-The Telegraph   The government today issued a flood alert for 10 districts with the warning that the situation may deteriorate if the rain continues. “The situation is being monitored round the clock,” said irrigation minister Manas Bhuniya. He said the water levels of some rivers had risen following continuous rainfall over the past two days in their catchment areas. “The districts for which a flood alert has been issued are Malda, Murshidabad, North...

Scene I: Rows of paediatric beds (cots) lie abandoned outside a ward where babies, children and mothers are jostling for space at MR Bangur Hospital in Calcutta’s Tollygunge. Scene II: A Group D employee relaxes on a bed meant for a sick baby in the paediatric ward at Barasat District Hospital, North 24-Parganas. No doctor visible at the emergency ward where, too, beds lie vacant. July 3: Part of the reason for...

-The Hindu   Seventeen people have died and over nine lakh people have been affected in the nearly fortnight-long spell of rains in West Bengal. Ten districts have been affected by heavy floods, Disaster Management Minister Javed Khan has said in the Assembly. He said that 25,750 mud houses have been damaged or washed away due to the rains caused by a depression. The districts affected were Malda, Murshidabad, Purba Medinipur, Howrah, North...

The state food department has drawn up elaborate plans to develop the infrastructure of the public distribution system (PDS) following chief minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to Khadya Bhavan last week. During the visit, the chief minister asked that a committee comprising trade union members be formed and that they come up with suggestions on how to improve the infrastructure of the PDS scheme and evict corruption from the system. A...

Even as the CPI(M) brass show a brave face and publicly maintain they will form the next government in West Bengal, the party’s internal feedback from the districts shows the Left Front will go out of power after a record stint of 34 years. The feedback has come from districts where polling is already over. The final phase is on Tuesday, in just 14 constituencies. The counting of votes, with those...