Senior Indian Police Service officer Manoj Kumar Verma was appointed the new Kolkata Police commissioner, replacing Vineet Goyal, on Tuesday, a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with agitating junior doctors and agreed to their demands in a bid to resolve the more than a month-long impasse over the RG Kar hospital incident.
The Calcutta high court on Friday passed an interim stay on an earlier order terminating jobs of around 32,000 teachers in West Bengal government-sponsored and -aided primary schools till the end of September or until further orders.
The court directed the Kolkata Police to hand over the case diary to the central probe agency by Tuesday evening, and all other documents by 10 am on Wednesday.
'The Election Commission is conducting the National Register of Citizens in Bihar through the backdoor.'
Chatterjee, who was the state education minister when the scam took place, was arrested after around 26 hours of grilling in connection with the probe.
The state government and the CM have repeatedly urged the doctors to resume work. Though Thursday's talks failed to take place, protesting doctors maintained that they still desire a meeting, but only in a completely transparent manner, which they believe is only possible through live-streaming.
Over 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded on Monday in 49 constituencies in six states and two Union territories in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, with Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir recording its highest-ever voting percentage.
'The southern states will have no voice.' 'Political parties in future need to focus only on one region, the northern region, to win the general election.'
'Why should children, who are already burdened with so many subjects, be over-burdened with three languages?'
While India today is vastly different from the India of 1975, the need for vigilance against authoritarianism remains the same, asserts Utkarsh Mishra.
Schools for classes 8 to 12, colleges and varsities will reopen in West Bengal on February 3, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Monday.
'I am happy to join the BJP and will work as a party soldier'
The newly-formed Delhi Cabinet in its first meeting approved the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme in the national capital. The cabinet also decided to present 14 pending CAG reports in the first session of the assembly. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said that the previous AAP government did not allow the health scheme in the city, preventing the people from availing its benefits.
WB Board of Madrasha Education results on SMS
Though the mandate is seen largely an outcome of Banerjee's welfare schemes, she has promised to industrialise at a faster pace, or so read the manifesto.
The Calcutta High Court has granted conditional permission to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to hold a rally in West Bengal's Purba Bardhaman district on February 16, despite objections from the state government. The court allowed the event, which will be addressed by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, on the condition that the organizers keep the crowd size and sound levels under control and ensure that students taking secondary exams are not disturbed. The event will be held at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) complex, which is located in a remote area and away from any schools.
'My primary point was where is the Mamata Banerjee who jumps and reaches out, starts talking directly and starts solving over the heads of the bureaucracy.'
Facing a stiff challenge to stem the decline of the Left Front in West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday asserted that the alternative to the Left's rule was anarchy and asked supporters not to be demoralised by the success of the opposition."Change for what, anarchy? West Bengal is in no mood to fall behind. We want to move ahead in agriculture, industry, education, health, human development. Is there any substitute to it," Bhattacharjee said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday unveiled its manifesto for the West Bengal elections, promising to build a 'Sonar Bangla' by providing employment, strengthening social security schemes and vowing to clear the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act in the first cabinet meeting of the new government.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked state ministers to begin a sit-in outside Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's residence in Santiniketan in Birbhum district to protest against the Visva-Bharati's eviction notice, an official said.
'The Shaheen Bagh model of bullets and biryani won't work. The RSS looked at a template that would play to Bengali pride and harp on the state's development. Mamata's slogan to defeat the Left Front was 'Bengal awake and arise'. She promised to check the flight of capital from Bengal to far-flung states and usher in a renaissance. The RSS wants the BJP to pitch this line because it feels Mamata hasn't delivered on her promises.'
Local trains will be allowed to operate with 50 per cent capacity till 7 pm, while all shopping malls and markets will be allowed to remain open till 10 pm but with half their capacities, he said.
The message from Sunday's event will undoubtedly reverberate globally. It's a landmark occasion that will be remembered for generations and will inspire many other states to introduce the story of Rajendra Chola into school curricula, says Tarun Vijay.
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.
The birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose political influence has surged with the passage of time, on Monday was marked by bitter trading of charges between the ruling BJP and opposition parties as they fought for his legacy.
'The life of his political career is dependent on success in this constituency.'
The West Bengal government has received a proposal of forging a twin state relationship with New York.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday asserted that Marathi is the language of Mumbai and Maharashtra and anyone who lives here should learn and speak it. Fadnavis was speaking in the state assembly after Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Bhaskar Jadhav said the government should clarify its stand on senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi's comments that a person coming to Mumbai may not necessarily learn Marathi.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) hand-delivered a summons to Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee for questioning in connection with the teachers' recruitment scam case on Monday, allegedly over two hours after the Supreme Court had stayed a high court order for his interrogation.
The marathon polling process to elect the 18th Lok Sabha ended on Saturday with the seventh phase of elections witnessing an approximate voter turnout of 62.36 per cent, amid clashes between Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party supporters in Sandeshkhali and some other parts of West Bengal.
Delhi is set to get its third woman chief minister, after Congress' Sheila Dikshit and Bharatiya Janata Party's Sushma Swaraj, as Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi has been chosen to succeed Arvind Kejriwal.
The doctors asserts that they will take a final call on withdrawing their agitation only after the state government implements its announcements made on the previous night "in true spirit".
Since much of the voting was on religious lines, Mamata's rural focus became irrelevant.
'If delimitation is not handled well by the Centre, the southern states are certainly going to challenge it.'
'I had to persuade him. I think he was a sceptic to begin with, but later on he was convinced that what we were doing was the right thing to do, that there was no other way out.'
It will be interesting to see what shifts have been recorded in the last decade-and-a-half -- from the effects of demonetisation and Covid's second wave to the drop in fertility and increase in farm workers -- but we will only know this if and when the Census is conducted, points out Aakar Patel.
After the Trinamool's overwhelming majority in the West Bengal assembly elections last year, the SSC scam has given fresh ammunition to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist. Ishita Ayan Dutt reports.
The court noted that no appreciable steps have been taken ever since an order was passed by it on June 13 to deploy central forces in sensitive areas for the poll process.
The state police have called the scheduled rallies, support for which has been mainly garnered over social media platforms, as "illegal" and "unauthorised", and said they have taken necessary precautions to allay apprehensions about potential law and order situations during the march.
The court also directed that the salary amount returned by Anita, who was a teacher at Indira High School in Cooch Behar district, be handed over to petitioner Babita Sarkar.
