-PTI English dailies or high circulation Bengali ones will no longer be available in state-sponsored and aided libraries in West Bengal, according to an official circular. The circular specified eight newspapers which it said would significantly contribute to the development and spread of free thinking among the library users. Listing the eight newspapers published in Bengali Hindi and Urdu, the Department of Mass Education, Extension and Library Services, in a circular dated March...

-The Telegraph   Farmers in Bengal left around 2.8 lakh hectares uncultivated in the just-concluded boro crop season, a silent expression of no-confidence in the state government’s paddy procurement process and a fallout of rising fertiliser prices. The area cultivated in the boro season (January to end-February) can be considered a barometer for man-made farming systems because farmers largely depend on irrigation during this phase. The bigger aman crop (June to August) still...

A team of the National Commission for Women (NCW) will arrive in West Bengal next week to conduct an independent probe into the series of alleged rapes being reported from across the State. The three-member panel, headed by NCW member Wansuk Syiem, will includes member-secretary Anita Agnihotri and member Nirmala Sawant Prabhalkar, an NCW official told The Hindu over phone from New Delhi on Friday. The panel had taken suo motu cognisance...

-IANS The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government will soon move the central government to increase Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) wages to Rs.200 from Rs.136. Unhappy with the central government hiking the wage for the 100-day rural job guarantee programme from Rs.130 to Rs.136 in the state, West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress is planning to take up the issue with New Delhi. "We will soon demand that the central government...

-The Telegraph   No one can accuse the Bengal government of mixing the personal with the professional — even when it comes to reading habits. “Believe me, Anandabazar Patrika, The Telegraph and Bartaman are among my favourite newspapers,” state mass education and library services minister Abdul Karim Chowdhury said today. Newspapers should be wary of unalloyed praise from those in power but Chowdhury’s statement stands out because of a curious detail that testifies to...