-The Hindu Business Line The West bengal Government will aim to provide up to 60 days' job to beneficiaries under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) this year. West bengal has performed better than other States in the country in terms of providing rural employment, the Chief Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, said addressing a rally in Lalgarh village in West Midnapore district on Tuesday. “In spite of starting from the...

August 9, 2010, Lalgarh Ramkrishna Higher Secondary School: As many as 10,000 people stand in rapt attention. Another 40,000 people are stuck on the roads leading to the venue. The speaker: Mamata Banerjee, railway minister. April 24, 2012, Lalgarh Ramkrishna Higher Secondary School: Between 2,500 and 3,000 people listen to a speech on peace and development. Some start wandering around before the 30-minute speech is wrapped up. The speaker: Mamata Banerjee, chief minister. April...

-The Telegraph The Bengal government could find it difficult to reach its target of procuring 20 lakh tonnes of rice this year because of a lack of storage space. Its ability to raise storage capacity too could be hobbled by lack of investor interest in setting up warehouses in Bengal, and a mismatch between the tender rates acceptable to the state and the Centre. “We’ve a target of procuring 20 lakh MT (metric...

Uttar Pradesh, which supposedly has a high proportion of the country's poor, has not begun the job of enumerating them even three-and-a-half months after the first deadline set by the Centre lapsed. The project started in June 2011, with the target of completing the job by the end of 2011. The Centre then extended the deadline to April. Bihar has covered just 0.1% of the population. While there is no word from...

-The Telegraph Dispur is determined to launch a “constructive” television channel, stung by the “adverse” coverage of the recent Ulfa bandh during the Prime Minister’s visit by the local electronic media. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi revealed the government’s intention during an interaction with reporters here this afternoon, explaining how most local TV channels had gone overboard with the bandh coverage on April 20. Incidentally, a day later, on April 21, West bengal chief...