Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s rally at Binpur in Jangalmahal on Tuesday proved a damp squib. For the first time in recent memory, Ms Banerjee addressed a public rally which was attended by such a pathetically thin crowd. Vast expanses opposite her podium were empty.

Despite chief minister Mamata Banerjee giving a clean chit to the procedure of splitting the file (awarding the contract to several parties) for the work for installing trident lamps, member mayor-in-council (MMiC) Atin Ghosh said that the norm of splitting the file which was implemented by the previous Left Front board created scope for corruption.

With the formulation of the mutual transfer policy for the school teachers, the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) has completed transfers of 10,000 teachers. WBSSC chairman Chittaranjan Mandal said 700 more teachers are likely to be counselled to enjoy the benefit.

After the intervention of Human Rights Commission and a visit by sub-divisional officer Tanvir Afzal at the fire-ravaged site, the rehabilitation process at Solobigha slum in Maheshtala Municipality began on Tuesday, two days after it was reduced to ashes. Around 700 shanties were gutted in Saturday’s blaze which mercifully injured none.

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.

A day after state finance minister Amit Mitra presented the 2013-14 annual state Budget, former finance minister and senior CPI(M) leader Asim Dasgupta raised questions about the GDP growth rate, increase in revenue and employment figures. He said that several points made by Mr Mitra in his Budget speech and economic survey were not clear to him.

CPI(M) MLA Anisur Rahaman on Tuesday apologised unconditionally on the floor of the House after Trinamul Congress deputy leader Partha Chatterjee brought a privilege notice against him for his indecent remarks against chief minister Mamata Banerjee at a rally in Raigunj in North Dinajpur in 2012.

A day after governor M.K. Narayanan condemned Trinamul Congress general secretary Mukul Roy’s attack on state election commissioner Mira Pande, state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee embarked upon a damage control exercise.

A GRP constable beat a 55-year-old man to death at Berhampore railway station in Murshidabad.
Dilip Ghose and his wife from Bongaon were spending the night at the waiting room on their way to Rampurhat on Monday. They had come from a religious trip to Tarapith.

Arriving on a three-day visit to North Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that the people of the state would never tolerate a secessionist movement. This was a veiled message to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leadership which had threatened to relaunch a movement to press for their demand for a separate Gorkhaland.