Kolkata, 9 April : Keeping pace with the high-pitch campaign by main opposition Trinamool Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today organised his first roadshow from his Jadavpur constituency and said the ruling Left Front would return to power for the eighth term.
"I am overwhelmed at the large turnout at my roadshow and I am certain that nobody can prevent us from returning to power in the state," Bhattacharjee told reporters from an open jeep. Thousands of CPI(M) and other LF constituent workers took part in the 'Padayatra' which started from the gate of the Jadavpur University and terminated at Kamalgazi in South 24 Parganas district covering a distance of eight km.
The chief minister was accompanied by three other CPI(M) candidates from Kasba, Tollygunge and Sonarpur (North) seats. န Photos : Bappaditya Dasgupta, Indrajit Dutta
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TMC chief Mamata takes out sixth padayatra in Howrah city
Howrah, Kolkata, 9 April : Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee today hit the roads in Howrah on her sixth padayatra in less than a fortnight on a day when her arch political rival West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee organised a massive roadshow in his constituency.
Howrah, Kolkata, 9 April : Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee today hit the roads in Howrah on her sixth padayatra in less than a fortnight on a day when her arch political rival West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee organised a massive roadshow in his constituency.
Banerjee walked down an entire six km stretch without break from near BESU campus at Shibpur to Salkia via Howrah Maidan.
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Tiger cubs found in Tripura IANS, Agartala, 9 April : Confirming government information wrong that there are no tigers in the wild in Tripura, villagers in the state found two tiger cubs in a forest, officials said Saturday.
"When villagers went to a forest Friday to collect wood at Harina in southern Tripura, 140 km south of here, they found the two tiger cubs and later handed them over to forest officials," a forest department official told reporters. Quoting the villagers, the official said : "A tigress was protecting her cubs under a tree. Seeing the villagers she ran away leaving the cubs." The cubs are believed to be 13 to 15 days old.
The forest official said that as per the latest (in 2002) tiger census there are no tigers in the northeastern state that borders the Chittagong hill tracts (CHT) of southeast Bangladesh. The official said they would hand over the cubs to the Sepahijala Zoo in western Tripura. The Sepahijala Zoo was categorized by the Central Zoo Authority as one of the 22 large zoos in India.
The Sepahijala sanctuary and zoo have more than 46 species of wild animals kept for their conservation, protection and breeding. The sanctuary has also been tagged as the national park for clouded leopards.
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Navy Helicopter makes emergency landing in Port Blair
Port Blair, 9 April : An Indian Navy Chetak helicopter made an emergency landing at the airfield here after its engine developed a technical problem.
During a routine sortie, the helicopter developed the technical snag when on its return leg to Port Blair, sources said. The pilot had to make emergency landing immediately after all necessary measures were pressed into service, officials said. The helicopter landed safely and the personnel on board were safe, command sources said.
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PM not week-kneed; alert to corruption : Pranab Mukherjee
PTI, Chennai, 9 April : Dismissing the opposition charge that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was "weak", Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today asserted he was "very much alert and proactive" to all issues including corruption.
"The Prime Minister is very much alert and proactive. He is taking appropriate action," Mukherjee told reporters here after releasing the Congress manifesto for the 13 April Tamil Nadu Assembly polls.
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PM lays foundation stone of 150 MW peaking power plant
UNB, Sirajganj, 9 April : Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation stone of the 150MW peaking power plant at Saidabad in the district Thursday .She also inaugurated the expansion work on Saidabad-Enayetpur road. The Prime Minister also offered munajat and sought the Almighty’s blessings for the overall peace and prosperity of the country and its people.
The power plant to be set up on 72 acres of land will be run by both gas and diesel. The Northwest Power Generation Company had signed an agreement with contractor CMC Company on Oct 12 last year for the installation of the power plant. Earth filling and construction of a boundary and a protection dam have already been completed at a cost of Tk 60 crore.
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Campaigning for final phase polls ends in Assam today
PTI, Guwahati, 9 April : The high-pitch campaign for the 64 Assembly constituencies going to polls in the second and final phase on 11 April in Assam, ended today.
The constituencies are located in 14 districts of Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Goalpara, Barpeta, Kamrup (Metro), Kamrup (Rural), Nalbari, Baksa, Chirang, Udalguri, Darrang, Morigaon and Nagaon. An electorate of 96,77,113, comprising 50,09,083 men and 46,68,030 women will decide the fate of 596 candidates - 449 men and 47 women.
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Dredging of 24 rivers to begin from June in Bangladesh
BSS, Dhaka, 9 April : Bangladesh government will start dredging of 24 rivers in June this year in the first phase with public and private dredgers as part of its capital dredging campaign.
The shipping ministry and the water resources ministry have jointly taken the initiative for the first time in the country to dredge 53 rivers under the mega plan, Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan told BSS. An inter-ministerial meeting with Planning Minister AK Khandakar in the chair recently finalized a guideline for implementation of the river dredging plan.
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Huge cache of arms, ammunition recovered in pre-poll raids
Kolkata, 9 April : Tightening its noose around the possible trouble-makers before the coming six-phase elections in West Bengal, the security forces have so far rounded up over 53,000 criminals and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from them during the past one month."In order to make the elections absolutely peaceful besides being free, fair and transparent and to encourage more and more voters to cast their votes freely and fearlessly, we are leaving no stone unturned," said state Chief Electoral Officer(CEO) Sunil Kumar Gupta here on Friday.
Briefing newsperson about the poll preparedness in terms of security measures, CEO Gupta said besides arresting altogether 53,070 people with criminal background and issuing non-bailable arrest warrant against 30,398 others, the security forces had since 1 March seized a total of 1,457 unlicenced firearms, including rifles, double barrel guns and revolvers, 2,305 rounds of live cartridges, 8,619 bombs, 605 kg of high explosives, 504 gelatine sticks and as many as 25,393 licenced firearms from across the state following numerous raids.
During the past one month as many as 143 violent incidents also took place in different parts of Bengal in which four people were killed and 212 others injured and hospitalised, Gupta said while replying to a query.
Asked about the major recoveries, the CEO without providing any specific answer said most of them were seized from North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly districts. န File Photo : Dipankar Chatterjee
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