After sharing the dais at a function hosted by the railways and Kolkata Port Trust, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and railway minister Mamata Banerjee together went to meet West Bengal governor M.K. Narayanan on Friday. This is the first time the two leaders visited Raj Bhavan together. They were closeted with Mr Narayanan for nearly an hour, after which Mr Mukherjee stayed on at Raj Bhavan.

Leaving the pre-civic polls acrimony behind, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and railway minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday not only shared stage at a high-profile programme of the Railways and Kolkata Port Trust but they also jointly met governor M.K. Narayanan. This is the first time that the two leaders visited the Raj Bhavan together. They were closeted with Mr Narayanan for nearly an hour. Mr Mukherjee spent some more time at the Raj Bhavan after Ms Banerjee left.

Three members a gang who stole valuables of air passengers were arrested at the Kolkata airport on Thursday. The persons, identified as Syed Sheikh, U. Janardhan and D. Curba, were detained by the CISF for suspicious movement. They claimed that they had to take a flight to Mumbai. However, the CISF identified Janardhan and Curba as members of the gang from their files. The three members of the gang were handed over to the police.

State health minister Suryakanta Mishra will lead the delegation of the state government in the meeting of chief ministers of seven Naxal-affected states convened by the Centre on July 14 at New Delhi. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who was supposed to participate in the meeting, would not attend it.

It is common to hear allegations that the police “tampers” with complaints to facilitate “easy investigation.” But this time, the allegation has come from none other than Kolkata police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakraborty, who on Friday rapped the officer-in-charge of the New Alipore police station for “suppressing” a snatching case and “presenting” it as a case of mere “rash driving.”

The Trinamul Chhatra Parishad (TCP) has called an indefinite strike at Visvabharati University following the sudden hike in tuition fees. Varsity officials held a high-level meeting on Friday to review the fee structure. The TCP members staged a protest in front of the varsity’s central office demanding withdrawal of the fee hike. “The

The state governments are failing to utilise the Central funds for development works, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Friday. He reasoned that the fiscal deficit cannot be met by leaving the Central funds unpsent. “Any finance minister wants the Central funds he allots to be spent effectively. But in the year-end, it is found that the state governments fail to spend the funds. As a result, the funds are returned to the Centre,” Mr Mukherjee said.

The RSP, a major partner of the CPI(M) in the ruling Left Front, made it clear to its big brother party on Friday that it had failed “to correct the flaws in its policy even after back-to-back poll debacles in the state.”

State land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah on Friday punctured holes in his own Left Front government’s slogan “agriculture is our foundation and industry is our future.” He said that agriculture alone was the future of West Bengal. He lamented his inability to convince his own party, the CPI(M) and the government

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Thursday gave the first Jyoti Basu memorial lecture in the state Assembly. Present on the occasion were state CPI(M) leaders, including chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and state party secretary Biman Bose. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, politburo members Brinda Karat and Sitaram Yechury were conspicuous by their absence.