West Bengal

Kolkata, Nov 29 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be on a three-day visit to Mumbai from November 30, during which she is scheduled to meet NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and her Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray.

She is also expected to meet industrialists in Mumbai on December 1 and invite them to Bengal Global Business Summit, to be held in April next year.

Kolkata, Nov 24 (PTI) The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted bail to BJP leader Rakesh Singh, who was arrested by the city police in connection with a drug-related case.

A division bench comprising justices Arijit Banerjee and B Pattanayak asked Singh to furnish a bail bond of Rs two lakh -- four sureties of Rs 50,000 each.

The Kolkata Police had on February 23 arrested Singh, who is also a leader of many workers' unions in the city's port area, in connection with his alleged involvement in a drug recovery case.

Kolkata, Nov 23 (PTI) The Tea Association of India (TAI) has expressed concern over decline in prices and drop in production, and cautioned that the industry could be heading towards a crisis.

Secretary General of TAI, P K Bhattacharya, said there has been a substantial drop in tea prices during November, both in Assam and West Bengal.

Input prices have also seen a steep rise, the planters' body said.

Kolkata, Nov 11 (PTI) Bengali actor Srabanti Chatterjee, who had joined the BJP before this year's assembly elections and unsuccessfully contested against TMC heavyweight Partha Chatterjee, quit the saffron party on Thursday citing its "lack of initiative and sincerity to further the cause of West Bengal".

The 34-year-old actor had been maintaining a distance from the saffron party after it failed to unseat Mamata Banerjee's government from power in the eastern state despite a high-pitched campaign.

Kolkata, Nov 2 (PTI) The Trinamool Congress was leading on Tuesday in all four assembly seats where bypolls were held on October 30, as per the initial trends.

The counting of votes to Khardah, Santipur, Gosaba and Dinhata began at 8 am amid tight security.

After the first round of counting, the TMC was leading in all the seats, Election Commission officials said.

"Counting of votes is happening smoothly. There is no report of any untoward incident till 9 am," an official of the poll panel said.

Kolkata, Oct 29 (PTI) The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered a ban on the sale and use of all firecrackers during Diwali, Chhath Puja, and other festivities to check air pollution amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A division bench comprising justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Aniruddha Roy directed the police to initiate legal action against anyone found violating the ban after having confiscated the crackers.

Kolkata, Oct 22 (PTI) Rumblings of discontent within the Bharatiya Janata Party's Bengal unit spilled out in the open, when two factions within the party brawled in the presence of state BJP President Sukanta Majumder and his predecessor Dilip Ghosh at Katwa in Paschim Bardhaman on Friday.

While talking to reporters both Ghosh and Majumder refused to attach much importance to the incident and blamed "Trinamool Congress agents" for the fracas while asserting that the BJP rank and file was solidly behind the new state leadership.

Kolkata, Oct 7 (PTI) BJP state secretary and the former mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Sabyasachi Dutta, who had quit the TMC to join the saffron camp two years ago, returned to the Mamata Banerjee-led party on Thursday.

He joined the state's ruling party at TMC secretary general and cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee's room in the Assembly, in the presence of other leaders.

Kolkata, Oct 3 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was leading by 2,377 votes in the Bhabanipur bypoll after the second round of counting on Sunday morning, as per the Election Commission.

Banerjee, the TMC candidate in Bhabanipur, secured 5,333 votes, as per official data after the second round of counting.

Her nearest rival, BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal, secured 2,956 votes, while Srijib Biswas of the CPI(M) secured 132 votes.

Total 21 rounds of counting will be held in Bhabanipur.

Kolkata, Sep 25 (PTI) A middle-aged man who underwent a lung transplant operation at a city-based private hospital passed away three days after the complicated surgery was performed on him, authorities said on Saturday.