News Analysis India

Tag: Mamata Banerjee

  • Bengal Governor corrupt, named in the chargesheet of 1996 Hawala Jain case, claims CM Mamata Banerjee

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Monday called Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar a “corrupt man” and questioned the purpose of his recent tour of North Bengal, alleging that a conspiracy was being hatched to divide the northern part of the state.

    “He is a corrupt man. He was named in the chargesheet in the 1996 Hawala Jain case. Why has the central government allowed a governor like this to continue?” she told reporters at the state secretariat, without elaborating.

    Banerjee said Dhankhar’s visit to North Bengal was a political stunt as he only met MLAs and MPs of the BJP.

    “Why did he suddenly tour North Bengal? I can sense a conspiracy to divide North Bengal,” the CM alleged.

    The Trinamool Congress supremo also said she has written multiple letters to the Centre for the removal of Dhankhar.

    “As per the Constitution, I will continue to meet him, talk to him and follow all the courtesies. But, the union government should act based on my letters,” she said.

  • West Bengal extends COVID lockdown curbs till July 15, allows buses to operate with 50 per cent capacity

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Monday extended the COVID-related restrictions till July 15, announcing certain relaxations.

    Addressing a press conference, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said public buses will be allowed to operate in the state with 50 per cent capacity.

    Government and private offices would also be allowed to function with 50 per cent workforce, she said.

    Gymnasiums and beauty parlours can also operate with 50 per cent capacity from 11 am to 6 pm, she added.

    Social gatherings such as weddings would be allowed with a maximum of 50 people, Banerjee said, urging people to continue wearing masks and maintaining social distance.

    The government also allowed vegetable markets to remain open from 6 am to 12 pm.

    The restrictions, imposed on May 16, were last extended till June 30.

  • ‘Intruders’ spotted during West Bengal BJP’s virtual meeting, probe on

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Functionaries of the BJP’s West Bengal chapter were taken by surprise with the presence of “intruders” during the party’s internal virtual meeting on Thursday evening. Acting upon the instruction from the party’s central leadership, BJP Bengal unit organised the meeting to discuss the strategy of showcasing BJP-led central government’s projects and schemes for people. 

    During the meeting, the party’s  IT cell, which provided technical support for the meeting involving state-level functionaries and all district presidents and general secretaries, spotted two suspicious usernames – Mamata Banerjee and Joy Bangla – among the participants.

    As soon as members of the IT cell started inquiring, several anti-BJP contents started pouring in the comment box. Sources in the BJP said someone among the participants must have shared the link of the meeting.

    “We are now searching the traitor(s) to avert re-run of similar incident of spying,” said a BJP leader. The meeting was chaired by BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, vice-president Jayprakash Majumdar and other state functionaries along with district leaders.

    “The high-command had instructed us to give our functionaries a guideline for showcasing and campaigning all the positive measured that the BJP-led Centre initiated during the party’s last seven-year tenure in the central government. It was completely an internal meeting,” said another BJP leader.

    Insiders in the party said the event started smoothly and the leaders were discussing about the strategy. “Some of our experts from the IT cell were also among the participants. Suddenly, the IT cell spotted two suspicious usernames. One is namesake of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and other used her pre-election slogan Jay Bangla. The IT cell immediately removed them,” said the leader.

    BJP’s general secretary in Bengal Sayantan Basu said the matter is being investigated. 

  • Narada scam: SC annuls HC order refusing to accept replies of Mamata, Bengal law minister

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday annulled the Calcutta High Court’s June 9 order refusing to take on record the affidavits of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Law Minister Moloy Ghatak on their role on the day of arrest of four Trinamool Congress leaders on May 17 by CBI in Narada scam case.

    A vacation bench of justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari asked the high court to decide “de-novo” the fresh pleas, to be filed by Banerjee, Ghatak and the state government by June 28, before proceeding with the main petition of the CBI seeking transfer of the scam case to the high court itself.

    The top court said the three parties “ought to have filed an application for taking their respective counter affidavits on record, especially when the submissions/ arguments of the parties were going on and had progressed substantially”.

    The bench said the matter could be remanded to the high court to decide it afresh on the basis of the reasons to be given in the applications which may be filed by the parties within a specified time.

    “The counsel for the parties have graciously agreed to this suggestion of the Court. Accordingly, we dispose of these three petitions with directions,” it said.

    “In view of the fact that June 29, 2021 is the date fixed before the High Court, we direct that the petitioners may file their respective applications giving reasons to bring the counter affidavits filed by them on June 7 and June 9 respectively on record, by Monday that is June 28, after serving advance copies on the counsel for the Central Bureau Of Investigation and other necessary parties, on or before June 27,” the bench said in the order.

    CBI and others may file their replies to the application by June 29, after serving an advance copy to the counsel of Banerjee, Ghatak and the state government a day before, it said.

    “We request the High Court to first decide the aforesaid applications of the petitioners herein, for taking the counter affidavit/affidavits in response on record, before proceeding to decide the merits of the case,” it said.

    “We may further add that to avoid any prejudice to be caused to any of the parties, the order dated June 9 shall stand annulled and the High Court shall decide the matter de-novo,” it added.

    The top court made clear that the five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court headed by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal “shall decide the further course of action and proceed with the matter” after deciding the pleas of the three parties.

    The CBI has alleged that Banerjee, Ghatak and other TMC leaders had played a key role in stopping it from performing legal duty after arresting four leaders in the case.

    It claimed that while Banerjee sat on a dharna at the CBI office in Kolkata soon after the arrest of the four accused, Ghatak had been present at the Banshall Court premises during the virtual hearing of the case before the special CBI court on May 17.

    The high court had on June 9 refused to accept the reply-affidavits of the state, the chief minister and the law minister on their role, saying it would consider this aspect later.

    Ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI which is investigating the Narada sting tape case on a 2017 order of the high court.

    The vacation bench said it would hear the lawyers for five minutes each to decide whether a full-fledged hearing was needed.

    Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for Banerjee and Ghatak, said the replies were needed to be taken on record for proper and just adjudication of the CBI petition.

    Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the state, said that as per the high court rules, the permission to file an affidavit was not necessary and the state sought it as a courtesy which was denied.

    Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, opposed the pleas for bringing on record the replies saying that the order of the High court was “fully justified as the petitioners have been participating in the proceedings there and by not filing their response, they had waived their right to file the same.”

    He said the CBI had moved a plea for transfer of trial and declaration of proceedings in the trial court, granting bail to the four accused, as nullity on various grounds.

    “I had objected to the filing of the affidavits saying that they were filed to fill up the lacunae. They have taken a calculated risk,” he said.

    The bench said, “any observations made by us in this order shall not have any bearing on the merit consideration of the matters by the High Court.”

    The five-judge bench of high court, comprising ACJ Bindal and justices I P Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Arijit Banerjee, had granted interim bail on May 28 to the four Narada scam accused.

    The special CBI court had granted them bail on May 17 itself, but the order was stayed by the high court, which remanded them to judicial custody.

    They had been placed under house arrest on May 21 by the high court, modifying its earlier order of stay on the bail.

    The Narada sting operation was conducted by journalist Mathew Samuel of Narada News, a web portal, in 2014 wherein some people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of favours.

    At that time, the four arrested politicians were ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government.

    The sting operation was made public ahead of the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal.

  • Narada scam: SC annuls HC order refusing to accept replies of Mamata Banerjee, law minister

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday annulled the Calcutta High Court’s June 9 order refusing to take reply affidavits of West Bengal, its Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and state Law Minister Moloy Ghatak on the CBI’s transfer plea related to the Narada scam case.

    A vacation bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari urged the 5-judge bench of the High Court, headed by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, to decide afresh the pleas of Banerjee, Ghatak and the state government before deciding on the CBI petition seeking transfer of the scam case to the high court itself.

    The top court was hearing three appeals including that of the state government challenging the high court’s denial for filing of affidavits by Banerjee and Ghatak in their role on the day of arrest of four Trinamool Congress leaders on May 17 by CBI in the Narada scam case.

    It has been alleged that the state ruling party leaders played a key role in stopping the CBI from performing its legal duty after the arrest of four leaders in the case.

    Ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI which is investigating the Narada sting tape case on a 2017 order of the high court.

  • Bengal local train services unlikely to resume after Covid curbs end on June 30

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday hinted that it is unlikely that local trains will start operating even if the ongoing restrictions are relaxed a bit after June 30, as that might spread the Covid-19 infection.

    People blocked railway tracks in several stations in the state for around three hours on Thursday demanding that they be allowed to board staff special stations.

    “We are not running the trains to keep the contagion under check. It is natural that stopping the service causes problems for the people. If we run trains now, everybody will be infected by Covid. What will you do then?” she told reporters.

    Banerjee claimed that the restrictions imposed by her government are not like those in several other states.

    “Shops, vegetable markets and all are almost open. Organisations are providing transportation to bring employees. People are working from home in several offices,” she said.

    The West Bengal government has imposed certain restrictions in the state from May 16 to May 30 to combat a surge in Covid-19 cases and extended it twice later.

    The ongoing curbs are scheduled to come to an end on June 30.

    Meanwhile, on Thursday, West Bengal’s Covid-19 toll rose to 17,516 after 41 deaths were recorded in the state, the health bulletin said.

    The tally went up to 14,89,286 as 1,923 more people tested positive for the virus.

    The number of active cases is now 22,308 while 1,952 recoveries were registered.

    At least 55,679 samples were tested in the state in the last 24 hours for coronavirus, the bulletin said.

    Altogether 3,11,043 people were vaccinated in West Bengal on Thursday, a health department official said.

  • BJP seeks cancellation of Mukul Roy’s nomination for PAC; Mamata hits back at saffron party

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The saffron party Thursday sought cancellation of Mukul Roy’s nomination for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and urged the Assembly secretary to reject his candidature as his name has not been proposed by the BJP Legislature party and the TMC is ineligible to advance his nomination as he has been elected on a BJP ticket.

    Roy was among the 20 MLAs who filed nominations for memberships of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the West Bengal assembly on Wednesday amid speculations that he may be appointed its chairman.

    The TMC has submitted 14 names and the BJP has put forward six names.

    Roy featured in the list of 20.

    Roy, officially a BJP MLA from Krishnanagar Uttar, switched over to the TMC last week but did not resign from the assembly or was disqualified under the anti-defection law.

    “We have submitted a letter to the assembly secretary objecting Mukul Roy’s nomination for the PAC membership. According to the assembly rules, either his name has to be submitted by the TMC or the BJP.”

    “The list doesn’t state on whose behalf Mukul Roy has filed nomination,” a senior BJP MLA said.

    Roy’s name has been proposed by independent member Ruden Sada Lepcha and TMC MLA Tarun Kumar Maity.

    Citing Rule no-302 of the Rules Procedure and Conduct of Business in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, the letter by the BJP noted that the norm of electing members to the PAC is based on the Principle of Proportional Representation.

    “Proportional Representation means election of the PAC members from amongst the proportional ratio of the parties. The BJP has not recommended his name.”

    “The TMC also can’t recommend his names as he has been elected on a BJP ticket. Hence, his nomination should be cancelled,” another BJP MLA said.

    Reacting to the development, TMC chief whip Nirmal Ghosh had said the letter by the BJP neither has any legal nor constitutional sanctity.

    “The BJP leaders don’t know the rules and proceedings of the House. When the nominations for the PAC membership are submitted, it is done as members of the house and not as a member of any party,” Ghosh said.

    Meanwhile, according to sources, all the 20 nominations, including that of Roy, have been accepted after the scrutiny.

    However, the list will be officially announced later.

    The BJP legislature party is apprehensive that the post of the PAC chairman, whose selection is the speaker’s prerogative, might go to Roy as there have been instances when Congress MLAs switching over to TMC were appointed to the important posts, party sources said.

    “As per the norm, the PAC chairman post goes to the opposition party. But, in the last assembly, we saw how Manas Bhunia and Sankar Singh held the post despite crossing over to the TMC and not resigning as Congress MLAs.”

    “The speaker then had cited that they are officially opposition MLAs,” a state BJP leader said.

    The apprehensions gained momentum after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, during a press conference, said Roy is a “BJP member” and the TMC is ready to face voting on the floor of the house on the issue of PAC chairman.

    Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said Roy’s nomination does not matter as he would cease to exist as a house member under the anti-defection law.

    Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that her party is supporting Roy.

    Stating that Roy “is a member of the BJP”, she said that though anybody can file nomination its the Speaker who has the authority to take the final call.

    “Anybody can file nomination for public accounts committee (PAC). And Mukul Roy who has filed the nomination is a member of the BJP.”

    “Where is the problem? He has got the support of Binay Tamang’s party and we will also support him. Its decision of the speaker,” Banerjee told reporters at the secretariat.

    “And if there is voting, we will win. We have gained power in the state after people voted for us. We will use the same to get the right person elected (for the PAC),” the Trinamool Congress supremo said.

    The state assembly has 41 committees and the PAC works as the audit watchdog of the House.

  • Calcutta HC judge reserves order on Mamata’s recusal plea over his BJP links

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court Thursday reserved its order on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s application seeking recusal of a judge from hearing her petition challenging the election of her BJP rival from Nandigram Suvendu Adhikari apprehending bias because of his links to the saffron party.

    Banerjee was present before the court online during the hearing by Justice Kausik Chanda in accordance with his June 18 direction.

    Appearing for Banerjee, senior counsel A M Singhvi submitted through video conferencing that the petitioner apprehends bias on the part of the judge in adjudicating the election petition as he was formerly an “active member” of the BJP.

    Advocate S N Mookerjee also argued for the TMC supremo.

    Justice Chanda, whose recusal Banerjee has sought, reserved his judgement after hearing their submissions.

    Banerjee has claimed Justice Chanda was an active member of the BJP till his appointment as Additional Solicitor General in 2015, and since the election of a BJP candidate has been challenged, she apprehended bias in adjudication of the election petition.

    Quoting Shakespeare, Singhvi submitted: “Hon’ble judge of this hon’ble court should be like Caesar’s wife – above suspicion.”

    Justice Chanda said he was never the convenor of BJP’s legal cell, as claimed, but had represented the party in many cases before the Calcutta High Court.

    He acknowledged he had appeared for the BJP in a 2014 case for granting permission for a rally to be addressed by Amit Shah in front of Victoria House at Esplanade.

    The judge wondered whether recusing himself from the case would not mean giving in to a media trial.

    Justice Chanda also asked why the objections were not raised during the first hearing of the election petition on June 18 and the transfer application submitted to the Acting Chief Justice on June 16 was not mentioned then.

    Banerjee claimed in the recusal application that as Suvendu Adhikari is a member of the BJP and the “Hon’ble Judge was an active member of the BJP, (it) will lead to a situation and perception whereby the Hon’ble Judge adjudicating the said election petition, may be said to be judge in his own cause.”

    Her counsel had also written to the acting chief justice seeking reassignment of her election petition to another bench.

    Banerjee has accused Adhikari, her former confidante- turned-rival, of committing corrupt practices in violation of Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

    She has also alleged irregularities were committed in the counting exercise.

    According to the result declared by the Election Commission on May 2, Adhikari had defeated Banerjee by 1956 votes.

    She had sought recounting of votes after her defeat by a slender margin but the returning officer turned down the request.

  • Snatching away Kashmir’s statehood, vaccine issue brought shame to India: Mamata

    Banerjee made the comment in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting with leaders of various political parties of Jammu and Kashmir in New Delhi.

  • Mamata Banerjee writes to PM Modi for expediting WHO nod to Covaxin

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention for early approval of Covaxin by the World Health Organisation, without which people having taken the Bharat Biotech jab may face problems travelling abroad.

    The CM, in her letter, stated that her government has been “receiving both Covishield and Covaxin” from the very beginning.

    Even the private sector in the state has procured and administered both the vaccines, she said.

    “A large number of students from all over the country travel abroad every year for higher studies and many of them have got themselves vaccinated with Covaxin.”

    “They came to learn later on that their vaccination certificate is not valid abroad. These students are now in a fix regarding their next course of action and their career is at stake,” Banerjee wrote to Modi on Thursday.

    Many countries are allowing entry of only those people who have taken WHO-approved vaccines, she noted.

    “It is learnt that Covaxin is still not approved by WHO and it is not possible to travel abroad as many countries are allowing only those people who are fully vaccinated with WHO-approved vaccines.”

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    “Hence, I request for your kind intervention so that an early approval is received for Covaxin from WHO so that students do not face any problem. This will also benefit people travelling abroad for job, education, business and any other purposes as well,” she added.

    Banerjee had on Wednesday asked Chief Secretary HK Dwidevi to write to the Union Health Secretary and Cabinet Secretary on this matter.

    She had also urged the Centre to take steps to ensure that people inoculated with Covaxin do not face any restriction during their overseas travel.