Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacks CPI(M) at Kolkata rally

Kolkata, 6 September : Taking on the CPI(M) in its bastion, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused the party of “siphoning off” central funds and said the days of the party in West Bengal were numbered.

“There are two Bengals. One belongs to the CPI(M) where there is money and glitter and the other belongs to you and me where there is darkness and backwardness and where there is no prosperity, employment, roads and electricity,” he said. This was Rahul’s first public rally in the metropolis. Assembly elections in the State are due next year.
Rahul Gandhi said, “The Centre has been giving money worth crores of rupees to Bengal under NREGA and other schemes, but the money is being siphoned off by the CPI(M) and not reaching the beneficiaries. The fund is going to the CPI(M) coffers.”
“45% of the people in West Bengal do not have even ration cards,” he said adding CPI(M) did not pay any heed to the needs of the common men, but worked for the benefit of the party. “The day is not far off when the CPI(M) will be uprooted from the State,” he also said. န Photos : AFP, Avijit Mondal

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Tripura to set up anti-terrorist school
Agartala, 6 September : Tripura has got a sanction of Rs 1.5 crore from Union Home ministry for setting up of an anti-terrorist school, a top police official said today.
"Along with some states Tripura also got a sanction for setting up of an anti-terrorist school. When some other states got a financial sanction of Rs 3 crore, we were sanctioned Rs 1.5 crore," Director General of Police (DGP) Pranay Sahaya said.

He said union home ministry will launch a Rs 10,000 crore modernisation and welfare scheme for police forces across the country of which 75% would be spent for housing of lower ranking officers and the rest 25% would be spent for modernisation of forces.
Sahaya said the modernisation scheme was discussed in the conference of the DGPs held in New Delhi last week and added the scheme would be implemented after March 2011.

The issue regarding dealing with the financial network of the terrorists and insurgents came up in the conference, DGP said. န File Photo : AP

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Centre, CPI(M) colluded to set up armed camps : Kishenji

PTI, Kolkata, 6 September : Top Maoist leader Kishenji today alleged that the Centre and CPI(M) had colluded in setting up armed camps in West Midnapore district.
Though Chidambaram had admitted the existence of armed CPI(M) camps in Lalgrah, it was he who had been responsible for the armed camps, Kishenji told PTI over phone from an undisclosed location. "For the last one year the joint-forces have helped the CPI(M) enter the area and set up 90 camps creating an atmosphere of violence and anarchy in the region," he said. The Maoist leader named West Bengal minister Sushanta Ghosh and CPI(M) leaders like Anuj Pandey, Dalim Pandey, Dipak Sarkar, Dahareshwar Sen and Prasanta Das as responsible for the "anarchy" in the region and warned "they will not be spared".
He also cautioned that though CPI(M) workers had reached upto Dharampur and "captured" some villages with the help of joint-forces, that did not mean that they had won the battle. "They have progressed that far with arms supplied by the state government and under the protection of the joint- forces," Kishenji claimed. န File Photo : AFP

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Kolkata girl Amrita Das crosses English Channel in 13hours

Kolkata, 6 September : Twenty-two-year-old city girl Amrita Das crossed the English Channel, completing the 34km challenge in 13 hours and 42 minutes.

An understudy of Masudur Rahman Baidya, the first double amputee below the knee to cross the channel, Amrita began at 6.19am from the Shakespeare beach in Dover, England and swam across the channel, reaching France at 8.01pm on 4 September. She could have bettered the timing if Amrita did not veer off course due to strong currents, Baidya said.
"There were high tidal waves that blew her off-course and she had to remain static for about an hour before resuming swimming," Baidya, who has conquered the English Channel (1997) and the Strait of Gibraltar (2001), said.
Baidya said Amrita had started started her preparation long ago. "She trained in Puri sea and swam there for hours in the waves in the preparations of English Channel. Here in the city, she trained in the College Square pool," Baidya said. A graduate from Raja Rammohan College, Amrita was accompanied by her father Ashoke Kumar during the mission.
The swimmer, a resident of Amherst Street in north Kolkata, has also earned the distinction of finishing fourth in 81km Murshidabad swimming competition in the Bhagirathi river in 2007.
India's Mirhir Sen was first Asian to cross the channel in 1958 and Bula Chowdhury was first girl in the world to have made it twice in the 80s and 90s. န Suggetional Photo

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Six private TV channel offices vandalized in Rajshahi city
UNB, Rajshahi, 6 September : Bureau offices of six private television channels were vandalized by some miscreants in the town on Sunday midnight.
The assailants also took away laptops, computers, cameras, money and some documents from the offices. Sources said some miscreants attacked on bureau offices of ntv, Rtv, channel i, channel 1, Bangla Vision and Islamic television housed the Red Crescent building at Sona Dighi Mor in the city sometimes at night. Hearing the news Rajshahi mayor AHM Kharuzzaman Liton, officer-in-charge of Boalia police station Shahadat Hossain visited the spot this (Monday) morning.

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Two ULFA militants nabbed in Guwahati by security forces
Guwahati, 6 September : Two United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants have been nabbed by security forces from Geetanagar area of Guwahati today, police sources said.
Acting on a tip-off provided by Nalbari police, the city police launched an operation and nabbed the duo from a house in Geetanagar area in Guwahati.

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SBI targets 20 per cent business from foreign operations

PTI, Kolkata, 6 September : India's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), is targeting 20% of its net income from international operations in the next two-three years, a top official of the bank said in Kolkata on Monday.
"We expect 20 percent of our net income will come from international operations," SK Bhattacharyya, managing director, told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing banking conclave organised by industry lobby FICCI. At present, international operations comprise 12 percent of the bank's net income. SBI has 70 branches across the world.
Bhattacharyya said SBI may extend its home loan scheme at eight percent interest rate, which will expire 30 September , because of the "excellent" demand. "Why shouldn't we continue...this is a good scheme," he said, adding that a final decision would be taken at a meeting later this month.

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