-Outlook Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister MAMata Banerjee today said two years form now no Gram Panchayat would be there in the state without banking service and welcomed all nationalised banks to come forward and open branches in the villages to boost rural economy. Launching 50 branches and 20 ATMs of the United Bank of India (UBI) at a function at the state Secretariat, Banerjee said out of 32,090 Gram Panchayats in...

-The Hindu ‘Report has permitted uncontrolled quarrying in most parts of ghats' Kochi (Kerala): The Kasturirangan report has thrown open the ecologically sensitive areas of Western Ghats to mindless exploitation which would seriously hazard ecology, according to its critics. According to member of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) V.S. Vijayan: the report has in a way permitted uncontrolled quarrying in most parts of the ghats regions of the State. Those...

-The Business Standard Open market price cools down as chief minister orders cold storages to empty stock by December 15 Kolkata: The first big task in hand at the new address is a success. Sitting in the plush office at the 14th floor of the newly-inaugurated secretariat, by default facing one of the infrastructure marvels created in the predecessor regime, the Vivekananda Setu, Chief Minister MAMata Banerjee has finally reined in the intractable...

-The Indian Express Kolkata: The humble potato comes a poor second to pricey onion in State matters. But that was before MAMata Banerjee wielded the knife. Over the past couple of days, the West Bengal Police, directed by the Chief Minister, has seized thousands of trucks carrying potatoes to neighbouring states such as Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar. MAMata's provocation was the rise in the price of the vegetable back home. However, while...

-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar: The Bengal government-designed potato shortage has prompted vegetable sellers in Odisha to plan a retaliation. The traders' associations in Balasore have threatened to detain trucks carrying essential commodities and fish from Andhra Pradesh and other states to Bengal on the national highway passing through this district in retaliation to the Bengal government's decision. Despite chief minister Naveen Patnaik requesting his counterpart in Bengal, the largest supplier of potato to Odisha,...