The country faced a major power crisis for the second consecutive day as three grids serving northern, eastern and northeastern regions failed on Tuesday afternoon, leading to 200 coal miners getting trapped in West Bengal and throwing normal life out of gear in 22 states.
World Bank's wrongful depiction of Indian territories as part of Pakistan and China in a map has prompted an Indian lawmaker to lodge a strong protest.
Rahul Gandhi, the All-India Congress Committee general-secretary and the man leading the revival of the party's youth wing, may have suffered a setback in the Bihar assembly elections. But his supporters are putting a distance between the Congress defeat and the 'Rahul effect'.
Bowing to the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha's demand, the West Bengal government on Wednesday said it will seek from the Centre a tripartite meeting to resolve the Darjeeling crisis in a few days.
Before fleeing, the driver of the car scrapped the papers bearing the temporary registration number, both from the front and the rear end, in order to hide the identity of the vehicle owner, a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.
Sixteen people succumbed to the heat wave in West Bengal as vast swathes of the country's northern and eastern plains continued to swelter, with temperatures settling above the normal mark at several places.
"There will be no discussion with the morcha on the statehood demand, but talks can be held on administrative arrangements and greater autonomy (for Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council)," Chief Secretary A K Deb told reporters at Writers' Buildings. Deb said in the absence of Morcha president Bimal Gurung, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would talk to any GJM representative.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday presented the Banga Vibhushan awards to 13 luminaries from various fields.
In an unusually candid admission, the CPI-M blamed corruption and dishonesty among its leaders at the village level for the party's poor show in the recent panchayat elections across the state. "Not everybody in the CPI-M-controlled zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats is honest. We have corruption in our functioning. Even though they are few in number, we have to find out how this happened," CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose said.
The project also aims to promote equity by enabling hard-to-reach children to attend school, create better learning conditions for all children and provide capacity building and academic support to state and sub-state education structures. In the area of oversight, the project will help monitor learning outcomes and support research and evaluation of quality initiatives.
Four people, three belonging to RSP and one to CPI-M, died in poll-related violence at Basanti in South 24 Parganas district and another was killed at Domjur in Howrah district, IG (Law & Order) Raj Kanojia told media persons in Kolkata.
A eight-member central team, headed by Joint Secretary in Union Agriculture Ministry E K Majhi, will visit drought-hit districts of West Bengal on Wednesday.
Showing Gandhigiri, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi went without light on Wednesday, after deciding to have voluntary power cuts at Raj Bhavan, triggering a spat with the Communist Party of India Marxist, which felt the gubernatorial post should be abolished. The action of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson came as an embarrassment to the Left government, with whom he had a run in last year, on its handling of the Nandigram issue.
At least 15 people were killed and 25 others injured when a minibus in which they were travelling overturned and fell into a pond at Dewanhat in Coochbehar district on Sunday.
Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Friday said all efforts will be made to keep the electoral rolls in West Bengal flawless for the polls due next year.
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