Page 9 - West Bengal

Policybazaar reports 60% offline growth in West Bengal insurance sales

Insurance broker Policybazaar on Wednesday said its offline business in West Bengal was growing at 60 per cent and made up nearly 30 per cent of its total policy sales in the state. The company, which has a presence in at least 80 cities, opened 15 offices and point-of-sale outlets across the country last fiscal, an official said. "Offline sales are picking up fast for Policybazaar, and already account for about one-third of our business in Bengal. The growth will be around 60 per cent, and we expect to maintain the traction," said Gaurav Surana, Deputy Vice President (East) Life Insurance at Policybazaar. West Bengal has emerged as a key market for term insurance, contributing 26 per cent of the overall policy count in FY'25, he said. He said that the GST waiver on insurance will further boost growth. Surana said educated and salaried customers form the bulk of insurance buyers in West Bengal. "Graduates and above make up 80.1 per cent of policyholders in Bengal, higher than the

Mamata shifts stay to monitor Nepal situation amid network issues

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is on a three-day administrative tour of north Bengal, shifted her place of stay from the Kanyashree bungalow to Uttarkanya due to mobile connectivity issues, a senior official said on Wednesday. "It is reported that there were network issues at the Kanyashree bungalow, which made it difficult for her to stay updated on the developments in Nepal. As a result, the CM shifted to Uttarkanya on Tuesday night to monitor the situation more closely," the official told PTI. Later, the Trinamool Congress posted a photo of the party supremo sitting in 'Uttarkanya' and monitoring the situation in the riot-hit neighbouring nation. Uttarkanya is a building in Siliguri which houses the temporary state secretariat for the North Bengal Development Department of West Bengal "The unfolding situation in our neighbouring country, Nepal, is a matter of deep concern. Placing the interests of the state above all else, our compassionate Chief Minister, remai

Hilsa prices to pinch pockets this Puja despite Bangladesh exports: Traders

The Md Yunus government in Bangladesh may have chosen to honour the commitment of culinary tradition and issue a notification to export hilsa to India ahead of the festive season, but fish importers in West Bengal aren't sure whether the move will broaden smiles of the average middle class waiting to savour the delight of Padmar Ilish' this Durga Puja. Fish traders on this side of the international border attribute dual factors of lower quantity of export from Bangladesh compared to previous years, as well as higher cost of imports, as reasons behind the high prices of 'rupali shosyo', which means 'silver crop'. Putting apprehensions of an export freeze on hilsa to rest, the Bangladesh government's notice on Monday stated that it has approved in-principle the conditional export of 1200 metric tonnes of hilsa to India this year, in keeping with its traditional Durga Puja gift to Bengalis in India. For this, the Md Yunus government has invited applications from interested exporters i

ED raids multiple sites in West Bengal over sand smuggling racket

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday launched a series of coordinated raids in various locations of West Bengal, including Kolkata, targeting individuals and businesses that were found to be allegedly involved in a sand smuggling racket, a senior official said. Raids are being carried out in several areas, including Behala, Regent Park, Bidhannagar, and Kalyani, in connection with the scam, he said. The ED officials conducting the raids were accompanied by a large number of personnel of the central security forces. At the centre of the operation was Sheikh Jahirul, a prominent figure in the racket in Jhargram district of West Bengal. ED sleuths were conducting searches at his sprawling residence near Subarnarekha River in Gopiballavpur, he added. "Searches are underway at Jahirul's residence, office and vehicles. He is accused of being heavily involved in the illegal sand extraction and trade business," the official said. Incidentally, Jahirul, who owns several sand mines, h

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury urges toilet facilities on 9 Sealdah-Lalgola trains

Chowdhury said passengers, especially from Murshidabad, face severe hardships as EMU-MEMU trains lack toilets, calling it an "egregious act of inhumanity" by railway authorities

Bengal govt undertakes cleanup drive to scrap its 22,000 'aged' vehicles

In an initiative aimed at modernising its fleet, the West Bengal government has launched a massive cleanup drive to scrap its nearly 22,000 vehicles that are over 15 years old, a senior official said. The process, which is already underway, seeks to decommission the old vehicles used by various government departments, most notably police and transport, he said. The state government is emphasising replacing these old vehicles with electric ones, he said. "At least 698 vehicles from the police department, 481 from the transport sector, and 710 from various public sector undertakings have been earmarked for decommissioning," the official told PTI. "In addition, departments such as Public Works, Panchayat, and Public Health Engineering (PHE) have collectively listed over 19,000 vehicles for scrapping, bringing the total number close to 22,000," he added. The transport department has begun the identification of these 'aged' vehicles and initiated their removal from service, the officia

WB minister Chandranath Sinha surrenders before ED in school jobs scam case

West Bengal minister Chandranath Sinha on Saturday surrendered before an Enforcement Directorate (ED) court here in connection with its investigation into alleged irregularities in primary school recruitment, an official said. According to sources in the central agency, Sinha, who is West Bengal's minister in charge of micro, small and medium enterprises and textiles, appeared before the special ED court in Kolkata earlier in the day and formally surrendered in compliance with court orders. The ED sought his custody, but the court granted him an interim bail on a personal bond of Rs 10,000, subject to conditions, the official said. The court stated that although bail has been granted, Sinha will not be allowed to leave his assembly constituency or Kolkata for the time being. "He must cooperate with the investigation. These conditions must be followed until the hearings related to the case are concluded," the ED official said, quoting the court order. Sinha's legal counsel, when ..

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