-The Indian Express Kolkata: When the Saradha Group's Bengali daily Sakalbela began publication, Mamata Banerjee sent her best wishes. It was more than a customary greeting. It was an impassioned message that seemed to have come from the chief minister's heart. "We will have to pass the dark night to begin our journey in the light of dawn," she said. "An alert conscience, right direction, truth and fearless news is what people...

-The Hindu     Assent to Bill to curb harassment of women In an interesting coincidence, President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Bill, 2012, on the night of April 22, when Justice J.S. Verma, whose guidelines in the Vishaka case, the Bill aimed to replace, passed away. The Bill was first passed by the Lok Sabha with some amendments, as recommended by the...

-The Times of India KOLKATA: The inferno triggered in a million homes by the Saradha meltdown has singed the ruling Trinamool Congress. The heat was palpable at an informal meeting of Trinamool MPs at Parliament's Central Hall on Tuesday when the knives were out against the tainted partymen who have harmed Didi's Ma-Mati-Manush image. With Sudipta Sen in custody, at least two heads in the Trinamool are set to roll, say party...

-The Times of India Parliament's standing committee on Coal and Steel has indicted the government for "totally abusing its powers" in allotting coal mines between 1993 and 2010 through the "most non-transparent procedure" to "few fortunate ones for their own benefit". "The government cannot give largesse on its arbitrary discretion or its sweet will," the committee, under the chairmanship of Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee, said in its latest report tabled in...

-The Economic Times For many, it is a sense of deja vu. Fifteen years ago, the government and India's financial regulators came under fire after hundreds of crores were cleaned up by a few individuals and entities from gullible investors, who were promised fabulous returns from plantation schemes. In the uproar that followed, the government and the regulators sought to palm off the responsibility of regulation of such schemes on each...