Tag: Bengal

West Bengal bans ‘The Kerala Story’, makers to seek legal options

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Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal banned the film ‘The Kerala Story’ citing “maintenance of peace” and to avoid incidents of “hatred and violence” in the state.
West Bengal became the first state to ban the film, which narrates the ordeal of three women who are trafficked to ISIS camps after being converted to Islam through marriage.
There’s a continuing political outcry around the movie even as it has been made tax-free in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.

On the decision to ban the film, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “It is to avoid any incident of hatred and violence, and maintain peace in the state.”
Also raking up the ‘Kashmir Files’, a film on the alleged genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, which ran to packed houses despite evoking protests from the Opposition, the Bengal CM said, “What was ‘The Kashmir Files’? It was meant purely to humiliate a particular section of society. What is ‘The Kerala Story’? It is a distorted story.”
The CM directed the state chief secretary to remove the movie from all theatres where it is being screened.
Reacting to the ban, Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the producer of the film, said they will pursue legal options against the decision. “If state government won’t listen to us, we will explore legal avenues. However, whatever course we take will be based on legal advice,” Shah told ANI.
Helmed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the film evoked sharp opposition from Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who called it “RSS propaganda”.

Congress MP from Kerala, Shashi Tharoor accused the makers of “misrepresenting” Kerala.
Campaigning for the BJP in poll-bound Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, weighed in on the controversy, accusing the Congress of standing with terrorists.
‘The Kerala Story’ stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani in lead roles.
A massive controversy erupted around the film after its trailer claimed that 32,000 women from Kerala had gone missing and joined the terrorist group ISIS. However, in the face of protests, the contentious figure in the trailer was later withdrawn.
Its trailer description was later changed to a story of three women from Kerala.
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#West #Bengal #bans #Kerala #Story #makers #seek #legal #options
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 8, 2023
Efforts on to evacuate Bengal people stranded in strife-torn Manipur: Mamata

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Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said efforts are underway to evacuate people of the state stranded in violence-hit Manipur.
Expressing concern over the violent clashes in the northeastern state, which have claimed the lives of 54 people, Banerjee urged Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi to monitor the situation and make efforts to evacuate the stranded people.
“Deeply anguished by the kind of messages and SOS we are receiving from Manipur. I am concerned about the safety of the people of Manipur and others hailing from different parts of the country, now stranded there,” she tweeted.

“Govt of Bengal is committed to stand by the people and has decided to make every effort to evacuate people stranded there in coordination with the government of Manipur. The chief secretary has been directed to monitor the entire process, to help people in distress and despair. We are with the people at all times. Urge everyone to maintain peace,” she added.
Banerjee also provided helpline numbers for those seeking assistance.
The total number of people from West Bengal stranded in Manipur is not currently available.
The death toll in the ethnic violence which has engulfed Manipur increased to 54, officials said even as unofficial sources placed the figure at several scores dead and more than 150 injured.
Meanwhile, life limped back to a wary normalcy in Imphal Valley as shops and markets reopened and cars started plying the roads.

Violence first erupted in Torbung area in Churachandpur district of Manipur during the ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ organised by the All Tribal Student Union Manipur (ATSUM) on May 3 to protest the demand of Meiteis for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
The march was organised by tribals — including Nagas and Kukis — after the Manipur High Court asked the state government last month to send a recommendation to the Centre within four weeks on the demand for ST status by the Meitei community.
During the march in Torbung, an armed mob allegedly attacked people of the Meitei community, leading to retaliatory attacks in the valley districts, which escalated the violence throughout the state, police said.
Multiple sources said the fighting between communities had left several scores of people dead and nearly a hundred injured. However, the police were unwilling to confirm this.
Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of the population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals, who include Nagas and Kukis, account for another 40 per cent of the population and live mostly in the hill districts which surround the valley.
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#Efforts #evacuate #Bengal #people #stranded #strifetorn #Manipur #Mamata
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 6, 2023
Will never allow NRC in Bengal: Mamata

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Malda: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday maintained that she would “never allow” implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.
“No one has to worry about citizenship. That (NRC) won’t happen here (in West Bengal). I am the guarantor,” Banerjee said at an administrative review meeting here.
The CM had earlier, too, asserted that she would not allow NRC in her state.

Banerjee also advised people to exercise voting rights and ensure that their names appear on the voters’ list.
“You all must make sure to vote I would also advise people to update their Aadhaar card on time and in every 10 years,” she added.
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#NRC #Bengal #Mamata

( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 5, 2023
IMD predicts cyclone over Bay of Bengal around May 9

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Bhubaneswar: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday said that there is a possibility of the formation of a cyclone over the Bay of Bengal (BoB) around May 9.
A cyclonic circulation will form over southeast Bay of Bengal around May 6, which will convert into a low pressure area over the same region on May 7. The system is likely to concentrate into a depression on the next day, the IMD said.
“Thereafter, there is a good possibility of its intensification while moving nearly northwards towards central Bay of Bengal,” it said.

However, the IMD has not yet predicted its intensity, path and impact on Odisha coast.
Director General (DG) of IMD, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said that there is consensus over the formation of a low pressure and its intensification into a cyclone by May 9.
“We have not specified its path and intensity and the area over the land where it is likely to hit. Once the low pressure is formed, we will provide detailed predictions regarding landfall and its intensity,” said Mohapatra, adding, “As of now, there is no such forecast for landfall over Indian coast.”
Initially, there will be squally weather and hence the fishermen should not venture into the southeast Bay of Bengal from May 7 onwards, he advised.
The DG made it clear that no alert has been issued for the Odisha coast and there is no forecast about the likely impact of the system on Odisha.

Mohapatra urged people not to panic about a possible cyclone but remain prepared to face any eventuality.
The last summer cyclonic storm ‘Fani’ had made landfall over the Odisha coast near Puri on May 3, 2019. It had caused wide-spread devastation in coastal Odisha including capital Bhubaneswar.
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#IMD #predicts #cyclone #Bay #Bengal
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 3, 2023
Bengal Ram Navami clashes: NIA seeks details from state police

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Kolkata: National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the Ram Navami violence in Howrah and Hooghly districts of West Bengal, on Wednesday, sought from the state police all the documents, including copies of the FIRs, related to the case.
A communique on this count has reached the offices of the commissioners of Chandernagore Police Commiserate and Howrah City Police, sources said.
A copy of the same has also been forwarded to the office of the additional director general in charge of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police.

Although initially CID-West Bengal took over the investigation, on April 27, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court ordered an NIA probe into it.
It is learnt that NIA has sought a quick response from the state police authorities so that their sleuths can start the investigation at the earliest.
Meanwhile, state government sources said that the administration is mulling the possibility of approaching the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the division bench of the Calcutta High Court directing NIA probe into the matter.
On April 27, while directing the NIA to take over the probe in the matter, Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya also directed the state police to handover all case-related documents to the NIA within the next two weeks.
While passing the order, the bench observed that it is beyond the ability of the state police to find those who were responsible for the clashes or who instigated it and hence a probe by a central agency was necessary.

Earlier, the division bench questioned the efficiency of the intelligence wing of the state police regarding the pelting of stones from the roofs of residences in the troubled belts.
The bench questioned the failure of the intelligence in getting information about stones being accumulated on the rooftops.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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#Bengal #Ram #Navami #clashes #NIA #seeks #details #state #police
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 3, 2023
Despite Nitish’s meeting with Mamata, Oppn tie-up unlikely in Bengal

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Kolkata: The crucial meeting between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her counterpart in Bihar, Nitish Kumar on April 24 to pave way for a grand anti-BJP alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha poll has prompted certain questions to float around in the political circles of the state.
The first question is whether Nitish Kumar was deliberately deputed to crack an understanding with the Trinamool Congress supremo considering that Mamata Banerjee’s party leadership has already made it clear that for the time they will be maintaining an equal distance with the BJP and Congress and instead try to develop an understanding between all the regional parties in the country.
The second question is how far even Nitish Kumar will be finally able to bring the Congress and Trinamool leadership on the same platform. The reply to this question remained unanswered at the joint press conference on April 24 which was attended by Banerjee, Kumar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who is the deputy chief minister of Bihar.

During the media interaction on that day while a couple of media persons questioned about the position of Congress in the opposition alliance model, Mamata Banerjee virtually stopped those scribes and said that the media does not need to get bothered by that.
“You do not need to think about all these things. We will be together. The people of the country will fight against the BJP. All parties will walk together,” Mamata Banerjee said on that day. During the press conference the chief ministers of both the states stressed that all the opposition parties will have to shed their egos to work unitedly in their joint move against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
In fact, since the beginning, the lines of thinking of Banerjee and Kumar on this grand opposition alliance have been different. While Nitish Kumar, on one hand, has been maintaining a close coordination with the top Congress leaders, including the national Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on this count, Trinamool Congress has been maintaining a distance from the oldest national party of the country.
There the question becomes more pertinent on whether Kumar would be able to finally bring the two forces together, political observers say. They point that both the Congress and Trinamool Congress have some points of debate in the matter which does not really paint a rosy picture of the two forces coming on the same platform at least in the pre-poll scenario.
According to veteran political observer and analyst Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay, since a pre-poll alliance always come with the rider of a seat-sharing agreement, in case of West Bengal it is virtually impossible for Trinamool Congress to sacrifice a single of 42 Lok Sabha seat for the Congress or for any other party.

“Mamata Banerjee’s aim is to gain the maximum numerical presence in the Lower House of Parliament and she is quite aware that West Bengal is the only state that will provide food for her on this count. Precisely that is why since the time she started her dialogues with other regional parties, she had been insisting on the choice of opposition leader only after the polls. So, from the point of view of Trinamool Congress this is the principal barrier for an amicable understanding with Congress,” Bandopadhyay explained.
From the Congress’s point of view, especially from the party’s West Bengal unit, Bandopadhyay explained, the choice of an amicable understanding with Trinamool Congress will not be an easy task since in that case Congress’s existing understanding with CPI(M)- lead Left Front in West Bengal will receive a setback.
“The recently concluded bypoll to the minority-dominated Sagardighi Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, where Left Front- supported Congress candidate won with a handsome majority, had made both the parties more enthusiastic of carrying forward the understanding till the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. At the same time, the Congress will be at a bargaining position on seat sharing agreement with the Left Front rather than with Trinamool Congress. So, from the Congress’s point of argument, accepting Trinamool Congress as a partner will not be that easy,” Bandopadhyay explained.
However, political analysts and columnist Amal does not agree that the Sagardighi bypoll results cannot be an ultimate indicator of the Congress-Left Front equations all the time.
“CPI(M) or Left Front being a regimented force can always mobilize their traditional voters behind a Congress candidate as part of an alliance formula. But can the Congress leadership achieve the same mobilization of their dedicated voters in support of a Left Front candidate? So, it cannot be said for certain that the success of the Sagardighi model will be the sole factor that will ensure Congress- Left Front understanding till 2024,” he said.
According to him, the results for forthcoming polls for the three-tier panchayat system in West Bengal scheduled this year, which in all probability a three-corner contest between the Trinamool Congress, BJP and Left Front-Congress alliance, will be a crucial indicator on this count.
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#Nitishs #meeting #Mamata #Oppn #tieup #Bengal
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 30, 2023
West Bengal Tourist Dies After Suffering Heart Attack In JK

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SRINAGAR: Officials reported that a tourist from West Bengal died of a heart attack in a Srinagar hospital on Saturday morning.
The tourist, who was staying in a hotel in Srinagar with his family, had complained of chest pain. He was then taken to the SKIMS Hospital in Srinagar Soura, where doctors pronounced him dead.
The deceased has been identified as Suhash Chandra, an 80-year-old resident of Deshbandhu Nagar, West Bengal. (KS)

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#West #Bengal #Tourist #Dies #Suffering #Heart #Attack
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

April 29, 2023
NIA to probe Ram Navami clashes in Bengal: Calcutta HC

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Kolkata: A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday ruled that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will probe the clashes during the recent Ram Navami processions in certain pockets of Howrah and Hooghly district of West Bengal.
The division bench of Calcutta High Court’s acting Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya directed the state police to handover all case- related documents to the NIA within the next two weeks.
Following the clashes, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari had approached the same division bench of the Calcutta High Court with the plea for a central agency probe.

On April 10, the NIA authorities also informed the Calcutta High Court that they will have no problem in taking over the probe on this count if the court permits.
The division bench observed that it is beyond the ability of the state police to find those who were responsible for the clashes or who instigated it and hence a probe by a central agency was necessary.
Justice Sivagnanam also raised questions about the suspension of Internet services in the troubled belts after the clashes. “In such clashes the Internet services cannot be suspended. Such events keep the people tense,” he observed.
Earlier, the division bench questioned the efficiency of the intelligence wing of the state police regarding pelting of stones from the roofs of residences in the troubled belts. The bench questioned the failure of the intelligence in getting information about stones being accumulated on the rooftops.

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#NIA #probe #Ram #Navami #clashes #Bengal #Calcutta
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 27, 2023
Mob sets police station on fire protesting teen girl’s death in Bengal

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Kaliaganj: Miscreants set fire to Kaliaganj police station in West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district on Tuesday protesting the death of a teenage girl whose body was found in a canal last week.
People allegedly from the Adivasi and Rajbangshi communities organised a “Thana gherao” programme on Tuesday afternoon protesting against alleged “police inaction” in the case and claiming that the girl had been raped and murdered.
Preliminary post-mortem of the girl’s body, however, indicated she had not been raped.

The mob broke barricades and pelted the police station with stones, an officer said.
The police personnel started a baton charge but could not stop the mob from entering the police station and setting it on fire, he said.
One vehicle was also set ablaze.
“We are trying to bring the situation under control,” the police officer told PTI.
On April 21, the body of the 17-year-old girl was found floating in a canal in Kaliaganj. Alleging that she was raped and killed, locals had put up road blockades by burning tyres and set several shops on fire.

The incident triggered a war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP ahead of the panchayat election in the state.
The TMC accused the saffron party of trying to “politicise and communalise” the matter, as BJP demanded a CBI probe and promised legal aid to the girl’s family.
Four police officers, all in the rank of Assistant Sub Inspectors, were Monday suspended for allegedly dragging the body of the girl on the road while removing it from the spot where it was found, amid protests by people.
A video purportedly showing the incident has gone viral.
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#Mob #sets #police #station #fire #protesting #teen #girls #death #Bengal
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 25, 2023
Bengal: Police say prime accused arrested in rape of minor as violent protests rock

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Raiganj: A 20-year-old man was arrested on Saturday in connection with the alleged rape and murder of a teenage girl in West Bengal’s North Dinajpur district that triggered violent protests, police said.
The 17-year-old girl, whose body was found in a canal in Kaliaganj police station area on Friday, knew the man, Superintendent of Police (SP) Md Sana Akhtar said, identifying him as the prime accused.
A case has been filed under IPC section 302 (murder) and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act based on the complaint filed by the girl’s mother, he said.

The preliminary post-mortem report revealed no injury to the body, Akhtar said, adding that a bottle of poison was found near the body.
“We are investigating the case from all angles,” he said.
Violence rocked Kaliaganj, around 18 km from the Bangladesh border, as locals protested against the incident, prompting the police to use tear gas shells and charge batons to bring the situation under control, officials said.
Several shops and e-rickshaws were set on fire by the mob, which demanded the arrest of those behind the incident. Roads were also blocked and stones were hurled at the police, they said.
The RSS-backed ABVP gheraoed the Kaliaganj police station, while BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar sat on a dharna outside the SP office in Raiganj, demanding justice for the victim’s family.

Rapid Action Force (RAF) was deployed to bring the situation under control, police said, adding that a few protestors were also detained.
Three persons were injured in the police action and admitted to the Raiganj Government Medical College and Hospital, officials said.
Majumdar, who visited the victim’s village along with local BJP MP Debasree Chaudhuri, demanded a CBI investigation into the incident.
“We think the real truth will be revealed only if a CBI inquiry is conducted in this case,” he told reporters.
State Minister for Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, Dr Shashi Panja hit out at the BJP leadership, particularly Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, for identifying the minor in his tweets.
She alleged that the saffron party leaders were trying to instigate the people by misleading them.
“The BJP is trying to play dirty politics. That the Leader of Opposition (LoP) has divulged the identity of the victim girl through his tweets is itself a crime. How can he do that? They are playing dead body politics (sic),” Panja said.
The minister further said the post-mortem report would clear whether the girl was raped and killed or whether she died by suicide by consuming poison.
“At the moment, police are trying to bring the law and order under control. We must think about the mental condition of the family. Culprits will definitely be brought to the book,” Panja said.
The National Commission for Women (NCW) also sent a team to the area, and sought a report from the state police within three days.
The girl went missing on Thursday evening after she left home for going to her tuition classes. Her body was found the next day floating in a canal amid hectic searches by her family and locals.
Protests had started on Friday afternoon but quietened down by the day-end, only to restart on Saturday.
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#Bengal #Police #prime #accused #arrested #rape #minor #violent #protests #rock
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 23, 2023