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The Trinamool Congress released its manifesto for the Tripura assembly elections on Sunday, promising 2 lakh new jobs, Rs 1,000 per month for school students in classes 4 to 8 and unemployed youths, and social welfare schemes on the lines of those in West Bengal. The manifesto was launched a day ahead of party chief Mamata Banerjee's visit to the state. The TMC is fighting 28 assembly seats in the February 16 election. Addressing a press conference, West Bengal education minister Bratya Basu said that if the party is voted to power in the state, it will create 2 lakh jobs in five years with 50,000 new jobs in the first year itself. "All vacant posts in the government departments will be filled up on mission mode," he said. "The TMC will provide assistance of Rs 1,000 per month to jobless youths, and 10,323 retrenched teachers will also get the benefit until their legal matter is resolved," he said. The TMC promised a skill university, student credit cards and easy loans for those
Assam-based Purvanchal Cement has earmarked Rs 200 crore for acquisition and expansion over the next few years, including foraying into markets outside the northeastern region like West Bengal, a senior official said. The Maithon Group company has at present a 0.5-million tonne capacity plant near Guwahati. We are evaluating between brownfield expansion and acquisition preferably with mine rights in the northern part of Assam," Purbanchal Cement MD Vedant Agarwal said. "We have earmarked Rs 200 crore over the next two-three years to fund our expansion. Initially, we are aiming at ramping up our installed capacity to 1 million tonnes," he told PTI. Agarwal said the company is also looking at opportunities beyond the northeast. "There are plans to set up a grinding unit in West Bengal to tap the eastern market demand," he said. The West Bengal government has been wooing manufacturing industries for investment, banking on robust coal deposits, officials said. In recent times, howev
A vocational training centre of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was gutted in West Bengal's Birbhum district on Saturday, officials said. No casualty was reported. The 'Bhakti Vedanta Vocational Training Centre', set up at Bhimgarh village under Khayrasole police station around five months ago, was operated from a brick-walled hall with a thatched roof. The flame reduced the roof to ashes. Sevakpratim Madhab Das, who is in charge of the centre, said, We suspect that the house was set on fire by some miscreants who don't want us to work here. We have lodged a complaint with the police. Police officials confirmed that a complaint was filed. People associated with ISKCON put up a road blockade on NH-14 (Panagarh-Morgram) for some time in protest against the arson. BJP MLA of Dubrajpur, Anup Saha, also demonstrated before Khayrasole police station.
Cyclone 'Sitrang' crossed the Bangladesh coast near Barisal between 9.30 pm and 11.30 pm on Monday after skirting the West Bengal coast, the meteorological department said here. It said weather in south Bengal districts is likely to improve from forenoon on Tuesday. The system, which moved towards Bangladesh from north Bay of Bengal at a speed of 56 kmph, caused moderate to heavy rain and squally weather in West Bengal's coastal districts of South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore, dampening festive spirits on Diwali and Kali Puja. Sitrang made landfall between Tinkona Island and Sandwip near Barisal in Bangladesh between 9.30 pm and 11.30 pm on Monday with a sustained wind speed of 80 to 90 kmph gusting to 100 kmph, the regional MeT centre here said. It is very likely to weaken into a depression and then into a low pressure by Tuesday evening, it said. The weather office warned of squally wind with speed reaching 40 to 50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph along and off West
A special PMLA court here on Wednesday extended the judicial remand of former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee till September 28 on a prayer by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing alleged money trail in the school jobs scam. The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court also extended the judicial remand of Chatterjee's alleged close aide, Arpita Mukherjee, for 14 days. Rejecting a bail prayer of the former minister, Judge Bidyut Baran Roy granted 14 days' judicial remand of Chatterjee and Mukherjee on a prayer by the ED till September 28. Opposing the bail prayer, ED counsel Phiroze Edulji claimed before the court that around Rs 100 crore have so far been recovered in the form of cash and assets of Mukherjee, the alleged associate of the former minister. Produced before the court through the virtual mode from Presidency Correctional Home here, Chatterjee prayed that he be granted bail. His lawyers were present before the judge physically. The judge grant