Congress president Sonia Gandhi will come to the city on a two-day visit in between September 22 and 26 to take part in a conference on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the formation of the Congress party. The Congress leaders of eastern Indian states will take part in this conference. AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi will also visit West Bengal soon.

Four persons were killed and six persons sustained injuries when the police opened fire on villagers including women and children protesting against a thermal power project being set up by Nagarjuna Construction Company in the wetlands of Sompeta mandal on Wednesday.

The students interested in taking up sports as their career would be gifted with new sports schools where they can take up sports and also study simultaneously. The state government plans to open four new sports school in the state.

Facing a string of Maoist attacks in the state, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Wednesday said that the country must rise above the constriction that Naxal problem is the concern of any single state but a “national strategy’’ was needed to counter it. He also said a dialogue with Maoists will not serve any purpose unless they express faith in the Constitution and adopt democratic means.

The Trinamul Congress legislature party on Wednesday moved a motion in the House seeking discussion on the lawlessness and volatile situation in the state. Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim admitted the motion and will fix a date and time for a discussion on it on the floor of the Assembly.

A nine-year-old boy, who was hospitalised after his drunken father slashed his buttocks with a knife, was handed over to a child care home by the State Women’s Commission.

The taxis will stay off the road from Wednesday midnight as the Taxi Bachao Committee, a platform of the taxi unions in the city, has called a token strike following the failure of its talks with state transport minister Ranjit Kundu on fare hike. The Progressive Taximen’s Union, backed by the Trinamul Congress and a part of the Taxi Bachao Committee also, has however opposed the strike and will not participate in it.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said that linguistic minorities should be protected but declined to take any stand on the vexed issue of Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary dispute on the ground that it is sub judice.

It is becoming increasingly evident that the Left Front government is reconciled to its fate. One could hear a painful and plaintive farewell note in the statement that commerce and industry minister Nirupam Sen made on the floor of the Assembly on Wednesday.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s controversial brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav has been given a place in the publicity committee of the Congress in poll-bound Bihar.
On the other hand, Mr Ranjit Ranjan, wife of Mr Pappu Yadav — convicted for the murder of a CPI(M) MLA in Bihar — will look after media affairs as vice-chairman of the media committee.