Page 10 - West Bengal

RG Kar case: Victim's father moves HC for lawyers to visit crime scene

The father of the R G Kar hospital rape-murder victim has moved the Calcutta High Court praying for setting aside a lower court order that refused permission to his lawyers to visit the crime scene at the state-run medical institution. The petitioner claimed that he firmly believes that other persons were present along with Sanjay Roy, who has been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment till the end of his natural life by the trial court for the rape and murder of the doctor, when the crime was committed on August 9 last year. The matter is likely to be taken up for hearing early next week before a single bench of the high court, his counsel said. The petitioner stated that to assist the court in discovering any material lapse in investigation, it is crucial for an independent examination of the place of occurrence. He prayed that his lawyer Phiroze Edulji along with six junior advocates be allowed to visit the place of occurrence at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital for two ho

10 pilgrims killed, 35 injured as bus rams into truck in Bengal's Burdwan

Ten pilgrims from Bihar died and 35 others were injured as their bus rammed into a truck parked on the roadside in West Bengal's Burdwan town on Friday, officials said. The pilgrims, who belonged to Motihari in Bihar's East Champaran district, were returning home after visiting Gangasagar in South 24 Parganas district when the accident happened on NH-19 near Phaguipur in Purba Bardhaman district, they said. Among the deceased were eight men and two women, they added. The injured persons, including six children, were admitted to the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital, officials said. "There were 45 people on the luxury bus. Efforts are being made to contact their families," an official said. "The pilgrims began their journey from Motihari on August 8. They first visited Deoghar and then went to Gangasagar," he said.

SC seeks Centre's reply on PIL over detention of Bengali-speaking workers

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a PIL which alleged that Bengali-speaking migrant workers are been detained on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, however, refused to pass any interim order with regard to the detention, saying any order will have consequences especially with respect to people, who genuinely came from across the borders. "States where these migrant workers are working have the right to inquire from their state of origin about their bonafide but the problem is in the interregnum. If we pass any interim orders, then it will have consequences, especially those who have illegally come from across the border and need to be deported under the law," the bench said. It asked advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board, to wait for sometime for the responses from the Centre and nine statesOdisha, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, ..

WB chief secy summoned by ECI over refusal to suspend 'tainted' officers

West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, who was summoned by the Election Commission in New Delhi to explain the state government's decision not to suspend "tainted" officers over alleged irregularities in electoral roll revision, left for the national capital on Wednesday morning. The poll panel on Tuesday summoned Pant to Delhi to report in person to Nirvachan Sadan, the ECI headquarters in the national capital, by 5 pm on August 13. "He will explain the rationale behind the state government's decision," one senior bureaucrat told PTI. The move came in response to Pant's communication to the Election Commission of India on Monday, stating that suspending the identified officers and filing FIRs against them, as directed by the poll panel, would be "disproportionately harsh" and have "demoralising impact" on the officers' community in Bengal.

Making jobs in City of Joy: Is West Bengal ready to up its economic game?

From IT hubs in Kolkata to manufacturing revivals in Uttarpara and mega power projects in Salboni, Bengal is wooing corporate giants to reverse migration and fuel economic growth

Police 'assault' RG Kar victim's mother, lathicharge protesters in Bengal

The victim's mother sustained a head injury and her bangle was also broken during the clash with the state police

RG Kar case: Protestors reach Howrah's Santragachi, try to breach barricade

A section of protestors taking part in a march to the West Bengal secretariat 'Nabanna' to mark the completion of one year of the brutal rape and murder of an on-duty doctor inside the state-run RG Kar hospital reached Santragachi in Howrah district on Saturday and attempted to breach the iron wall barricades set up by the city police there. As part of the 'Nabanna Chalo Abhiyan', the protestors shouted slogans for justice for the RG Kar victim and voiced their resolve to reach the state secretariat, irrespective of the blockades put up by the police. The police can fire upon us, but we are determined to reach Nabanna, where the state government must answer why justice has not been delivered to Abhaya (RG Kar victim) even after one year, a protestor was heard saying. Amid constant alerts over loudspeakers by the police urging protestors to abide by the Calcutta High Court order to maintain law and order, the demonstrators were seen scaling the 10-ft high barricades in their attempts

Parents of RG Kar victim join night vigil as students hold torch procession

Parents of the trainee doctor who was raped and murdered at R G Kar Hospital on August 9 last year joined a night-long vigil held at Shyambazar here on Friday. The vigil began after a torch procession taken out by junior doctors and general public in memory of the late medic. The torch procession, organised at the call of West Bengal Junior Doctors' Front, started from College Street near the Calcutta University main campus and culminated 5 kilometres away at Shyambazar near the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. "I know that nothing will compensate the loss of our daughter. We only demand justice for her," the father of the murdered doctor said, addressing the gathering at Shyambazar junction. The father said it is unbelievable that one man could have committed such a brutal crime and alleged that there were others who were involved in the crime and conspiracy. He accused both the state and Central governments of not doing the needful to get justice for his daughter. Stating

WBJEE 2025 result postponed again: Why it's delayed and what happens next

The WBJEE result 2025 has been postponed again. The WBJEE 2025 result is delayed in the wake of the contempt petition filed by students to the Calcutta High Court

Historian and former BS columnist Rajat Kanta Ray passes away in Kolkata

He taught in Presidency College for more than 30 years and in 2005 then governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi went to the college to attend his class

West Bengal's GST revenues rise 12% in July, Tripura leads with 41% surge

Several states posted double-digit growth in GST collections in July 2025, led by Tripura at 41 per cent. However, Mizoram, Jharkhand bucked the trend, reporting declines in revenue during the month

West Bengal records 12% growth in GST collection for July: CM Mamata

West Bengal has registered a 12 per cent year-on-year growth in gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for July 2025, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday, citing provisional figures released by the Centre. In a post on X, Banerjee said the state collected Rs 5,895 crore in GST revenue last month, up from Rs 5,257 crore in July 2024. "Glad to share that West Bengal has reported a robust 12 per cent year-on-year growth in gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for July 2025, recording collection of Rs 5,895 crore, compared to Rs 5,257 crore in the same month last year, according to provisional figures just released by the Government of India," she said. "Cumulative growth rate in our state's GST revenue till the month of July is 7.71 per cent. This marks a steady improvement in business and consumption in West Bengal, which is a sign of good economic health," she added. Banerjee's remarks come at a time when her government has been highlighting economic ...

TMC's Kalyan Banerjee quits as LS chief whip amid row with Mahua Moitra

Senior Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee on Monday resigned as the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha alleging that he was being blamed unfairly for lack of coordination among MPs even as some barely attend Parliament. The move came hours after a virtual meeting of TMC MPs chaired by party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, where she reportedly expressed her displeasure over poor coordination in the party's parliamentary wing. "I have quit as the party's chief whip in Lok Sabha as 'Didi' (Mamata Banerjee) said during the virtual meeting that there is a lack of coordination among party MPs. So the blame is on me. Hence, I have decided to step down," Banerjee told a news channel. The four-time MP from Sreerampur, who is also a senior advocate, said he felt humiliated that the party was not holding those responsible for indiscipline and poor attendance to account, but instead making him the fall guy. "Those whom Mamata Banerjee made MPs don't even come to Lok

ZEE5 Bangla bets on affordable prices to lure viewers, says official

ZEE5 aims to make content both affordable and relatable for Bengali audiencesparticularly in tier two and three citiesby aligning pricing and storytelling with local needs and cultural sensibilities, says Rusa Banerjee, Business Head of the streamer's Bangla arm. The OTT platform is trying to keep pace with changing audience preferences by innovating with different genres and storytelling formats to stay relevant and engaging, Banerjee added. "Storytelling in Bengali is evolving fast and so are we. We are actively experimenting across formats, genres, and narrative styles to stay in step with what audiences want today. "We wish to give audiences, hooked to Bengali contents, a platform that reflects their stories, in their language, at a price that respects their wallet and enables them to pay only for what they want to watch," Banerjee told PTI in an interview. On the programming level, she said the platform is deliberately mixing thrillers, dramas, and cultural themes to broaden a

Direct insult to language in which National Anthem was written: MK Stalin

Stalin said that statements like these were not "inadvertent errors" but exposed the dark mindset of a regime that undermines diversity

One year on, RG Kar victim's parents still await justice in rape case

Nearly a year after a young woman doctor was raped and murdered inside a locked seminar room at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College, her grieving parents, whose wounds have only deepened with time, await justice. Her father said that their only hope is in the judiciary now. "We have lost all faith in the police and the CBI. For reasons best known to them, the CBI appears compromised, either politically or otherwise. They are just parroting what the Kolkata Police had said," her father told PTI. On August 9 last year, the 26-year-old postgraduate trainee's body was discovered inside the Chest Medicine Department's seminar hall on the fourth floor of the hospital's emergency building. The nature of her injuries, which indicated brutality, and the fact that it happened within a state-run hospital, sent shock waves across West Bengal and beyond. Widespread protests erupted across campuses, drawing students, doctors, and civil society to the streets. But a year later, the family says, just

Centre owes ₹3,000 crore MGNREGA dues to Bengal: Govt in Rajya Sabha

The Centre owes West Bengal over Rs 3,000 crore, the highest among states, under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday, claiming that the funds transfer was stopped due to non-compliance of its directives. Pending liabilities in case of West Bengal include wage, material and admin component, and release of funds to the state has been stopped since March 9, 2022, as per provisions of Section 27 of MGNREGA, 2005, due to non-compliance with directives of the central government, MoS Rural Development Kamlesh Paswan said. Among other states and Union Territories mentioned in the reply, the highest pending wage liability is for Andhra Pradesh, to which the Centre owes Rs 1,684.39 crore, while it owes Bihar Rs 893.57 crore in wage payments, Rs 694.76 to Uttar Pradesh, and Rs 456.31 crore for Telangana. In a written reply to a question by TMC's Prakash Chik Barik, who asked about the pending dues under the ...

Not only Bengalis, Every Indian has right to travel freely: Amartya Sen

Wading into the political slugfest over the alleged harassment of Bengali migrant workers in other parts of the country, noted economist Amartya Sen said every citizen of India has the freedom to go wherever they want, and any effort to curb that must be objected to. Speaking to reporters at his ancestral home in Santiniketan, Sen said it doesn't matter whether a person is a Bengali, Punjabi or a Marwari, the freedom to go wherever he wants and speak whichever language he wants is his constitutional right. "An Indian citizen has the right of movement in the entire country. There is no mention of territorial rights anywhere in our Constitution," he said. "Every citizen of India has the right to be happy. We have to respect everyone...," he said on Thursday, responding to a question from reporters on the issue that has rocked the state. Sen said if Bengalis are being tortured and neglected, it must be objected to. "It is not a question of Bengal alone, but the whole country," he ...

CM Mamata hikes Durga Puja grant to ₹1.1 lakh, waives taxes for committees

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hiked the Durga Puja grant to Rs 1.10 lakh for 40,000 committees, waived taxes, announced an 80 per cent electricity concession, drawing cheers from organisers and criticism from the opposition ahead of the 2026 assembly polls. Addressing a mega coordination meeting of Puja committees at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here, Banerjee said the enhanced financial assistance, up from Rs 85,000 last year, was a recognition of Durga Puja's cultural significance and its status as a UNESCO-recognised intangible heritage. Durga Puja is not just a religious celebration. It is the lifeline of Bengal's cultural identity, our praner utsab' (festival of the heart). We are proud that UNESCO has recognised this. It's our collective responsibility to preserve that glory, Banerjee told a packed audience of organisers and top bureaucrats. Along with the increased grant, Banerjee announced an 80 per cent concession on electricity bills for Puja pandals, a waiver of

WB govt drafts rules on women's safety ahead of RG Kar case 1st anniversary

In a bid to enhance the security of working women, especially those on night shifts, the West Bengal government has drafted a set of new rules, including the setting up of a mandatory complaint committee in an organisation and installation of CCTV cameras at workplaces, an official said on Thursday. According to the proposed rules, night shifts would not be mandatory for female employees of an entity, and an organisation has to ensure the safety of women even during their travel to and from its offices at night. The draft rules were introduced ahead of the completion of one year of the rape and murder of an on-duty doctor at the state-run RG Kar hospital. "Altogether 22 issues have been identified in the draft rules. It has been stated that the night shift will be from 8 pm to 6 am, and at least 10 women, or one-third of the total shift workforce, whichever is higher, must be present together," the official told PTI. It also proposed to make provisions for resting areas and canteen