Protestors continued to target railway properties in Bihar and West Bengal on Saturday to vent their ire against the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme disrupting train services in the eastern region for the fourth day in a row, while demonstrations were held on roads in Odisha and Jharkhand.
With his claims of Railway turnaround coming under scanner, former railway minister Lalu Prasad on Friday rejected the charge of juggling profit figures, insisting that he had nothing to fear despite the white paper promised by his successor Mamata Banerjee.
Allies and opposition parties tonight attacked the government over the hike in diesel prices saying it will further hit the common man and demanded an immediate rollback.
From highways connecting once-remote regions to aviation networks carrying millions, India's infrastructure story is one of transformation.
At least 120 people were killed and more than 800 injured in a horrific triple train crash on Friday in Odisha's Balasore district involving the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and a goods train, officials said.
Trinamool Congress on Monday ruled out any action against Dinesh Trivedi, who resigned as railway minister, saying that he has been asked to attend the parliamentary party meeting which party chief Mamata Banerjee is expected to attend.
Attacking the prime minister over the removal of Dinesh Trivedi, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said if the former railways minister was sacked due to the increase in fares, the role of the prime minister and finance minister should also be questioned in the whole episode. Trivedi, who had presented the Rail Budget on Wednesday, was replaced by Trinamool Congress with Mukul Roy after party chief Mamata Banerjee opposed the increase in rail fares.
A day after proposing fare hike in the rail budget which has threatened his job, a defiant Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi on Thursday said he would repeat the same if asked to present the budget again.
Political repercussions are not the only reason why the Trinamool Congress chief would leave the sensitive issue of fares untouched before the West Bengal assembly elections in April.
Trivedi's resignation came amidst the exodus from Mamata Banerjee's party ahead of the West Bengal assembly poll.
'The BJP's modus operandi is not just to be intolerant of dissent, it is to create mistrust and doubt between communities and the electoral process itself.'
A devastating fire at a multi-storeyed building in Kolkata that claimed nine lives turned into the epicentre of a political slugfest on Tuesday, with the Trinamool Congress government and the Bharatiya Janata Party pointing accusatory fingers at the Railways and the state administration respectively, even as the bereaved families grieved at the loss of their near ones.
The incident had happened in Bihar when the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri semi-high-speed train was passing through that state on January 3.
Speculation is rife that beleaguered Mukul Roy, a close aide of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and under the CBI scanner in the Saradha chit fund scam, may switch over to the BJP. Neither Roy or the BJP have commented on the rumours. But Roy's recent remarks seems to expose him. Sheela Bhatt and Indrani Roy report.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention on Wednesday in the alleged "whimsical" functioning of the railways in sending Shramik Special trains to West Bengal and urged the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre not to pursue politics when the state is battling a dual crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and trail of destruction left behind by Cyclone Amphan.
The protest against the alleged sexual abuse of two girls at a school in Badlapur town of Maharashtra's Thane district turned violent on Tuesday as the angry agitators vandalised the school and also indulged in stone-pelting at the local railway station during the 'rail blockade', police said.
She said the prime minister neither asked how West Bengal is handling the COVID situation and nor did he enquire about the stock of vaccines or oxygen.
Ahead of the party's meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the fuel price hike, Trinamool Congress on Tuesday sought to down play the threat of pullout, saying the situation should not be seen as "us versus them".
When Mamata Banerjee registered strong, vocal and public objections over the proposed Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, it was dismissed by the other allies in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) as another one of her eccentricities.
Banerjee said on Thursday that her government made arrangements for 105 more trains to bring back people stuck in different parts of the country amid claims by opposition parties that the state was not eager to ferry home stranded labourers and pilgrims.
The Rail Budget to be presented tomorrow may continue with the practice of not raising the fares and freight rates but the possibility of imposition of a safety cess may not be ruled out, at least on the higher class fares.
Railway Minister and key United Progressive Alliance partner Mamata Banerjee ruled out any difference with the Union government over a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum allocation, even as she advocated a discussion on the scam in Parliament.
The list, which is a mix of seasoned political players and greenhorns, has 17 women candidates, five more than the last elections, constituting roughly 41 per cent of the candidates.
He also accused her of nepotism by choosing to play the limited role of "bua" (aunt) to her "bhatija" (nephew) instead of becoming "Didi" (elder sister) to the people.
BJP won 18 of the seats while the TMC won 22 of the seats.
What some of our leaders were up to over the weekend.
Prabhu proposed an unprecedented 50% hike in investment.
"Since some of them are in a critical condition, the death toll may go up," Jalpaiguri DM Moumita Godara Basu said, adding rescuers thoroughly searched each coach for survivors and bodies through darkness and thick fog.
Balasore district hospital looked like a war zone with the injured lying on stretchers in the corridor and rooms bursting at its seams with extra beds propped up.
'He has always loved to help people. He has donated his blood three times'
Banerjee has fulfilled two key electoral promises: Ridding Lalgarh of Naxals and bringing peace to Darjeeling
She asserted that all the regional anti-BJP parties were together and they should sacrifice for the country's benefit.
The train crash happened near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar, around 7 pm on Friday, prompting the Railway Ministry to order a probe.
In a major initiative marking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden visit to Bangladesh, two bus services connecting key cities in the two countries were flagged off on Saturday to boost connectivity and enhance people-to-people contact.
Elections to the 40-member Goa Assembly are due in two months. Recent visits by Banerjee, Kejriwal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi heated up things in the otherwise "susegad" atmosphere in the small state.
Two political parties having two members in the Jharkhand assembly merged with the Trinamool Congress in Ranchi on Monday.
On Wednesday, Bengal's own daughter she firmly pitched herself as, was sworn in as the chief minister of the turbulent state for the third successive term amid raging fires of political violence and a rampaging pandemic.
Pulling no punches in her attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party for allegedly pursuing 'political vendetta' against the Trinamool Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday charged that the Central Bureau of Investigation was being used as a 'political tool' by the National Democratic Alliance government and was functioning as 'a department of the Prime Minister's Office'.
Roy, a founder member of the TMC, was inducted into the party at BJP headquarters.
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.
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