West Bengal

KOLKATA/DHAKA, May 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The most powerful cyclone to strike eastern India and Bangladesh in over a decade killed at least 82 people, officials said, as rescue teams scoured devastated coastal villages, hampered by torn down power lines and flooding over large tracts of land.

Mass evacuations organised by authorities before Cyclone Amphan made landfall undoubtedly saved countless lives, but the full extent of the casualties and damage to property would only be known once communications were restored, officials said.

Kolkata, May 20 (PTI) The landfall process of cyclone 'Amphan' commenced at 2.30 pm on Wednesday between Digha in West Bengal and Hatiya island in Bangladesh, the Met department said.

The landfall process will continue for about four hours, it said.

"The forward sector of the wall cloud region is entering into land in West Bengal," the Met said.

The intensity of the cyclone near its centre as the landfall process started was recorded at 160-170 kmph, gusting to 190 kmph, it said.

Kolkata, May 18 (PTI) Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced a slew of lockdown relaxations and said her government would not impose night curfew in West Bengal as proposed by the Centre.

Extending the coronavirus lockdown till May 31, Banerjee said street vendors, salon and parlour owners would be allowed to reopen the shops from May 27.

Kolkata, May 18 (PTI) The West Bengal government will on Monday evening come out with a notification on the modalities of the fourth phase of the lockdown in the state, a top official said.

The Centre on Sunday extended the coronavirus lockdown for two more weeks till May 31, with the fourth phase providing more relaxations outside the containment zones including inter-state movement of buses with mutual consent of states that is expected to be of immediate relief for thousands of migrant workers on the roads.

Kolkata, May 17 (PTI) The West Bengal government has released around 3,000 inmates on bail or parole to decongest correctional homes since the last week March in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, an official said on Sunday.

The department of correctional services has also taken several measures to check coronavirus infection inside the jails of the state.

The official said there are around 60 correctional homes in West Bengal, housing nearly 25,000 inmates and of them, close to 7,000 are convicts while others are undertrials.

Kolkata, May 16 (PTI) The Trinamool Congress on Saturday slammed the Centre over the death of 24 migrant workers in an accident in Uttar Pradesh and blamed its "botched up lockdown" and "arrogant" approach for the suffering of lakhs of them across the country.

The migrant workers were killed and 36 injured when a trailer rammed into a stationary truck, both carrying passengers, on a highway near Uttar Pradesh's Auraiya district early this morning, police said.

Kolkata/New Delhi, May 14 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal locked horns on Thursday over the return of stranded workers, with the CM announcing 105 trains to bring them home and the BJP leader accusing the state government of not taking adequate measures.

Bringing back migrant labourers and stranded people to Bengal has snowballed into a major political issue, with the opposition BJP and the Union government rapping the state for not doing enough and the Trinamool Congress denying it.

Kolkata, May 12 (PTI) The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation "incomplete and disappointing", saying there was no proper direction on how the financial package of Rs 20 lakh crores would be used and also what would happen after the third phase of the lockdown ends on May 17.

Kolkata, May 13 (PTI) A 76-year-old man from Bihar who had multiple age-related ailments died due to alleged negligence of a private hospital in Kolkata that denied admission suspecting him to be positive for COVID-19, his family members said on Wednesday.

Shahid Ahmad Yahya, a resident of Darbhanga, was brought to Kolkata on May 9 for admission to the Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals on the recommendation of the doctor who used to treat him, his son-in-law Mokhtar Alam told PTI.

Kolkata, May 12 (PTI) The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education has asked its affiliated schools to promote all class 11 students as their annual exams could not be completed due to the coronavirus-forced lockdown.

In a letter dated May 11, council president Mahua Das said as decided by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee all class 11 students should be declared promoted to the next class.