-The Indian Express Govt officials, opposition question Mamata doles to Muslims Kolkata: Communal clashes have jumped in rural Bengal, police records show. Such incidents, annually between 12 and 40 for five years until 2012, peaked at 106 last year. Government officials fear that in an election year, the growing conflict could lead to polarisation of the electorate. West Bengal has always been considered a peaceful state in terms of communal amity. But the...

-The Hindustan Times Panchla, Howrah: A limp is all that sets Ruksha Shah, 5, apart from other girls of her age in her home in Subharara village in the Panchla block of the Howrah district of West Bengal. It's the only remnant of the polio infection that ravaged her in 2011, which left her right leg a little shorter and weaker than the left. Ruksha's the last recorded case of polio -...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Some 55,000 women and girls trafficked from Bengal are working as maids in Delhi, many of them "sold as bonded labourers" to wealthy households where they slog for ungodly hours without pay and are often tortured or sexually abused. More than half these women are minors - many as young as 10 - who are duped with promises of a better life and brought to the capital by...

-Down to Earth Disabled youth on wheelchair severely thrashed in Kolkata; police arrest over 1,600 people for violating noise rules, unruly behaviour Pintu Biswas is the seventh person to die in West Bengal since 1997 for protesting against noisy firecrackers Last Saturday, the night of Kali Puja, was witness to the gruesome murder of a 40-year-old trader, Pintu Biswas, as he protested the bursting of noisy chocolate bombs outside his house. The incident...

-Women's Feature Service The ‘gola' or grain basket, built on elevated ground in Goyadham village in Sunderban's South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, is central to the food security of several households here. As Sofia Bibi, 45, says, "The grain is protected from the recurrent flooding and storms and we are ensured of a regular supply when there is no agricultural work during the months of September to November and March to...