The power position in Bengal improved today but alarm bells are ringing over imported coal stocks that are running out fast. “The stock of imported coal will exhaust by the end of this month,” said Krishna Gupta, the managing director of the West Bengal Power Development Corporation Ltd (WBPDCL), the largest electricity supplier in the state. The corporation had last year imported 1.2 million tonnes of coal from Indonesia. “We will come up...

-IANS   Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray Friday congratulated the people who attacked senior lawyer and Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan in his chamber in the Supreme Court in Delhi two days ago. In a statement in the party's mouthpiece, Dopahar Ka Saamna, Thackeray referred to Bhushan's statements on Jammu and Kashmir and said: 'Shabbaash! Those who speak of dividing the country should be taught a lesson like this.' Thackeray said one cannot remain...

-IANS   Production at automobile giant Maruti Suzuki's Gurgaon plant came to a halt Friday due to lack of components supply following labour unrest at the company's other plants, including the Manesar facility. 'Production has been stopped at the Gurgaon plant due to lack of component supply. Production at Manesar plant and component supply units remained closed due to the strike,' a senior company official told IANS. According to the official, the company on...

“They are trying to intimidate me, my family and my well-wishers” A Vadodara-based social activist and environmentalist, Rohit Prajapati, has complained of “harassment and intimidation” by the police for making RTI queries regarding the State government's environment policies. He claimed that the police and the Special Operations Group were “questioning” him, asking for photographs and making other inquiries in the past couple of years. While the police claimed these to be “routine...

-Express News Service   Amid the truce offer, the Maoists on Wednesday slammed the state government’s move to recruit 10,000 police constables from Junglemahal and termed it as an “conspiracy hatched by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee”.   A statement signed by one Akash, who identified himself as CPI(Maoist) state committee secretary, read: “She (Mamata Banerjee) wants to give arms to the tribal population and we are apprehending that she will bring the Salwa Judum...