Krishnagar, 9 October : West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Saturday criticised the Trinamool Congress for demanding the withdrawal of joint forces from Maoist-hit areas of the state, alleging the party was helping the Maoist.“We will defeat the Maoists as we have defeated the Naxals during the 1970s. The people of West Midnapore have stood up against the Maoists. It is taking time to defeat them as they are getting help from the Trinamool Congress,” Bhattacharjee said at a rally at Krishnagar in Nadia district. “Trinamool Congress is demanding the withdrawal of joint forces. They are so sympathetic to the Maoists. They are not willing to let the forces do their job,” he added.
Bhattacharjee, without naming Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, said, “the Trinamool Congress has a leader who never speaks truth… She always speaks lies. Few days ago, she said someone was trying to kill her and made a truck driver suffer,” he said. န Photo : Pranab Debnath
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maoists kill two CPIM workers at Balarampur in Purulia distPurulia, 9 October : Two CPI(M) workers were shot dead by suspected Maoists today at Balarampur in Maoist-hit Purulia district.
According to police, a group of armed Maoists asked Kalipada Chakraborty and Sukumar Chakraborty to come out of their houses in Tilai village and shot them from close range at about 11.30pm. Both of them were active CPI(M) workers, police said, adding the ultras left the bodies beside a jungle near the village.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJP not in favour of Jt forces withdrawal from JunglemahalKolkata, 9 October : West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party president Rahul Sinha today said their party was not in favour of withdrawing Central forces from the Junglemahal areas.
''Our party was not in favour to withdraw the joint forces from there and the forces should stay for another few days, but the CPI(M)-led camps should be dismantled from the Junglemahal areas immediately,'' Sinha told in a press conference here. He said a delegation of the BJP parliamentarian teams would visit Lalgarh after the Durga Puja and assess the situation and would submit a report to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in this regards.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17 dead, Bangladesh homes flooded after Three-day rain
EDT, Dhaka, 9 October : Three days of incessant rains in Bangladesh have left at least 17 people dead and 41 fishermen missing across the southern coast, news reports said Saturday.Tens of thousands of people are stranded as waters triggered by a tidal surge have inundated thousands of homes in the low-lying coastal zone, said the Bengali-language Kaler Kantha daily, quoting officials and witnesses. Worst affected are southern coastal districts, and 15 deaths have occurred in the region, the newspaper said.
The English-language Daily Star reported that two teenagers had died in the capital, Dhaka, after a wall collapsed on them. Kaler Kantha said at least 41 fishermen, who went to the sea days ago, were missing Saturday.
Giasuddin Ahmed, chief government administrator in the coastal town of Cox's Bazar, said that at least 10,000 islanders had taken refuge at cyclone shelters - raised concrete buildings -as the tidal surge from the Bay of Bengal inundated their homes. He said they were providing the islanders with food. Officials in other parts of the region could not be reached for comment Saturday.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eight killed as Rajdhani Ex hits autorickshaw in Katihar Dist
PTI, Katihar (Bihar), 9 October : At least seven persons were today killed when Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express rammed into an autorickshaw carrying them at an unmanned level crossing in Katihar district today, a senior railway official said.The train running at a speed between 90 and 100 kmph hit the autorickshaw as the auto driver tried to cross the tracks at Khaira under Dandakhora police station, Divisional Commercial Manager, North Frontier Railway (Katihar), A K Sinha told PTI from the spot. Bodies of the victims, all passengers of the autorickshaw, lay scattered on both sides of the tracks as the train went ahead and stopped only at Katihar railway station, he said.
The NF Railway authorities and civil authorities have ordered an inquiry into the incident. န Photo : PTI
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trinamool Congress to complain to WB Gov'nor about CPM
Kolkata, 9 October : Trinamool Congress today said it would complain to West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan and seek his intervention to look into the "attacks" on party chief Mamata Banerjee's rally in South 24 Parganas district.
"We will complain to the Governor against the CPI(M) which is playing with human life and has created jungle raj," senior Trinamool Congress Partha Chatterjee said while referring to "Marxist terror" at the party chief's rally at Netrabazar yesterday.
Kolkata, 9 October : Trinamool Congress today said it would complain to West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan and seek his intervention to look into the "attacks" on party chief Mamata Banerjee's rally in South 24 Parganas district.
"We will complain to the Governor against the CPI(M) which is playing with human life and has created jungle raj," senior Trinamool Congress Partha Chatterjee said while referring to "Marxist terror" at the party chief's rally at Netrabazar yesterday.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jatiya Party chairman H M Ershad favours 'War Crime Trial
Dhaka, 9 October : Former military strongman and chairman of Jatiya Party, Hussein Muhammad Ershad has voiced support in favour of executing the war crimes trial."We are in favour of a proper trial. We should be sincere enough to ensure that it does not end up as a media trial." Ershad, was addressing the inauguration of a series of view-exchange meetings with district committee presidents and general secretaries at his Banani office on Saturday. The chief of Jatiya Party, one of the main allies of the ruling government, said that the punishment of war criminals should be exemplary.
Claiming to have taken initiatives to reintroduce democracy in the country, the former military dictator said, "Democracy was reestablished on 10 November, 1986. Since then no other military strongman has emerged. "
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bomb hurled at marketplace in Meghalaya, Seven injured
PTI, Shillong, 9 October : At least seven persons were injured when some unidentified persons hurled a bomb in the busy main market in Tura in Meghalaya this evening, creating panic among puja shoppers.
The bomb, stuffed with splinters, was hurled at a bakery in the marketplace in West Garo Hills district from an auto rickshaw around 6.30 pm, police said. Four of the injured were admitted to hospital, where the condition of one of them, Arun Rai, was stated to be critical. He would be referred to Guwahati. Three others were released after first aid.
PTI, Shillong, 9 October : At least seven persons were injured when some unidentified persons hurled a bomb in the busy main market in Tura in Meghalaya this evening, creating panic among puja shoppers.
The bomb, stuffed with splinters, was hurled at a bakery in the marketplace in West Garo Hills district from an auto rickshaw around 6.30 pm, police said. Four of the injured were admitted to hospital, where the condition of one of them, Arun Rai, was stated to be critical. He would be referred to Guwahati. Three others were released after first aid.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
City welcomes Canterbury Arch Bishop amid tight security
UNI, Kolkata, 9 October : Archbishop of Canterbury, Head of Church, England, Reverend Rowan Williams arrived here at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport today morning on a three-day visit.
British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata Sanjay Wadvani received the Bishop at the NSCBI airport amid tight security. The Bishop and his entourage will visit the Mother House later in the afternoon. From there, he would head straight to St John's Diocesan Girl's High School where a special prayer will be held in his presence. Tomorrow morning, he would be visiting city hospitals. In the evening a grand welcome would be accorded to him at the St Paul's Cathedral in presence of Governor M K Narayanan.
UNI, Kolkata, 9 October : Archbishop of Canterbury, Head of Church, England, Reverend Rowan Williams arrived here at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport today morning on a three-day visit.
British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata Sanjay Wadvani received the Bishop at the NSCBI airport amid tight security. The Bishop and his entourage will visit the Mother House later in the afternoon. From there, he would head straight to St John's Diocesan Girl's High School where a special prayer will be held in his presence. Tomorrow morning, he would be visiting city hospitals. In the evening a grand welcome would be accorded to him at the St Paul's Cathedral in presence of Governor M K Narayanan.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rains badly affected pre-Durga Puja moods in North East
IANS, Agartala, Guwahati, 9 October : Medium to heavy rains over the past three days have badly affected life in most parts of the northeastern region in the run-up to the Durga Puja festival, beginning next week.According to the Regional Meteorological Centre officials in Guwahati, a depression formed over west central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal earlier this week had moved to northeast India and Bangladesh Friday. "Under its impact, rain and thundershowers occurred at most places in northeast India during the past two days," the officials said, adding that the depression was expected to be dissolved by Saturday evening.
Preparations for the Durga Puja celebrations have been adversely affected due to the rainfall and most puja organisers, businessmen and revellers are worried over the late monsoon rain. "Our pre-puja business is tremendously affected due to the heavy rains as most people remained indoors due to the showers," said Sadip Saha, a cloth trader in Agartala.The agriculturists also foresee adverse effect on the winter crops due to the heavy rains. "Large quantities of crops ready for harvesting were submerged in most parts of the plains and low lands in Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya due to the rains," said an official of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR).
In Mizoram, incessant rains have created cracks on the surface leading to damage in many houses in Mamit township on the Mizoram-Tripura border and Ngopa village on the Mizoram-Manipur border in western Mizoram. "Many families have been displaced and more than 60 houses and churches have been damaged due to the cracks," Mizoram relief and revenue department officials told reporters in Aizawl.
Reports from different places of the mountainous state said that the downpour has also led to massive landslides in many places. န Photos : Parthajit Dutta
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------www.bengalnewz.com-----
