-The Hindustan Times Deceased SFI leader Sudipta Gupta's father said chief minister Mamata Banerjee was ‘off her head' after she seconded police claims that the youth died as he hit a lamp post. Sudipta's father Pranab also did not take comfort in Mamata's claims of solidarity with the family. "The chief minister is off her head. Is this justice?" a beleaguered Gupta asked, moments after Mamata's visit to SSKM hospital on Wednesday...

-The Hindu Police do not deny that it was a case of death in police custody, but say they exercised restraint Kolkata: The death of a State committee member of the Students Federation of India (SFI), students' wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), allegedly in police custody has created a stir here and raised fresh questions about police excesses in the State. Sudipta Gupta, who completed his post-graduation from the Rabindra...

-The Telegraph Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will not know Pushpa Tudu. Neither will state election commissioner Mira Pande. Such an assertion can be made because Pushpa Tudu does not want her real name to be published - a wish that tells the human story behind the stand-off between the Bengal government and the state election commission. Early last week, Pushpa Tudu (name changed), a probable CPM gram panchayat candidate, was addressing a small...

-IANS Kolkata: A youth was quizzed by police on Sunday after he asked a minister why Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did not visit a slum in West Bengal where 700 shanties were destroyed in fire on Saturday. The incident happened during Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim's visit to Sholo Bigha slum in the Maheshtala Santoshpur area of South 24-Parganas where a blaze had rendered 1,500 people homeless on Saturday morning. Pratap Naskar, who...

-The Times of India KOLKATA: While the country celebrates the seventh anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Bengal continues to be one of the poor performers. The Paschimbanga Khet Majdoor Union alleges that a group of vested interests, "comprising landed farmers, industrialists and a section of the intelligentsia" were working in tandem to subvert the positives of NREGA in the state. The union, which has criticized both the...