Page 16 - West Bengal

Bengal CEO holds internal talks ahead of Election Commission meet in Delhi

In the run-up to a crucial meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar next week, West Bengal CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal is set to hold internal discussions with officials concerned on the state's electoral preparedness on Saturday and Monday, a source in the poll panel said. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has "shown interest in replicating" Bihar's special intensive revision of electoral rolls in other states and the proactive steps are being viewed as "introductions to electoral readiness", he said. "The execution of the special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar has garnered nationwide attention, with other states reportedly looking to learn from its approach. "Ahead of the Delhi meeting, the CEO's office is organising two rounds of consultations focused on the SIR and electoral preparedness. The first of these meetings will be an internal review on Saturday and then a comprehensive statewide assessment on Monday," the source told PTI. During these sessions, ...

WBSSC publishes notice to fill 35,726 teaching posts in state schools

West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) on Friday published a notification to fill 35,726 teaching posts in state-run secondary and higher secondary schools across the state. An official said the notice, now available on the official WBSSC website, accounts for the 17 per cent OBC quota as per the state government's reservation policy, in addition to posts for general category candidates. Of the 35,726 teaching posts - 12,514 are for classes 11-12 and 23,212 for classes 9-10, he said. The notice follows the Supreme Court's recent stay on a Calcutta High Court order, which had challenged the implementation of the state's OBC policy in school teacher appointments.

Mulling options to appoint tainted teachers to Group C, D posts: CM Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said her government was exploring legal options to appoint tainted teachers of the 2016 SSC exam to Group C and D posts. Speaking at a programme to observe Teachers' Day here, she also said the state government has initiated the recruitment process of untainted candidates of the 2016 school teacher recruitment test. "I am consulting legal experts on options of appointing tainted' teachers to Group C and D posts. For those who have been teaching for years now, but have been marked ineligible', I am trying to seek a legal solution... Maybe, they could be recruited in Group C and D posts," Banerjee said. "We look at things not through a political prism, but from a human perspective," she said.

Governors cannot examine legislative competence of bills: WB tells SC

The West Bengal government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the governor cannot examine the legislative competence of a bill passed by the assembly. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai was told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for West Bengal, that since Independence there is hardly any example where the President has withheld a bill passed by Parliament because it is the will of the people. Advancing his argument before a bench also comprising Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, PS Narasimha and AS Chandurkar, on the seventh day of hearing on the Presidential reference on whether the court could impose timelines for governors and President to deal with bills passed by state assemblies, Sibal submitted that legislative competence of a bill has to be tested in courts. "A legislation can be challenged in a court of law by citizens or by somebody else. It's in the rarest and rare case that a Governor says I cannot give assent to the bills and

WBSSC assures SC no tainted candidates will be allowed in fresh SLST exams

The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) has started finalising the list of tainted candidates from the 2016 State Level Selection Test (SLST), abiding by the Supreme Court's directive, and assured that none of them will be allowed to appear in the fresh recruitment exams, an official said on Friday. A senior SSC official said the commission's legal team has already submitted an undertaking to the apex court promising to submit the list of "tainted" candidates within a week. "Our lawyers have already given undertaking to the apex court about submitting the list of 'tainted' teachers within a week, relating to the 2016 teacher recruitment test. The process is in full swing. This much we can tell you," he told PTI on Friday evening. Dismissing concerns about tainted individuals being issued admit cards for the upcoming SLST exams scheduled on September 7 and 14, the official added, "Our lawyers assured the apex court on record that not a single tainted candidate will be allow

US tariff shock to hit Bengal's leather, marine, and engineering exports

The additional 25 per cent tariff imposed by US President Donald Trump on India is set to deliver a major blow to West Bengal's export-driven economy, with the state's labour-intensive leather, engineering and marine sectors expecting losses ahead of the festive season, stakeholders said. The increased levies on Indian products for the country's purchases of Russian oil came into effect on Wednesday, bringing the total amount of tariff imposed on New Delhi to 50 per cent. Exporters said shipments and even production are "currently on hold", amid geopolitical headwinds, intensified by the US tariffs. According to trade estimates, the move will impact at least Rs 45,000 crore worth of Indian exports, with Bengal among the "hardest-hit" states. Labour-intensive industries are under severe pressure. In marine exports, the maximum of Bengal's annual shipments may collapse," Yogesh Gupta, regional chairman (east) of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) and a leading marin

TMC MLA acted as money collecting agent in WB teacher recruitment scam: ED

Arrested TMC MLA Jiban Krishna Saha, along with his associates, acted as an agent for collecting huge sums of money from "undeserving" candidates in exchange for jobs for the post of assistant teachers in West Bengal, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged on Tuesday. The legislator from the Burwan constituency in Murshidabad district was taken into custody by the federal probe agency on Monday after searches were conducted at his residence. The raids also covered the premises of his associates and an alleged middleman named Prasanna Kumar Roy. A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court sent him to ED custody for 6 days on Monday. The probe pertains to alleged illegal appointments of Assistant Teachers (Classes IX-XII) in the schools of the West Bengal government, and this is alleged to have been done in criminal conspiracy with officials of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (SSC). The Supreme Court, in April this year, cancelled the appointments of

PM Modi launches projects worth ₹13K cr in Bihar, ₹1,200 crore in Bengal

Prime Minister Modi launches key infrastructure projects in Bihar and West Bengal, including the Kona Expressway and new metro routes in Kolkata, while addressing political and security concerns

TMC spending welfare funds on cadre, changing Bengal demography: PM Modi

PM Modi's visit to West Bengal comes ahead of the state Assembly elections, scheduled for early next year

PM Modi to launch multiple development projects in Bihar, West Bengal today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Bihar on Friday, where he will lay the foundation stone and inaugurate multiple development projects worth over Rs 13,000 crore, officials said. During his nearly four-hour tour of Bihar, the PM will undertake whistle-stop visits to Gayaji, Patna and Begusarai districts. The trip will begin at Gayaji, where he will inaugurate projects including a 660 MW power project situated in Buxar built at a cost of Rs 6,880 crore, and also address a public rally, they said. He will also inaugurate the 1.86-km-long six-lane Aunta-Simaria Bridge project on Ganga River, constructed at a cost of over Rs 1,870 crore. It will provide direct connectivity between Mokama in Patna and Begusarai. The PM will also inaugurate the four-lane Bakhtiyarpur-Mokama section of NH-31, built at around Rs 1,900 crore, which will ease congestion, reduce travel time, and enhance passenger and freight, the officials said. He will also inaugurate the Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital a

PM Modi to flag off metro services on new sections in Kolkata on Aug 22

These metro routes will connect some of Kolkata's busiest areas, bring a notable reduction in travel time, and strengthen multimodal connectivity, benefiting lakhs of daily commuters

Mamata launches 'Shramshree' scheme: ₹5K aid for returning migrants

Under the Shramshree scheme, each returning worker will receive ₹5,000 per month for a year or until they secure new employment in Bengal

ABVP protests march to WB Education dept HQ over delay in WBJEE results

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS, on Monday staged a demonstration before Bikash Bhawan, the headquarters of the state Education department, in Salt Lake, protesting the delay in the publication of West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (WBJEE) results. The WBJEE was held in April this year, but the results have not been published. Carrying placards and shouting slogans against the state government, the protesters accused the Education department of "corruption" and demanded the immediate release of the WBJEE results. The ABVP members also blamed the state Education department for the delay in admission to undergraduate courses in many higher educational institutions. Police stopped the ABVP members from marching towards Bikash Bhawan and cleared the area, detaining several protesters. "We wanted to meet Education Minister Bratya Basu. We also told the police that five of us will go and meet him in a delegation. But the police are not allo

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