KOLKATA, 22 MAY: State panchayat and rural development minister Subrata Mukherjee today asked all zilla sabhadhipatis and district magistrates to submit a detailed project report (DPR) for at least 5,000 km of roads across the state under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) by 14 June 2012.
Mr Mukherjee today held a series of meetings with elected representatives, district magistrates and engineers to ensure that the reports are submitted within the given deadline.

CANNING, 22 MAY: Demanding their right to the forest, Sunderbans fishermen here today said it is forest department officials who flout rules in the biosphere reserve, not villagers. "We want immediate implementation of Forest Rights Act, 2006, in the islands so that high-handedness of the forest officials stops," said Sunderbans Fishworkers Joint Action Committee member Pabitra Mondal.

SILIGURI, 21 MAY: To bring under control "resident" wild elephants that frequently damage houses and crops and even kill people, the state forest department is planning a project. The objective is to confine elephants known to be trouble-makers ~ particularly tuskers ~ in a forest area and keep them there, inside the fencing. State forest minister Hiten Barman said his department had sent two proposals recently to the Central government, to build "rescue" centres for the notorious elephants.

KOLKATA, 17 MAY: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today announced an increase in government subsidy from 20 per cent to 30 per cent to the Self Help Groups for various poverty alleviation projects while inaugurating the National Rural Livelihood Mission or Aajeevika. The project, a joint initiative of the Centre and the state government, named by Miss Banerjee as ‘Anandadhara’, is aimed at achieving self-reliance and socio-economic development of the rural poor in the state. She was overwhelmed to see the Netaji Indoor stadium packed with women.

KOLKATA, 17 MAY: Manas Bangla ~ a network of 13 community-based organisations engaged in the distribution of medical and social support to approximately 10,000 homosexual men, transgenders and Hijras in West Bengal ~ has not received funds from the West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society (WBSAPCS) since 31 March, and there has been no official statement regarding the continuation of Manas Bangla, according to its representatives.

KOLKATA, 16 MAY: It may sound unbelievable, but the third oldest underground sewer line in the world has been cleaned for the first time since its installation and re-commissioned today. The mayor, Mr Sovan Chatterjee, and other senior civic officials were present at a function held on Beadon Street to mark the re-commissioning. This will help reducing the duration of stagnant rain water in vast areas in north Kolkata. The underground sewer line has been thoroughly de-silted and strengthened by glass reinforced polymer (GRP) lining at an estimated cost of Rs 15.84 crore.

KOLKATA, 16 MAY: The future of Indian cities ~ and Kolkata ~ lies in urban densification in the form of high-rise buildings and “virtual land”, said Mr Debashish Sen, principal secretary of West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) today. “Let the developers come,” said Mr Sen in a reference to Harvard economist Edward Glaeser's book Triumph of the City, in which Glaeser outlines some of the environmental benefits of concentrated urban populations.

KOLKATA, 14 MAY: In an initiative to combat high rates of malnutrition in children of West Bengal, GlaxoSmithKline consumer healthcare have partnered with Horlicks and the Child In Need Institute (CINI) to launch ‘Aahar Abhiyan'. One rupee from every large pack of Horlicks sold in West Bengal will be contributed to the initiative, and the funds will be distributed by CINI to various CINI-administered nutrition centres in the state.

New Delhi, 14 MAY: West Bengal has the highest number of red category industries causing high pollution, followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, while 43 industrial clusters have been identified as “critically polluted”, the Lok Sabha was informed today. Environment and Forest Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said during Question Hour that the Central Pollution Control Board and IIT-Delhi had conducted a survey based on Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index for assessment of pollution load of industrial areas. “The survey was conducted in 88 major industrial clusters in the country.

ASANSOL, 30 APRIL: Barely 24 hours of the Task Force meeting to curb illegal mining, coal smugglers went on a looting spree at two open cast mines (OCM) in Raniganj Coalfields under the Eastern Coalfields Limited last night. Both the OCMs fall in the Kunustoria area of ECL. The area has witnessed massive pilferage of coal from the mines besides illegal mining by the organised mafia.