Twenty-two organisations, led by the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, have decided to launch a protest here alleging that Chief Minister MAMata Banerjee has backtracked from her pre-poll promise to release all political prisoners.   “The APDR, along with 21 organisations, has decided to start a movement for the release of political prisoners. A rally from College Square to Metro Channel will be held in the third week of April and...

-The Telegraph Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today blamed MAMata Banerjee’s recent expressions of intolerance towards critics on her “lack of self-confidence”. He described as “paglamo (madness)” the new government’s curbs on co-operative banks’ loan recovery processes, saying it would “destroy” such banking systems. Asked during a TV interview about his successor’s frequent admonitions to the Opposition to keep mum and allow the new government to work, Bhattacharjee said: “It’s not just the...

-The Telegraph   Farmers in Bengal left around 2.8 lakh hectares uncultivated in the just-concluded boro crop season, a silent expression of no-confidence in the state government’s paddy procurement process and a fallout of rising fertiliser prices. The area cultivated in the boro season (January to end-February) can be considered a barometer for man-made farming systems because farmers largely depend on irrigation during this phase. The bigger aman crop (June to August) still...

-PTI English dailies or high circulation Bengali ones will no longer be available in state-sponsored and aided libraries in West Bengal, according to an official circular. The circular specified eight newspapers which it said would significantly contribute to the development and spread of free thinking among the library users. Listing the eight newspapers published in Bengali Hindi and Urdu, the Department of Mass Education, Extension and Library Services, in a circular dated March...

A team of the National Commission for Women (NCW) will arrive in West Bengal next week to conduct an independent probe into the series of alleged rapes being reported from across the State. The three-member panel, headed by NCW member Wansuk Syiem, will includes member-secretary Anita Agnihotri and member Nirmala Sawant Prabhalkar, an NCW official told The Hindu over phone from New Delhi on Friday. The panel had taken suo motu cognisance...