The ruling Trinamul Congress in West Bengal on Friday remained in denial mode refusing to accept the involvement of party workers in the violence and vandalism at the Presidency University on Wednesday.

Combative West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is going to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union finance minister P. Chidambaram to ask them why they were keeping Bengal deprived.

Buckling under intense pressure from the state election commission, the Mamata Banerjee government on Tuesday agreed to concede some ground and redistribute some districts in two phases of panchayat election. However, barring this minor concession, the state government rejected all other recommendations and suggestions made by the state poll panel in its 11-page letter on Monday.

There is no doubt that the Muslims living in US faced many challenges after the attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, but they turned the adversity into opportunity.

Governor M.K.

The Mamata Banerjee government will introduce reservation of seats for SC/STs and OBCs in higher education in the state. The decision was taken in a Cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister on Wednesday. “We have decided to introduce reservation for SC (22 per cent), ST (6 per cent) and OBC (17 per cent, including minorities) students in higher educational institutions for the first time in the state,” Ms Banerjee said, adding that it was a revolutionary decision.

In what will come as a relief to the Centre, chief minister Mamata Banerjee seems to have softened her stand on the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Monday said that Ms Banerjee was positively inclined towards the NCTC. “Unka to mann iss mein ha (She is willing).

Trinamul Congress supporters vandalised the Bongaon police station in North 24 Parganas, and in a separate incident, attacked a gram panchayat official in Murshidabad on Friday.

Union minister of minority affairs K. Rahman Khan on Monday slammed the Mamata Banerjee government for misusing Central funds meant for minority development.

West Bengal’s advocate-general Anindya Mitra on Friday resigned from his post. He has not mentioned any reason for the decision. However, sources said that Mr Mitra decided to quit because of his growing differences with the state government.