န Durga Puja Festival Ends, With...

န Hyderabad and Kolkata, 28 September :

(L) Women apply red colored powder 'sindhur', or vermillion powder, on each other on the last day of Durga Puja festival in Hyderabad. (R) Devotees carry an idol of Durga before immersing it in the river Ganges on the last day of the Durga Puja festival. Picture teken at Kolkata's Babughat this evening. န Photos : Reuters

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Bus set on fire by suspected Maoists in W Midnapore
Midnapore, 28 September : Suspected Maoists and members of People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) set fire to a bus today in West Midnapore district in protest against the arrest of tribal leader Chhatradhar Mahato, police said.
The passengers of the bus, going to Jhargram from Bankura district, were ordered to alight before the vehicle was set ablaze near Rathberia village, about 40 kms from Lalgarh, which was the epicentre of the PCPA movement, they said. Police and fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot and doused the flames. The Maoists and the PCPA had exploded a landmine on Saturday immediately after Mahato's arrest at Birka, near Lalgarh.

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BijoyaDashami celebrated with fervour in Bangladesh
Dhaka, 28 September : Thousands of Hindus across Bangladesh took out processions and gathered at the sea shore or riverbanks to immerse idols of goddess Durga as the five-day Durga Puja festival ended with Bijoya Dashami celebrations Monday.
In Dhaka, devotees joined the traditional immersion procession in droves. One of the main centres of activity was the ancient Dhakeshwari Temple in old Dhaka. Over 100 idols of the goddess were expected to be immersed in the Buriganga river that surrounds Dhaka. Idols from different puja temples of the city were to be brought together at Palashi intersection and then carried to the Buriganga, said a member of the Mahanagar Puja Udjapan Committee.
Crowds thronged several places where Durga Puja was held, including Dhakeshwari Temple, Jagannath Hall of Dhaka University, Ramna Kali Mandir, Siddheswari Kali Mandir, and the temples of Tanti Bazar, Shankhari Bazar and Bangla Bazar. န Photos : Firoz Ahmed

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Gas explosion kills 1, injures 7 in Bangladesh capital

Xinhua, Dhaka, 28 September : A man died and at least seven others suffered burn injuries as a gas line exploded at the head office of Bangladesh's state-owned Chemical Industries Corporation in the capital city Dhaka on Monday morning, a senior police officer said.

Officer-In-Charge of local Motijheel police station in Dhaka Arzu Miah told Xinhua on Monday," A man died and at least seven others suffered burn injuries as the gas line exploded at about 9:30 a.m. local time." The impact of the explosion tore parts of a window and threw it down across the road, he said, adding a fire also broke out on the same floor following the blast. Arzu said primarily it seemed that the fire originated in the 3rd floor of the building after the gas line blasted and soon spread up to the 5th floor.
But he could not cite the reason of the explosion at the head office of the corporation, which is located in the capital's central business district Motijheel. The corporation manages 13 large and medium size industrial enterprises engaged in producing a wide range of products like Urea, TSP, Paper, Cement. န Photos : Firoz Ahmed

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Howrah-Mumbai Duranto Express begins from today
Howrah, 28 September : The bi-weekly Howrah-Mumbai Duranto Express (2262) began its inaugural run from here today.
The non-stop train would take just a little more than 26 hours to reach CSTM station covering a distance of more than 1,860 kilometers. Keeping her Railway budget promise of introducing non-stop air-conditioned trains connecting four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, Indian Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had flagged off the first Duranto Express between Sealdah and New Delhi on 18 September.

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WB banks disburse Rs 3,945 crore in '09 first quarter
BS, Kolkata, 28 September : Banks in West Bengal disbursed Rs 3,945 crores under the State Annual Credit Plan 2009-10 during the first quarter of the current financial year.
According to a press release by United Bank of India (UBI), the convener bank at the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) for the State of West Bengal, banks in the state disbursed Rs 1,307 crore to the agriculture sector, and Rs 723 crore to micro and small enterprises during April - June 2009 under credit plan. The disbursement figures for the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year were not available for comparison. The credit - deposit ratio (CD Ratio) of the banks in the state tocuhed 65 per cent at the end of the first quarter of the present financial year, against 64 per cent in the last quarter of the last financial year.
At the 108th SLBC meeting held in Kolkata, T M Bhasin, executive director, UBI, said that the bankers' committee in the state had identified 938 un-banked gram panchayats in West Bengal where branches would be opened by March 2015.The necessary infrastructural support will be provided by the state government.

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Air India Port Blair flight returns after unable to land
Kolkata, 28 September : An early morning Port Blair-bound Air India flight with 245 passengers on board returned here after being unable to land there due to bad weather, airport officials said. IC 187, which had taken off from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose international airport here for Port Blair at 5.35 am, returned here at 10.10 am, the sources said.

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Tourists' pressure threatens biodiversity of St. Martin

Dhaka, 28 September : Bangladesh governments have been promoting tourism as one of the ways of poverty alleviation for the Bangladesh, but the country is yet to exploit the sector's full potentials.

But a government report on the Saint Martin's Island, one of the most attractive tourism spots in Bangladesh, says excessive pressure of tourists has been destroying biodiversity on this picturesque island in the Bay of Bengal. An environmental audit, jointly carried out by experts and audit department personnel, recommended that the government should relocate the islanders and regulate and control movement of tourists on the coral Island. Unplanned and free-style construction of hotels and other infrastructures coupled with unregulated activities of the tourists have made sewerage and waste disposal problems acute and created huge pressure on food and water supplies on the Island.
The report says the hue and cry of the tourists and the sound of the loudspeakers and generators hamper egg laying and hatching by the turtles which eat jelly fish that destroy small fish and other aquatic organisms. န Photos : Bangladesh Tourism

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