News Analysis India

Tag: West Bengal Government

  • West Bengal’s TMC government appropriating central schemes: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari

    By PTI
    PURULIA: Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday accused the Mamata Banerjee dispensation of appropriating central projects, and said only three to four people in the state government call the shots, with the rest functioning as rubber stamps.

    Maintaining that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already said that three crore health workers and 27 crore people above the age of 50 years will be administered the vaccine for free across the country, Adhikari claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, despite the announcement, wrote to all COVID warriors and stated that her government would not charge anything for the inoculation.

    Earlier in the day, Banerjee said that arrangements were being made to provide COVID-19 vaccines for free to all the people of the state, and not just the COVID-19 warriors. She also clarified that frontline workers would be given priority over others.

    Alleging that the TMC government was changing names of central projects to claim those to be its own, the former state minister said, “The name of Centre’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan project has been changed to Nirmal Bangla mission.”

    Adhikari, during a public meeting here, also contended that natural resources of Purulia, including coal and other minerals, were being looted by organised gangs, with the state government doing nothing about it.

    The former MLA, during his speech at an adivasi- dominated district, further said that the ‘Ol Chiki’ language of Santhalis was given recognition in the eighth schedule of the Constitution by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but the TMC government did not provide any book or teaching facility to promote it.

    He also claimed that the TMC has ceased to be a political party and functions as a private limited company, with “three or four persons from south Kolkata running the government with 20 of 30 departments in their hands”.

    Asserting that the rural areas of the state have long been neglected by the TMC leadership, he said that the “fight is between the villages and a few privileged persons from south Kolkata”. He also said that the district-level service commissions for recruitment of school teachers have been replaced by a centralised system based in Kolkata, thereby reducing job opportunities for youths.

  • Mamata govt allows 100% occupancy in cinema halls in West Bengal

    By ANI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has allowed 100 per cent occupancy in cinema halls in the state but asserted following precautionary measures in the view of Covid-19.

    She was speaking at the inauguration of the 26th edition of the Kolkata International Film Festival 2021 via video conference on Friday.

    “Due to the pandemic, only 50 per cent occupancy in cinema halls is allowed. Now I am allowing 100 per cent occupancy but proper care needs to be taken,” she said.

    Actor Shahrukh Khan also participated in the event virtually. The Kolkata Film Festival, which was started in the year 1995, is being organised virtually in the view of Covid-19 pandemic.

    Recently a similar notification was issued by the Tamil Nadu government to increase the occupancy in cinemas, theatres, and multiplexes to 100 per cent capacity.

    However, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has written to Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary stating that the state government’s move is the dilution of the Ministry of Home Affair’s order.

    Bhalla asked the chief secretary to immediately issue the necessary order to bring their guidelines in line with the MHA guidelines dated December 28, 2020, and inform compliance to this Ministry. 

  • Calcutta HC directs Bengal govt to file supplementary affidavit in Manish Shukla murder case investigation

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the West Bengal government to file a supplementary affidavit on developments in the CID investigation into the murder of BJP leader Manish Shukla within two weeks.

    The court also allowed Chandra Mani Shukla, father of the deceased, to be added as a supporting party in the PIL seeking a probe by a central investigating agency into the killing.

    Granting liberty to the West Bengal government to file the supplementary affidavit on developments in the state CID investigation into the murder of Shukla, a division bench comprising Chief Justice T B N Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee directed that it be filed within two weeks.

    Petitioner Priyanka Tibrewal has prayed that the investigation into the killing be carried out by an independent and central investigating agency like the CBI, which is outside the control of the state administration, for the purpose of a free and fair probe.

    Shukla was shot dead at Titagarh in North 24 Parganas district by some assailants on October four last year.