Sixth anniversary of the implementation of the scheme On the sixth anniversary of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Employment Scheme (MNREGS) there were protests outside the office of State Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development Subrata Mukherjee here on Thursday against the absence of work and delay in payment of wages under the scheme. Stating that so far an average of 15 person-days of work per household had...

The implementation of the ‘100 days work' scheme in West Bengal had become a poll issue during the last parliamentary and assembly elections as had some other Centrally-funded rural development projects. But despite a change in government in the State, little seems to have changed on that front ultimately leading to a somewhat hurried shunting out of a Minister from his Department. The decision taken by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to...

Varavara Rao says it was a fake encounter; CRPF terms it an ‘absolutely clean operation' A day after Communist Party of India (Maoist) Polit Bureau member Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji was gunned down by the joint security forces in the Burisole forest in Paschim Medinipur district, Maoist sympathisers and security forces on Friday traded allegations and came out with counter-claims on whether he was killed in a “fake encounter.”  While revolutionary poet...

A body, with AK-47 and hearing aid beside, found in West Bengal Communist Party of India (Maoist) Polit Bureau member Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji, who has been spearheading Maoist operations in West Bengal's Jangalmahal region, is suspected to have been killed in an encounter in the Burisole forest area in Paschim Medinipur district on Thursday. “A body was found with an AK-47 and a hearing aid beside. We suspect that the AK-47...

The West Bengal leadership of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has, in an open letter, warned Trinamool Congress MP Subhendu Adhikari of “severe punishment” being meted out by “the people's court” for his recent remarks against the Maoists in the region. Mr. Adhikari had, at a rally in the Belpahari area of Paschim Medinipur district on November 1, thrown an open challenge to the Maoists and warned that they would...