န TOP BENGAL NEWS OF THE JULY, 2009

Torrential rain stalls Bangladesh team's Tipai site visit
Guwahati, Dhaka, 31 July : The 10-member Bangladeshi parliamentary delegation could not visit the proposed Tipaimukh dam site in on Friday as the helicopter carrying them failed to land due to torrential rains, BBC Bengali Service reports.
The team, led by chairman of the Bangladesh parliamentary standing committee on water resources Abdur Razzak, left for the site early in the morning from Guwahati. But the team returned to Guwahati without taking any risks amid the heavy rainfall.
"We saw the site from above but did not see any installations or construction work being in progress there," Razzak, who later returned to Guwahati, told BBC's east India correspondent Subir Bhowmik. He said they had come to India to verify the allegation that India had already started the dam construction and New Delhi's claims that it is a hydropower project and the dam will not divert any irrigation water.
Some people of Tipaimukh area told BBC that they had been waiting to talk with them amid the heavy rainfall. န Photo : BBC Bengali

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4 killed as Jangipur-Asansol bus overturns in Birbhum
Suri, 31 July : Four persons were killed and 40 others injured when a speeding Jangipur-bound private bus overturned and fell into a ditch on Friday evening.The incident occurred at NH-60 in Sotsal under Birbhum's Mohammad Bazar police station. The bus was coming from Asansol.
The injured were sent to hospitals in Suri, Rampurhat and Mallarpur. Surgery had to be performed on six of them. One of the injured has been shifted to Burdwan Medical College Hospital.
The bus was going to Jangipur from Asansol. Two of the deceased have been identified as Hemanta Mondal (50) and Feroz Sheikh (22). Mondal was a resident of Rampurhat while Sheikh hailed from Raghunathganj in Murshidabad. They died at Suri hospital. The driver and the helper were missing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cong surrendered to Mamata in bypoll seat bargain
Kolkata, 31 July : The Congress surrendered to Mamata Banerjee tonight by deciding to pull its candidates from two central Kolkata Assembly seats with less than 24 hours to go for withdrawal of nomination.
Pradesh Congress president Pranab Mukherjee asked Congress candidates Pradip Ghosh and Santosh Pathak to withdraw their nominations from the seats. Trinamool Congress candidates Shikha Mitra, former Congress MLA and sitting Trinamool Congress MP Somen Mitra's wife, and former councillor Swarnakamal Saha will be contesting from Sealdah and Bowbazar.
The decision, that may not go down well among the Congress ranks, is enough indication that Congress president Sonia Gandhi values Mamata as a crucial UPA partner and is not going to disturb the alliance, even if her party has to take a back seat in West Bengal.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Supreme Court's 'NO' to stay on phasing out old cars
PTI, New Delhi, 31 July : The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant interim stay on the Kolkata High Court judgement directing the West Bengal government to phase out from the metropolis commercial vehicles which are 15-year-old.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan said, it would hear the petition seeking stay of the Kolkata High Court on Tuesday. The transporters association has approached the apex Court against the July 2008 judgement of the High Court which had directed the state government to phase out 15-year-old commercial vehicles from the municipal limits of Kolkata city by tomorrow.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joint Forces, Maoists exchange fire in Lalgarh area
Lalgarh, 31 July : There was an exchange of fire on Friday between joint forces and Maoists at Dharampur near here in West Midnapore district in which some people were injured, police said.

"The Maoist opened fire at our camp at Dhulaberia in Dharmapur and forces retaliated," Superintendent of Police (West Midnapore) Manoj Verma told Bengal Newz. "The firing continued for nearly an hour before the Maoists fled," Verma said. He said some persons were injured in the firing. The police also arrested a Maoist 'action squad' member, Aditya Rao, from Sitalkuchi near Jhargram for a mine blast on 28 March near Lalgarh.
Meanwhile, People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) Convenor Chatradhar Mahato alleged that the security personnel fired on villagers leaving four injured.
The two assistant sub-inspectors of the State Armed Police, Sabbir Molla and Kanchan Bauri, who were abducted by Maoists when they were returning to their camp at Dharampur from Lalgarh on Thursday, are still untraceable, police said. န Photos : PTI

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jamat-e-Islami arms dealer arrested by BSF in Malda

Malda, 31 July : Within a week of the recovery of explosives from Kaliachak, a Bangladeshi arms dealer was arrested at the Indo-Bangla border by the BSF at Shashani village while on his way back to Bangladesh.
Ekramul Hoque (45) of Shonganga village in Gopalpur under Papahar police station of Naogaon district was nabbed by BSF jawans with an automatic revolver of German make. BSF also seized two cellphones from him with Vodafone and Gramin Phone SIM cards. As Hoque could not produce his papers, it led BSF to interrogate him. It is learnt that Haque, a member of the 'Jamat-e-Islami' Bangladesh had close links with some Indians regarding an arms deal. Also, his connection with subversive forces in India has not been ruled out either. "Interrogation revealed that Hoque used to frequent this part of the border. We have also come to know the names of the persons with whom he had dealt in arms," DIG BSF Bikash Chand Meheta told Bengal Newz.
If the smuggling of fake currency and arms through this border is a regular phenomenon, Friday's arrest got a special dimension with the recent seizure of IEDs in Kaliachak.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10 people die in Bandarban hill slides
Bandarban, 31 July : At least 10 people, six of a family, were killed and dozens injured in multiple hill collapses early on Friday in Aziznagar in Lama upazila of Bandarban. Torrential rains triggered the landslide in three places at around 3am(BDST), police and locals said.
Local journalists said neighbours had recovered some of the bodies from Harinmara Parah while fire service men of Satkania in Chittagong and Chakaria in Cox's Bazar recovered the rest of the bodies.
Bandarban police chief Quamrul Ahsan said that the victims had been sleeping in bamboo-made houses at the bottom of the hills. At least 130 people died in a landslide in Chittagong in June, 2007. န Photo : STAR

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sting operation at Sourav restaurant, police to inqure

Kolkata, 31 July : A sting operation by Channel 10 TV at cricketer Sourav Ganguly's bar and restaurant here showed visuals of a skimpily-clad woman dancing on the floor and the police said they will inquire into the matter.
The sting operation by 'Channel 10' reporters Shanku Deb Panda and Avik Chatterjee, showed the dancer performing at the restaurant The Food Pavilion on Park Street on 5 July, allegedly in violation of rules. Under the rules, it is illegal to engage professional performers at hotels. The Kolkata police issues licenses only to singers.
Jawed Shamim, deputy commissioner detective department (in-charge of headquarters) told Bengal Newz that they have asked for the video clip. "On the basis of it we will conduct an inquiry. If we find anything illegal, we will then take action." "There has been no complaint," he added. Ganguly's elder brother Snehashis, however, said the restaurant has the required licenses. "I am unaware of the claims made by the channel. There seems to be some vested interests who are trying to malign my brother's image at a time when he is attending the annual general meeting of the cricket association of Bengal (CAB)," Snehashis told PTI.
The Gangulys have not ruled out legal action against the channel accusing it for tarnishing their image.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------