-PTI Stoking controversy, the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal banned English and mass-circulation Bengali dailies at state-sponsored and aided libraries but in a damage-control exercise late tonight said the order was being changed to include more newspapers.  The order by the state government evoked criticism from Trinamool ally Congress, Left parties and the intelligentsia which said the decision was "undemocratic, undesirable and worse than censorship." A demand for withdrawal of the...

-Express News Service Protests erupted across the state, but the Trinamool Congress government stood firm on its circular on the newspapers that readers of all government libraries should read.   “There is no question of withdrawing the circular. Every government has its own policy and the circular was prepared in accordance with government rules and policies. I knew about it. The chief minister also knew it before it was issued,’’ Abdul Karim Choudhury,...

-The Telegraph The Mamata Banerjee government’s move to appropriate the financial powers of the zilla parishads in North 24-Parganas, Nadia and Murshidabad has set the stage for battle in next year’s panchayat elections. Senior Trinamul leaders said with the financial powers gone, these three zilla parishads have effectively been wrested from the Left. Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said the move to take away the financial powers was an “administrative necessity” as in the...

-The Telegraph The Mamata Banerjee government today curtailed the financial powers of three CPM-run zilla parishads where funds disbursals have come to a standstill because of an alleged tussle to claim credit. The district magistrates of North 24-Parganas, Nadia and Murshidabad have been empowered to disburse funds. The Left had been reduced to a minority in the standing committees of the three zilla parishads after it lost power last May. State panchayat minister...

The CBI is set to chargesheet policemen and government officials for the Nandigram firing once it receives the Bengal government’s sanction for prosecution. “We are preparing the chargesheet,” said a senior CBI official, claiming the agency had an airtight case. He did not reveal the identities of those who would be chargesheeted. “Next week, we will write to the Mamata Banerjee government seeking sanction for prosecution against the policemen, police officers and...