West Bengal minister Kaushik Chowdhury on Thursday said that around 4,000 EVMs were gutted in a government building fire in Kolkata, as the police launched an investigation following the registration of an FIR in connection with the incident.
The massive fire broke out on Monday afternoon in the three-floor commercial building housing an animation centre, killing at least 15 people, mostly students.
A committee constituted by the West Bengal government to carry out a special audit of sanctioned plans for high-rise residential and commercial buildings in and around the city will meet on Friday to begin the exercise, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said.
A three-storey under-construction warehouse in Kolkata's Taratala area collapsed, killing three people and trapping several others. Rescue operations are ongoing, with 18 individuals already saved, amid allegations of substandard construction materials and illegal building practices.
West Bengal's annual July 21 Martyrs' Day observance has transformed into an unprecedented political contest, with three rival camps - Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, a breakaway TMC faction, and the Congress - holding parallel programmes in central Kolkata, each vying for legacy and organisational strength.
West Bengal minister Agnimitra Paul announced that the state government will ensure women's freedom of movement at any time and prioritise their complaints. CCTV monitoring will be introduced across civic bodies to enhance transparency and curb corruption. The government also plans to address illegal activities such as toll plazas, sand extraction, and coal mining, while streamlining welfare schemes and improving infrastructure projects.
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has alleged that the building plan for the collapsed Kolkata warehouse, which killed 10 people, was approved despite a faulty design and bears the signature of former mayor and TMC leader Firhad Hakim. Adhikari announced Rs 10 lakh compensation for the deceased's families and Rs 1 lakh for the injured, while also suspending all construction work in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area for four weeks for an audit of sanctioned plans.
Mamata Banerjee appeared before the Calcutta High Court alleging police inaction during post-poll violence in West Bengal and sought judicial intervention to protect citizens.
A massive fire that tore through a budget hotel in the congested Mechuapatti area of Burrabazar in central Kolkata on Tuesday night claimed at least 14 lives and left 13 injured, triggering a political blame game and calls for accountability.
The owner and manager of Rituraj Hotel in Kolkata have been arrested following a devastating fire that killed 14 people. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered surprise checks of all establishments in the city to ensure fire safety compliance, after the tragedy highlighted serious violations at the hotel. The hotel has been sealed and special committees will be formed to monitor and identify establishments flouting fire safety norms.
'We kept our bags packed, ready to jump into the sea. Many times, I felt it could be my last day.'
The cost of the war is being counted not in the corridors of power in Washington or Tehran, but in Firozabad's darkened furnace rooms, Howrah's idle casting sheds, and a barbershop in Kochi where the wait is suddenly, inexplicably, an hour long, notes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the Iran War.
The purge in Washington does not pause the war. Strikes continue, Hormuz remains closed, and Brent crude is still dancing around $109 a barrel. For India, the command chaos in the Pentagon is another layer of uncertainty piled on five weeks of conflict that was already straining every buffer Delhi has.
The LPG squeeze on India's restaurant sector is the quotidian face of a deeper crisis.
Lionel Messi's much-hyped visit to the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday lasted 22 minutes, just enough to underline everything that is wrong in Indian football and the state administration's mismanagement.
Thick smoke was seen billowing out of the windows of the building, housing several government offices.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the building collapse site at Azan Molla Lane in the city's western periphery and assured local residents of stern action against illegal construction.
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.
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.
At the moment the process of "cooling down" was on at the Bagree Market and 15 fire tenders have been pressed into service for it.
Thirty fire tenders have been pressed into service to douse the fire in the building that houses over 400 business establishments at the wholesale market.
A gas cylinder blast in a house at Dholahat in West Bengal's Pathar Pratima has claimed eight lives, including four children. The explosion, which occurred on Monday night, triggered a massive fire, intensified by the presence of stacked firecrackers inside the house. The incident has sparked a political controversy, with the BJP demanding a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe and the TMC maintaining that the police are already investigating and that the state government has a "zero-tolerance " policy towards such incidents. The blast has also raised concerns about the safety of illegal firecracker manufacturing units, which have been linked to several recent accidents in the state.
As we brace for unprecedented rates of urbanisation, it is crucial to ensure that illegal constructions and unauthorised land use are curbed, asserts Amit Kapoor.
An angry Banerjee slammed a minister, a former Trinamool Congress mayor and a few bureaucrats for their "below-par performance".
The Meerut Conspiracy Case was aimed at curbing communist influence in India. However, it fueled nationwide sympathy, shaping the course of leftist politics in the country.
As Odisha and West Bengal are bracing for a severe cyclonic storm, governments of both states started evacuating people and while deciding to close educational institutions in vulnerable areas.
Alarmed by the devastating fire at the AMRI Hospital in neighbouring Kolkata, which claimed 93 lives, the Assam government has decided to conduct a fresh fire-safety audit in all hospitals, educational institutions, hotels and residential apartment buildings across the state.
The government has convened an all-party meeting on July 21 ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament which will start next Monday, the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry said.
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.
Mamata said TMC will win all 42 LS seats from WB.
City mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who visited the market, said the fire was controlled to some extent, but refused to comment on how long it would take to extinguish the blaze completely.
Under-construction warship 'Visakhapatnam' caught fire at 5.44 pm. The blaze erupted on the second deck of the ship.
Municipal corporations penalise late property tax payments. 'Penalties can include attachment of properties, bank accounts, rent and other movable assets," says Anand Moorthy, co-founder, Square Yards.
Recent statistics show that the situation is no different across the country with several hospitals lacking the infrastructure to manage a breakout of a blaze.
Former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday justified the police firing on Youth Congress workers, killing 13 people on July 21, 1993 during the Left Front rule and asserted that he had never felt the need for a judicial inquiry into it.
Showing a photograph of the mishap site published in a newspaper, she said that it looked like a site of bomb blast. There were various aspects which should be looked into.
'What happens in the real estate market is that once the prices go up it goes on to stay at that level.' 'It might not increase and at the same time the prices will not come down too.'
'Are we supposed to look the other way as Islamists go on a rampage against Hindus and the Hasina government pay lip service to secularism?' A revealing excerpt from Avishek Biswas and Deep Halder's book, Being Hindu In Bangladesh: The Untold Story.
A day after an under-construction flyover collapsed in the city leaving at least 24 dead, the police on Friday night arrested three top officials of a Hyderabad based company which was building the flyover and slapped murder charges on them.
In a huge embarrassment for the Left Front, a Commission of Inquiry into the police firing on a Youth Congress movement in 1993 killing 13 persons on Monday said that it was worse than the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
