways there is no travel for a distance of mere one km or two km distance.
Saradha Group-run Saradha Tours and Travels tied up with IRCTC for operating tourist services to different destinations.
Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's pet initiative 'Sankriti Yatra,' a cultural extravangza, has arrived in Mumbai as a two-day event starting on Wednesday.
Her statement came ahead of a crucial round of talks scheduled to be held between the Centre and representatives of the agitating farmers during the day.
The Indian Railways will set up mobile e-ticketing centres at hospitals, universities, courts, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), district headquarters and village panchayats, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said while presenting the Budget on Wednesday.
Union Railways Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she would not contest the assembly elections in West Bengal and campaign for her party.
The list of demands include better interconnectivity of locations in Mumbai, better (read as clean and hygienic) toilet facilities -- particularly for women, and formation of panels at railway station level to facilitate communication between the commuters and the local station administration among other things.
In the wake of the growing funding constraint for additional infrastructure creation in the railway sector, Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday held discussions with the industry on options to make private participation in the sector attractive. "Addressing the coordination gaps between the rail ministry and the industry is important to increase investments in rail projects. This is very urgent," Banerjee said.
Police said they began lathicharging and tear gassing after the agitators managed to breach the barricades at some locations and attacked the security personnel.
Amid demands for a separate state carved out of Bengal by some Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted that she is ready to shed her own blood, if need be, to thwart attempts to divide the state.
CST Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Howrah, Sealdah, Thiruvanathapuram, Chennai, Bhopal, Madhura Junction, New Jalpaiguri and Kochi are some of the stations that will be modernised.
During the fag end of the year, she tabled a 'white paper' in Parliament on Railways financial health which dismissed her predecessor Lalu Prasad's claim of an impressive turnaround during his tenure.
A year after protesting against the Nano plant, invites companies to partner with the railways for its proposed 'auto hubs' .
However, speculation remained rife that the meeting was part of Banerjee's plan to form an opposition front with regional players minus the Congress.
The Congress core group met at the prime minister's residence late on Wednesday night and weighed options to deal with the demand made by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to sack Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi.
"No one is above party discipline. Dinesh Trivedi did not consult me or Mukul Roy (the party all India general secretary)," party insiders quoted Banerjee telling the Trinamool Congress legislature party meeting ahead of the budget session of the West Bengal legislative assembly.
Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, who backed Mamata Banerjee in the Singur agitation, on Friday warned the railway minister against acquiring land in eastern Uttar Pradesh for the corridor project, saying there would be a 'bloodbath' against the move.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched this public friendly facility on Thursday at a programme in Kolkata.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee visited ailing Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu in a hospital in Kolkata on Saturday evening and said she was praying for the speedy recovery of the 95-year-old leader.
Mamata Banerjee's Railway Budget evoked mixed reactions. While corporate India welcomed the moves made by the railway minister, opposition political parties flayed the budget calling it a fantasy and opoortunistic. Read on...
Giving a new poll slogan of 'Khel Zatlo' in Goa, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said an anti-BJP alliance has already taken shape in the coastal state under the banner of her party TMC and now it is for the Congress to decide whether it wants to join the grouping ahead of elections to take on the saffron outfit.
While analysts and investigative agencies are busy finding reasons, those who are not too friendly with the Trinamool Congress chief think Railways' security has become defunct of late and that Mamata is paying more attention to politics in Bengal than to her duties in New Delhi.
The meeting took place in the backdrop of recent spat between West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Manas Bhuiyan and a number of TMC leaders on the Rajarhat land issue.
Lalu Prasad, who became the railway minister in May 2004, surprised the world in 2008 with the 'magic' turnaround he effected for the near-bankrupt railways, claiming to have created a surplus of Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion.
Passengers can now buy reserved tickets from 5,000 post offices, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said presenting the Railway Budget on Friday.
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