SANKTORIA, 19 APRIL: Uncertainty over the fate of the proposed 2000-MW Thermal Power Station in Katwa of Burdwan continues. This time due to a stipulation by the coal ministry. The coal block allocated to the West Bengal Power Development Corporation (former promoter of the project) for the purpose has now been resumed by the coal ministry as the agencies failed to begin work on the power plant on time. The foundation for the project, proposed on 1,050 acres of land, was laid in February 2006. But the state government has still to acquire 550 acres of land.

The project was held up due to paucity of funds

The Mamata Banerjee government on Wednesday gave its nod for a proposal to hand over a State-sector power project that was being implemented at Katwa in Bardhaman district to the erstwhile National Thermal Power Corporation, now simply NTPC.

Burnpur:At least 15 people, including seven policemen, were injured when villagers fought a pitched battle with police for more than two hours over land acquisition for an IISCO plant at Purusottampur — about 220km from Kolkata — in Burdwan district on Sunday. The villagers later gheraoed law minister Moloy Ghatak’s residence for four hours, saying that the Trinamool Congress in 2007 had promised to back them, but has betrayed them after coming to power. The villagers were led by local Trinamool councillor Pabitra Majhi, who was injured in the police lathicharge.

While Governor M K Narayanan has also put the weight of his office behind the growing concern over farmer suicides in West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee government seems determined to play these down. In Burdwan, the state’s rice bowl, where 18 of the 27 deaths have been reported in the past four months, the district administration has been approaching families of victims for written statements saying the suicides had nothing to do with debt burden or distress sale of crops.

DURGAPUR, 2 JAN: The Burdwan District Vigilance Monitoring Committee, in its first meeting today, found out that the district's performance in the MGNREGA has gone down from the previous year. "This may lead to return of allotted fund," said Mr Mukul Roy, a Rajya Sabha MP and Union minister of state for shipping, who was selected as the chairman of the committee. "The CPI(M)-run panchayats are deliberately hindering development works.”

KOLKATA, 26 DEC: The chief minister, Miss Mamata Banerjee, will write to the Prime Minister requesting him to release the support price for procuring rice from the farmers of Bengal. Following complaints from Congress and CPI-M leaders that the paddy farmers are not getting adequate support price for their harvest, the state food department has decided to hold a meeting with FCI officials and rice mill owners tomorrow at its office on Mirza Galib Street.

KOLKATA, 22 DEC: The city today experienced the second coldest day in the past 20 years with the mercury dipping to 10.8 degree Celsius.
In the past 20 years, the minimum temperatures had dipped below 11 degrees Celsius only twice with 10.5 degrees Celsius on 30 December 1991 and 10.8 degrees Celsius on 28 December 2008.

BURDWAN, 29 NOV: Diarrhoea outbreak claimed three lives and affected 32 others in Kulti and Memari blocks in the last six days. The district epidemic cell officials have visited the affected villages and sprayed bleaching powder in waterbodies and garbage dumps.
In Bijur village in Memari-II block a sudden diarrhoea outbreak has drawn attention of the local administration and the district health administration.

Calcutta, Nov. 23: The state government has decided to upgrade primary health centres to provide round-the-clock service, including “basic obstetrics” such as neo and post-natal care and child immunisation, the move aimed at reducing the burden of referrals on medical college hospitals in Calcutta.

BURDWAN, 6 NOV: Thirty lorries, loaded with illegally-extracted sand from the Ajoy riverbed, were seized by the Durgapur SDO yesterday evening. The illegal consignment were meant to be transported to Dankuni, Rajarhat and Salt Lake.
The sand, worth at least Rs 2 lakh, was being sold without required permit and without paying royalty to the state.