The exit of Dayanidhi Maran from the government has fuelled speculation of a reshuffle of the Union Cabinet early next week, possibly on Monday or Tuesday.
The first meeting of the Group of Ministers on inclusion of caste categories in the census is likely to be held on July 1.
The Nifty shut shop at 5303, up 40 points.
With people reposing faith in the UPA and voting for stability, this is the government's chance to fulfill its promises, ensure growth and development of the country, check runaway prices, and offer succour to the aam aadmi.
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".
A senior official at the ministry said: "Our revenue earnings have been better than the 7 per cent growth we had estimated. Revenue from freight traffic has registered a strong growth rate. If the trend persists, we are likely to earn more than the revenues estimated earlier this year."
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.
The Monsoon session of Parliament beginning Monday is expected to be a tumultuous affair with opposition stacking up all ammunition ranging from price rise, fuel hike, Bhopal gas tragedy and the Indo-Pak talks to attack the government.
'Whether the Hindu voter will vote for us or not, we can't say, can we?'
Former Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday, weeks after he announced quitting his Rajya Sabha membership on the floor of the House deploring 'violence' in poll-bound West Bengal.
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.
The policies that kept the Left Front in power for 30 years are proving major obstacles in the state's bid to industrialise.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, who met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, on Sunday, told journalists that the two parties had a strong bond. Prasad's meeting with Gandhi in New Delhi fuelled speculation that he met the Congress chief in the wake of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's reported plan to seek a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the alleged job scam during his tenure.
The details of assets and liabilities of the ministers for the year 2008-09 have been made public by the Prime Minister's Office.
Noted economist and senior Trinamool Congress leader Amit Mitra is likely to step down as the West Bengal finance minister and even retire from active politics due to ill health, party sources said on Sunday.
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.
The land taken by Tata Motors at Singur for the erstwhile Nano car factory, and by the many companies who invested there to be vendors to the project, isn't set to change hands anytime soon.Tata and the vendors both say they plan to hold on to the lease titles, even as Trinamool Congress chief and Union railway minister Mamata Banerjee and the West Bengal government continue with their political posturing over a plan for a rail coach factory at the location.
RJD president Lalu Prasad on Thursday said Railway Budget has cheated people as it has nothing to offer.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday termed the hike in rail fares as "unprecedented and anti-people" and demanded its roll back in the interest of common people.
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.
At least 10 persons were 'reported dead' in a fire that broke out inside a stationary train compartment in Madurai railway station in the wee hours of Saturday, the Southern Railway said, adding a 'gas cylinder illegally' taken in led to the blaze.
The police lodged a suo motu case against unknown persons in connection with their involvement in the mishap, a police officer said.
"Railways has received a request from the government of West Bengal to set up a coach factory in Singur," Banerjee said while presenting the rail budget for 2010-11 in Parliament.
Prabhu proposed an unprecedented 50% hike in investment.
The government decided to call off the operation as the slum dwellers put up a strong resistance, with women and children in the forefront of the agitation.
'Despite many advising me otherwise saying "nothing will come of it", I refused to be cynical and dialled the number that had been staring at me from billboards aross the state,' reports Keya Sarkar.
As part of the efforts to bring several opposition parties together on a common platform to defeat the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Pawar met Kharge on Thursday evening.
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.
Earlier during the day, the agency carried out searches at two premises of Mishra in Kolkata in connection with the case but could not find him there
The heritage Darjeeling Himalayan Railways will resume the toy train services from December from Siliguri.
Talking to reporters at the accident site, he said the issue is of electric point machine, a vital device for railway signalling, and electronic interlocking.
Congress and Janata Dal-United on Friday strongly objected to the description of revolutionary leaders Khudiram Bose, Jatindranath Mukherjee and Prafulla Chaki as "extremist and terrorist" in school syllabus in West Bengal and urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to drop the chapter.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday alleged that Dinesh Trivedi, who resigned from the Rajya Sabha on Friday, took the 'House for a ride' and was 'allowed' to use the floor of the House for his 'devious political ends'.
India's largest private port operator Adani Ports and SEZ (APSEZ) Ltd has emerged as the highest bidder for the West Bengal government's greenfield deep-sea port project at Tajpur in a neck-to-neck fight with JSW Group, a source said on Friday. APSEZ and Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group were the only two entities that took part in the financial bid round, though there were more port and logistics majors who had expressed initial interest in the estimated Rs 7,000-crore project in Purba Medinipur district. "APSEZ is the highest bidder, offering a share of 0.25 per cent of gross revenue. "It was marginally higher than the second bidder who offered 0.23 per cent," a senior government official said, without wanting to be named.
She said the Centre is allowing demonetised notes in various sectors like railways, aviation, petroleum, etc but not for state government sectors.
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'.
"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.
What some of our leaders were up to over the weekend.
Shah said not allowing trains to reach West Bengal is "injustice" to the migrant workers from the state.
Railway Budget has not discriminated against any state.
