Adani News

Tag: West Bengal

  • Raj Bhavan-West Bengal Secretariat dispute will reach the court?

    Raj Bhavan-West Bengal Secretariat dispute will reach the court?

    Kolkata (IANS) | The tussle between the Raj Bhawan and the state secretariat in West Bengal is likely to head towards a legal tussle as the state education department is seeking legal advice to find a way around the recent show cause notices issued by the governor’s office to the vice-chancellors of six state universities. Is. According to state education minister Bratya Basu, though the government wanted to hold talks with the governor, the governor seemed inclined to take decisions on his own. With regard to show-cause notices to vice-chancellors, we have to see whether they have the authority to issue such notices, he added. We are first consulting legal experts to know whether such notices are valid or illegal.

    The Raj Bhavan had issued a notice on May 24 to the vice chancellors of six state universities – Kazi Nazrul University, Sidho-Kanho-Birsa University, Bidhan Chandra Agricultural University, West Bengal State University, Kalyani University and Burdwan University. It said the universities were “ignoring” the governor’s direction to submit weekly reports on matters to the Raj Bhavan.

    Earlier on April 4, the Raj Bhavan had directed the Vice Chancellors of all state universities to send a weekly report to the Raj Bhavan, in which the Vice Chancellors were also asked to take prior consent from the Raj Bhavan in all financial matters.

    However, the Office of the Special Secretary to the Governor sent a reminder to the V-CS on May 22 after none of the universities sent the weekly report.

    After not getting any response, Raj Bhavan has now issued show cause notices to the Vice Chancellors of these six universities.

    The governor is the chancellor of all state universities. The state government was opposing the governor’s decision to ask for a weekly report from the very beginning. Now that the state government is mulling legal options against the show cause notice, the Raj Bhavan-state secretariat relations seem to have taken a turn for the worse.

    –IANS

  • Kejriwal will seek support from Mamta

    Kejriwal will seek support from Mamta

    Kolkata (IANS) | Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will meet his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday and seek her support against the central government’s ordinance setting aside the Supreme Court order handing over control of administrative services in the national capital to AAP. The two chief ministers are scheduled to meet at the state secretariat in Nabanna on Tuesday afternoon. According to sources in the state unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Kejriwal may seek the support of the Trinamool Congress to stop the Centre’s ordinance in the Rajya Sabha.

    After the meeting, both the leaders are going to hold a joint press conference. AAP sources said Kejriwal has already approached leaders of opposition parties and chief ministers of non-BJP ruled states to seek their support and Tuesday’s meeting with Mamata Banerjee is part of that exercise.

    BJP’s national vice-president and party’s Lok Sabha member Dilip Ghosh, however, made fun of the meeting. He called it a futile exercise by the opposition parties to project a credible face against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

    Ghosh said, in 2019, Mamata Banerjee herself tried to become the face and hence she organized a meeting of opposition party leaders in Kolkata. But after that his party lost in many constituencies in West Bengal in 2019. This time she is scared to present herself. That’s why she is holding meetings with the leaders of other opposition parties.

    Recently, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav visited Kolkata and held a meeting with Mamata Banerjee.

    After the meeting, both Banerjee and Kumar emphasized that all anti-BJP forces should act with an open mind and shed their arrogance to establish a grand-opposition alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

    Earlier, Samajwadi Party leader and Leader of Opposition in Uttar Pradesh Assembly Akhilesh Yadav also met the Chief Minister in South Kolkata.

    Both Banerjee and Yadav stressed on strengthening the unity of regional parties to take on the BJP in 2024.

    –IANS

  • West Bengal: 34 arrested in connection with the blast in a firecracker godown

    West Bengal: 34 arrested in connection with the blast in a firecracker godown

    West Bengal: 34 arrested in connection with the blast in a firecracker godown

    Kolkata (IANS) | Thirty-four people have been arrested in connection with the explosion at an illegal firecracker warehouse in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district that killed three people. They will be produced in a lower court in Kolkata on Monday. The blast occurred in Maheshtala area on Sunday night, six days after a blast at an illegal firecracker factory at Egra in East Midnapore district on May 16.
    Locals have alleged that the illegal godown in Maheshtala was on the ground floor of a private residence and was running for a long time. He also claimed that despite knowing about the existence of the godown, no action was taken by the local administration.
    Meanwhile, a political slugfest has erupted over the blast, with Leader of the Opposition Shubhendu Adhikari describing West Bengal’s current situation with Ukraine. Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the official said in a tweet. I think if one calculates and compares the number of explosions on Ukrainian soil so far, the number would be less than the number of explosions in West Bengal during this period.
    Meanwhile, Shantanu Sen of the Trinamool Congress said that the blast incident was certainly unfortunate, but the attempt by opposition parties to do politics over dead bodies is not acceptable.

  • 34 arrested in case of explosion in firecracker warehouse

    34 arrested in case of explosion in firecracker warehouse

    Kolkata (IANS) | Thirty-four people have been arrested in connection with the explosion at an illegal firecracker warehouse in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district that killed three people. They will be produced in a lower court in Kolkata on Monday. The blast occurred in Maheshtala area on Sunday night, six days after a blast at an illegal firecracker factory at Egra in East Midnapore district on May 16.

    Locals have alleged that the illegal godown in Maheshtala was on the ground floor of a private residence and was running for a long time.

    He also claimed that despite knowing about the existence of the godown, no action was taken by the local administration.

    Meanwhile, a political slugfest has erupted over the blast, with Leader of the Opposition Shubhendu Adhikari describing West Bengal’s current situation with Ukraine.

    Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the official said in a tweet. I think if one calculates and compares the number of explosions on Ukrainian soil so far, the number would be less than the number of explosions in West Bengal during this period.

    Meanwhile, Shantanu Sen of the Trinamool Congress said that the blast incident was certainly unfortunate, but the attempt by opposition parties to do politics over dead bodies is not acceptable.

    –IANS

  • Death toll in firecracker factory blast rises to 12

    Death toll in firecracker factory blast rises to 12

    Kolkata (IANS) | The death toll in the explosion at an illegal firecracker factory in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district rose to 12 on Saturday as two more people died. The two people who died since late Friday night have been identified as Ravindra Maity and Pinky Maity.

    Nine deaths were reported on the day of the blast (Tuesday). The main accused and owner of the illegal factory, Krishnapada Bagh, who was among the injured, died at a private hospital in Odisha’s Cuttack on Friday morning, taking the death toll to 10.

    Now, the death toll in the tragedy has risen to 12 with the death of two more injured and those under treatment at Government SSKM Medical College and Hospital.

    Officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police are currently probing the matter. Krishanpad Bagh’s son Prithvijit Bagh and nephew Vishwajit Bagh have already been taken into custody by the authorities.

    A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the CID to continue with the probe but also asked to include sections of the Explosives Act in the FIR.

    In the initial FIR lodged by the police, only sections under the Indian Penal Code and the West Bengal Fire Service Act were included, for which the state police was severely criticized.

    Preliminary police investigation indicated that the explosion was probably caused by raw material stored for making firecrackers. Opposition parties have claimed that the effect of the explosion proved that crude bombs were being made there, not firecrackers.

    –IANS

  • Cracker factory blast: Bengal minister and Trinamool MP face public anger

    Cracker factory blast: Bengal minister and Trinamool MP face public anger

    Kolkata (IANS) | A minister from West Bengal and a Rajya Sabha MP from Trinamool Congress reached Egra in Midnapore district on Wednesday. Here the minister and MP had to face heavy opposition from the local people. According to reports, there was an explosion at a firecracker factory located in Egra on Tuesday, in which nine people were killed. There is anger among the people due to this blast.

    Dr Manas Bhunia, Minister in-charge of the Environment Department of West Bengal, and Dola Sen, Rajya Sabha MP of Trinamool Congress, were heckled by a group of people as soon as they reached the spot. The locals held the state’s ruling party responsible for the tragedy and raised slogans.

    Some protesters also raised slogans calling Trinamool Congress leaders thieves. However, both Sen and Bhunia remained calm instead of getting into controversy. He tried to pacify the locals by saying that the state administration would take full responsibility of compensation for the families of the deceased as well as the injured.

    However, his efforts to convince did not work much and the sloganeering intensified. Some protesters also questioned the minister and the MP as to why the police administration was reluctant to take action against the illegal firecracker factory.

    A protester asked the minister why have you come here now? What’s the point of coming here now? Finally in the face of massive protests, Bhunia and Sen left the spot. However, before leaving the village, he met the relatives of one of the victims.

    Bhunia said that we had reached the spot following an instruction from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. But some unruly elements tried to create chaos on our tour and tried to instigate us. However, let’s not get caught up in that. That’s why we’re going back. Met the family members of one of the victims.

    Meanwhile, the factory owner Krishnapad Bagh alias Bhanu, a former Trinamool Congress panchayat member, is still absconding. Police is trying to trace his mobile and trace his location.

    –IANS

  • Explosion in firecracker factory in Bengal, three people died

    Explosion in firecracker factory in Bengal, three people died

    Kolkata (IANS) | A firecracker factory exploded in Egra in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district on Tuesday. Three people died and four others were seriously injured in this accident. The explosion was so tremendous that the house where the firecracker factory was running collapsed completely. Policemen are apprehensive that more bodies will be recovered after the rescue operation is over. The four injured have been admitted to a nearby hospital, where their condition is said to be critical.

    The police is probing whether the blast was caused only by the firecrackers kept there or by the explosion of crude bombs made there under the guise of a firecracker factory.

    The locals allege that the firecracker factory was running in a completely illegal manner without the requisite permissions or monitoring by the local administration including the police.

    The locals have also alleged that their repeated appeals to take action against the illegal firecracker factories that have sprung up in the area have been ignored by the local administration.

    By the time the news was written, a large number of police forces had reached the spot. The policemen have cordoned off the entire area.

    Significantly, at the end of last year, a similar blast took place at Bhupatinagar in East Midnapore district. Several people, including a local Trinamool Congress leader, were killed and many others injured in that blast.

    –IANS

  • Calcutta High Court will take strict action on irregularities in the recruitment of food inspectors

    Calcutta High Court will take strict action on irregularities in the recruitment of food inspectors

    Kolkata (IANS) | The Calcutta High Court on Saturday warned the Food and Supplies Department of West Bengal of strict action if irregularities were found in the recruitment of food inspectors. A division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Prasenjit Biswas, while hearing a petition filed in this matter, said that the court will not tolerate any irregularities in the recruitment of food inspectors.

    The bench went to the extent of saying that if there was any malpractice in the recruitment process, the court would quash all the faulty appointments.

    The next hearing in the matter has been fixed for June 5.

    The written examination was conducted in 2018 to fill the vacant posts of Food Inspectors in the State Food and Supplies Department. In 2021, 100 selected candidates were given appointments.

    After the recruitments were made, some candidates who appeared for the examination approached the High Court with a petition alleging lack of transparency in the recruitment process.

    He alleged that several rules were violated in the recruitment process. Initially only 30 people were made parties in the case. On Saturday, the state government’s counsel requested the bench to implead all those involved in the case as parties in the case.

    Accepting the proposal, the bench directed the state government to complete the process before the next date of hearing.

    –IANS

  • Why ‘Kerala Story’ banned in West Bengal? Supreme Court issued notice

    Why ‘Kerala Story’ banned in West Bengal? Supreme Court issued notice

    New Delhi (IANS) | The Supreme Court on Friday asked several questions to the West Bengal government regarding the ban on the film ‘The Kerala Story’. The court said that the film is running peacefully in the rest of the country and there is no reason why it should be banned in the state. Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and P.S. Narasimha, senior advocate representing the West Bengal government, A.M. Told Singhvi, the film has released in the rest of the country, West Bengal is no different from the country…

    Senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the filmmakers, said the film ran in cinema halls for three days in the state.

    The Chief Justice said, “If the film can run in other parts of the country, why not in West Bengal?… If the public does not want to see it, it will not.”

    The bench said, it has nothing to do with the artistic value of the film, the film may be good, or it may be bad, or irrelevant…

    After hearing the arguments, the apex court issued notice to the West Bengal government.

    The filmmakers argued that the state government has no right to ban a film that has been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification.

    The filmmakers claimed that the state government could not cite law and order to stop the release of the film. They argued that this would violate their fundamental rights.

    West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced a ban on the screening of ‘The Kerala Story’ on 8 May. He told the Chief Secretary of West Bengal, H.K. Dwivedi was asked to take necessary steps in this matter.

    –IANS

  • Amit Shah to visit West Bengal on Tuesday

    Amit Shah to visit West Bengal on Tuesday

    NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will undertake a daylong tour of West Bengal on Tuesday during which he will attend the birth anniversary celebrations of Rabindranath Tagore and lay foundation stone of or inaugurate a number of developing projects, sources said.

    In the morning, the home minister will pay tribute at a statue of Tagore at the Jorasanko Thakurbari in Kolkata.

    Thereafter, Shah will lay foundation stone of and inaugurate various development projects of the Land Port Authority of India and the Border Security Force (BSF) at the Integrated Check Post (ICP) Petrapole in North 24 Parganas district, sources said.

    In the afternoon, the home minister will release a film, ”Luminaries of Bengal”, and inaugurate various projects at the Science City in Kolkata. In the evening, Shah will also attend the birth anniversary celebrations of Tagore in the city.