Category: KOLKATA

A fresh tussle has erupted between the Central and West Bengal governments over the expenses towards deployment of central armed forces personnel in the state on various occasions.

West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) on Friday started the process of termination or cancellation of appointments of illegally appointed non- teaching staff in Group-D category by publishing the names of 2,819 such candidates on its website.

Incidentally, the registered addresses of most of these entities where the two have cross-holdings or directorships have the registered address at 5A, Earle Street, Kolkata - 700026, which is also the registered address of Gajraj Towers.

A special team of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will visit West Bengal to review the statements of expenses by the state government on account of the midday meal scheme in the state.

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea for a fast-track basis hearing of the PIL against the installation of high-tension electricity lines by an Adani Group-owned power plant at Farakka in Murshidabad district.

The court cannot guide the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in every step of investigation in the multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam in West Bengal, Justice Biswajit Basu of the Calcutta High Court observed on Monday.

On Sunday afternoon, BJP legislator from Alipurduar constituency in Alipurduar district Suman Kanjilal reached the office of Trinamool's national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee in south Kolkata and joined the ruling party.

Mamata Banerjee, who is presently the sole authority to speak on the matter, has claimed a number of times that before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls the anti-BJP parties will come together automatically.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday claimed that on the day of the Union Budget on Wednesday, the Union government virtually was on the verge of collapse because of the share market crash.

As the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman remained totally silent over the tea industry in her Budget speech, the sector operators are frustrated and the observers of the industry surprised.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's claims in her Union Budget speech on Wednesday that the government is projected to face a Rs 30,000 crore revenue loss because of proposed tax rebates will just be notional, economic experts said.

The arrested persons have been booked under Section 102B (criminal conspiracy). Section 489B and Section 489C (possession of counterfeit currencies) of Indian Penal Code. The two arrested persons will be presented at a lower court in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Raids are underway in at least 12 places, including Tangra, Alipore, New Alipore, Anandapur, Hastings, Budge Budge and Maheshtala. Each team is being escorted by armed forces personnel.

The Calcutta High Court on Monday said that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee cannot be made a party to a PIL filed over derogatory comments made by a member of the cabinet led by her, referring to the looks of President Droupadi Murmu in November last year.

The West Bengal government might bring about some major changes in the clauses of land lease agreement in the state in the forthcoming Budget session of the Assembly, slated to start from February 4.

However, a week after his arrest, Trinamool Congress's national general secretary and party MP Abhishek Banerjee at a press conference announced the expulsion of Chatterjee for all ministerial and party portfolios.

While the state BJP leaders were not happy with the growing bonhomie between the state government and the governor, they refrained from making any official comment on the matter.

Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the opposition in West Bengal Assembly, on Saturday alleged that the state government diverted central funds allocated for the mid-day meal scheme to pay compensation to families of the 2022 Bogtui carnage victims.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing the multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam, has recovered WhatsApp chats hinting at possible advance leaking of question papers to select candidates who took the written examination for primary teachers' posts in West Bengal in 2016.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths, probing the multi-crore teachers recruitment irregularities scam in West Bengal, has come across clues indicating that part of the scam's proceeds were invested in a film production unit of Trinamool Congress youth leader Kuntal Ghosh, arrested by it earlier this month.

Sources said that later in the day, he broke down during interrogations and besides confessing his involvement in accepting money for arranging illegal recruitments, he also informed that a major portion of the proceeds collected by him was passed on to Chatterjee.

As per reports, Chandra Kumar Bose has not been quite happy for the last few days with his party especially as regards to the saffron camp's contradicting stand on Netaji's inclusive politics.

A court here has remanded the lone representative of the All India Secular Front in West Bengal assembly, Naushad Siddique, to police custody till February 1 on charges of attempting to instigate and create violence on the streets of Kolkata on Saturday.

A caution on this count has been flagged off by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee last week as she claimed that a Joshimath-like tragedy in Raniganj will affect the lives and livelihood of over 20,000 people in the region.

The Trinamool Congress on Saturday said it will contest alone in the upcoming assembly polls in the north-eastern state of Tripura and will field the party's own candidates in all the 60 assembly constituencies there.