WB government passes ordinance to reclaim part of Singur land

Ritwik Mukherjee, Kolkata, 9 June : The West Bengal government on Thursday passed an ordinance for reclaiming 400 acres of land at Tata Motors’ abandoned site at Singur, which in turn will be returned to farmers who were not willing to part with it.

The state government also announced that it was ready to pay compensation to Tata Motors through a court-appointed arbitrator if the Tatas wanted to move out of the remaining 600 acres in the same compound. According to state government officials, this was a prelude to the amendment to the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, which the state government was planning to introduce during the ensuing session of the assembly.
“Since the state assembly is not in session, we have promulgated the ordinance. Later, we will take clearance from the assembly,” chief minister Mamata Banerjee said. The ordinance, signed by governor MK Narayanan, is a government decree issued as a stop-gap arrangement before a proper law can be passed by the legislature. Most ordinances are valid for six months, after which they have to be either re-issued or endorsed by the legislature.
The chief minister said the ordinance would be placed in the next session of assembly, and said, “It is a historic day for the people of Singur.” However, a Tata Motors spokesperson said, “We are not aware of such a development and we do not want to make any comment unless we have studied the ordinance.”
The chief minister on her part said the remaining 600 acres would be kept open for industry and added that Tatas could set up industry if they wanted. "If they (Tata) demand compensation without going in for industry on this 600 acres, we will give them compensation through legal means by appointing an arbitrator," she added. န File Photos : Reuters

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Bangladesh budget takes aim at energy shortages, poverty

Ruma Paul, Reuters, Dhaka, 9 June : Bangladesh's government unveiled a budget for fiscal 2011-12 year on Thursday which increases spending on key sectors by nearly a third to tackle power shortages which are curbing growth and deterring investment.
Spending on key development needs such as power and transport will increase by 31 percent from this fiscal year to 460 billion taka ($6.3 billion), of which 60 percent would be provided by the government and the rest by overseas lenders, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith told parliament as he presented the 1.6 trillion taka ($22 billion) budget.
Overall spending will increase 23 percent in the year from 1 July to 1.6 trillion taka, he said. The government aims to cap its deficit at 5 percent of gross domestic product in 2011-12, up from a revised 4.4 pct of GDP in 2010-11.
It is targeting a 27 percent rise in tax revenue to 1.18 trillion taka in the coming fiscal year, largely due to improvements in tax collection and crackdowns on evasion.
Bangladesh aims to bolster economic growth to a record 7 percent in the coming year, from 6.7 percent targeted in 2010/11, and expects inflation to ease slightly to 7.5 percent against a revised target of 8 percent this year, he said.
Price pressures are a major concern for the government as nearly 40 percent of the country's more than 150 million people live on less than $1.25 a day.... READ MORE

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Opposition CPI-M slams WB govt ordinance on Singur land
Kolkata, 9 June : Opposition CPI(M) today criticised promulgation of ordinance by the West Bengal government for reclaiming 400 acres land at the abandoned site of the Tata Motors in Singur, saying an ordinance could not be passed when the Assembly was in session.
"Assembly session was on. Assembly was not prorogued. When assembly session was on, ordinance cannot be promulgated," leader of opposition Surya Kanta Mishra said commenting on the ordinance. Similar voice was also raised by the former speaker of state Assembly Hasim Abdul Halim.

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BNP, its allies likely to simultaneously call hartal next week

UNB, Dhaka, 9 June : BNP and it’s alliance partners are likely to again simultaneously call hartal next week (Sunday or Monday) on caretaker government issue and amendment of the constitution.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia Wednesday night held meeting with partners of the four-party alliance to discuss the next course of action.
Before meeting with the alliance leaders she had a meeting with her party’s standing committee, BNP’s highest policy making body.
A leader of the four-party alliance told UNB that they have decided in principle to call hartal and it would be announced on Friday.
He further said the duration and date will be finalized today (Thursday) after reviewing the national budget. He hinted the hartal may be called on Sunday or Monday.
On 5 June BNP and partners of the four-party alliance Jamaat, BJP and Khelafat Majlish called countrywide dawn to dusk hartal against the govenrment move to cancel caretaker government provision embodied in the constitution.

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Tripura police launches action against eve-tease of Agartala
Agartala, 9 June : The Tripura police has launched a special operation against eve teasers of Agartala city under project 'Prayaas', an initiative of people-friendly policing.
According to a report, a police team headed by Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Princee Rani conducted a special drive in different places of Agartala town against the eve-teasers and arrested six in front of MTB Girls’ and BK Girls’ Higher Secondary schools yesterday. Earlier, as many as 11 eve-teasers and, 45 others involved in various criminal activities, were arrested from here in separate raids, police said.

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West Bengal govt to clear land for 'K Nazrul Islam Memorial'

Kolkata, 9 June : The West Bengal government will clear encroachers from a plot of land which was meant for setting up a memorial of rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave an assurance in this regard to the poet's granddaughter Khilkhil Kazi when she called on her Thursday at the secretariat.
Khilkhil said that the plot, in the city's Kestopur area, was given to her grandfather by the United Front government. The land is now illegally occupied.
"We have the documents relating to the land. The occupants are not willing to vacate it. We requested the chief minister to see that the land is freed and a Nazrul Centre is set up there. The chief minister has said steps will be taken after examination of the documents," Khilkhil said.

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West Bengal govt stops research trial of "Transgenic Rice"

Kolkata, 9 June : The West Bengal government today ordered to stop research trial of transgenic rice that started in March this year.
Briefing reporters here, state Environment Minister Dr Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar said the isolation distance for the transgenic research trial was normally 300 metres from normal paddy fields.
However, in this case the isolation distance was 10 metres.
The botany department of Calcutta University was conducting the research trial at Rice Research Station at Chinsurah in the state.
Dr Ghosh Dastidar said an expert panel would be formed to study the matter and the government would look forward to the suggestions made by the panel.
He said cultivation of transgenic seeds was bio-hazardous and could threaten food security.

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Maradona to receive invitation for Kolkata's friendly match
New Delhi, 9 June : Football legend Diego Maradona will be accorded a special invitation for Argentina's international friendly against Venezuela, scheduled to be held at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata on 2 September.
"We will be inviting Maradona. I will try and meet him when I go to Argentina during the Copa America next month," said Bhaswar Goswami, chief of Celebrity Management Group (CMG), the firm who bought the hosting rights of the match from Argentina Football Association.

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Former Chief Minister Buddhadeb to skip politburo meeting
Kolkata, 9 June : Former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will stay away from the CPI(M) politburo meeting beginning in Hyderabad tomorrow, apparently to avoid discussions on party's debacle in the Assembly polls in the state.
Party sources said Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who is a member of the Politburo, would also not attend the central committee meeting on 11and 12 June. Bhattacharjee had skipped the last politburo meeting in Delhi on 15 May. In recent past too, he did not attend some crucial meetings of the party citing certain grounds.

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Silk with Singapore Airlines offers daily flights from Kolkata

Kolkata, 9 June : Silk Air, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines (SIA), together with the parent airline would operate daily flights from Kolkata to Singapore from 1 August.
Announcing this here today, Silk Air chief executive Marvin Tan said that together with SIA's three weekly flights to Kolkata, the two airlines would now operate seven round-trip services per week. The all-inclusive round-trip fare from Kolkata to Singapore would be Rs 14,999 per passenger by both the airlines, which was against about Rs 21,000 by SIA at present.
This has been possible as Silk Air has agreed to operate four-times-weekly services from Kolkata to Singapore from 1 August.
The SIA flights would be on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, while Silk Air would operate its flights on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, Tan said.

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ONGC on big exploration drive for gas extraction in Tripura

PTI, Agartala, 9 June : ONGC has launched a massive exploration drive for gas extraction in Tripura to meet the requirement of 726 MW gas-based thermal power project at Palatana in South Tripura, which is scheduled to start power generation by December 2012, official sources said today.
Recently, company director U N Bose had reviewed the progress of activities and visited the Palatana project site. The company has set a target to produce six million metric standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas by 2012, to meet the requirements of the project and has also decided to drill two more gas well within the stipulated time (2012). Last year, ONGC had discovered two major gas wells.
ONGC-Tripura Power Corporation (OTPC) is trying to install heavy equipments for the 726 MW mega thermal power plant at Palatana despite heavy rains and communication bottlenecks, sources said.
Two makeshift bridges, commonly known as bypass, which were built on the rivers Hawra in Agartala and Gomati in South Tripura district, were washed away due to heavy rains last week, creating bottlenecks for transportation of the turbines and heavy equipments to the project site.
Due to the collapse of the bridges, transportation of 280 tonne turbine has became difficult but ONGC is trying to rebuild the bridges before the monsoon sets in, in order to start generation by the end of December 2012, sources said.
The initially estimated project cost of nearly Rs 8,000 crore has already gone up to Rs 9,000 crore because of the delay, sources added. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation stone for the project in 2005.

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