SURI, 29 FEB: In a major crackdown on illegal sawmills in the district, officials of the forest department have sealed at least 75 establishments in the past five days. Forest department officials claimed that the move will help protect forests in the Birbhum and Jharkhand border areas. The state government asked district forest officers (DFOs) to close down illegal sawmills running in the districts following a Supreme Court order. Accordingly, a team, led by the Birbhum DFO, was set up six days ago to conduct raids on illegal sawmills.

The coal ministry will invite a fresh application from state-owned miner NMDC Ltd for the allocation of India’s largest thermal coal block, Deocha Pachami, in West Bengal’s Birbhum district. The application, if favourably considered, could allow NMDC to float India’s largest coal mining company after Coal India, currently the near-monopoly producer.

KOLKATA, 15 JAN: The state government's decision to facilitate farming through watershed management in around 3.40 lakh hectares of land that has been lying barren due to water scarcity reinstates the faith that Miss Mamata Banerjee's priority remains agriculture.

RAMPURHAT, 4 DEC: The Birbhum Adivasi Gaonta (BAG) leaders have threatened to close down all crushing units in the Rampurhat area if the administration does not take steps against the illegal practice by Monday. A meeting was convened in Rampurhat’s Tumbuni village this afternoon by BAG members. They also organised a procession in the crushers’ area. “After this deadline, we will launch a movement from Tuesday onwards as the administration has not taken steps against the illegal mines and crushing units so far,” said Mr Rabin Soren, secretary, BAG.

RAMPURHAT, 23 NOV: The Birbhum Adivasi Gaonta (BAG) will go in for a fresh stir if the district administration does not take concrete steps against illegal mines and owners of stone crushing units. At a tripartite meet in October it was decided that the crushers and mines which have no legal documents will be sealed by the district administration. In the Rampurhat stone-ring area there are 191 crushing units and 28 mines which are running for the past 30 years. On 17 October the BAG called a strike in the stone-region in protest against illegal crushing units.

ADMINISTRATION THREATENS TO SEAL UNITS IF OWNERS FAIL TO PRODUCE POLLUTION DOCUMENTS, TRIBAL BODY STICKS TO STAND
RAMPURHAT, 19 OCT: The Birbhum district administration today asked owners of stone-crushing units of Rampurhat to produce their documents on pollution and land acquisition within a month. And if the owners fail to do so the stone-crushing units will be treated as illegal and the administration will seal them.

People of nearly 60 villages under three blocks of Bolpur sub-division have been drinking contaminated water due to sheer callousness of the panchayat and zilla parishad (ZP) authorities.

Calcutta, Aug. 7: The hospital chain run by cardiac surgeon Devi Shetty has submitted a detailed proposal to the Mamata Banerjee government for the development of crucial infrastructure now missing in rural hospitals.

The blueprint proposes to set up dialysis units, diagnostic laboratories, cardiac catheterisation laboratories and coronary care units near the district hospitals at Purulia, Birbhum, East Midnapore, Nadia and Malda.

A project to set up a new railway bridge on river Brahmani has come to a halt following sheer unwillingness of the farmers at Birbhum’s Jagdhari village in the Nalhati I block area to part with their land.