-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 Telegraph Kolkata: Arrested Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen, the architect of the default crisis in Bengal, has said he had approached several CPM leaders over his business, police said. Sen, who was brought to Calcutta late last night and kept in police custody before his court production this afternoon, has told the police he had met a CPM state committee member in 2008 over a possible investment in a news channel...

-The Times of India The collapse of Saradha Group, promoted by Sudipta Sen, is the greatest threat yet to MAMata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress regime in Bengal. It could also imperil the finances of millions of people in Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Trinamool's blatant association with the bigwigs of Saradha, which raised vast amounts of money from poor people before collapsing, is a potentially fatal political body blow....

-IANS   An anti-tobacco group on Thursday expressed shock over West Bengal chief minister MAMata Banerjee's joke asking people to smoke more, so more revenue could be garnered to compensate investors of the collapsed Saradha financial scam. "This is a great discouragement for those working in the area of public health," said Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, executive director, Voluntary Health Association of India. Mukhopadhyay said the West Bengal chief minister announced a 10% tax hike...

-PTI MAMata Banerjee stages reversal of former apathy towards fate of those affected by Saradha Group demise Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister MAMata Banerjee staged a reversal of her former apathy towards the fate of those whose savings had disappeared amid the collapse of the deposit-taking Saradha Group. Having said on Monday that "what has gone, has gone", Banerjee on Wednesday announced a 10 percentage point hike in value-added tax (VAT) on tobacco...