KOLKATA, 14 MARCH: Even while choosing the collision course with his party boss Miss Mamata Banerjee over hiking of passenger fares, railway minister Dinesh Trivedi proposed some new projects and 20 new trains for West Bengal.

Bangladesh PM and team in Tin Bigha
Tin Bigha (Cooch Behar), Oct. 19: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is hopeful that the Teesta water sharing treaty will be signed soon.

Hasina said this during a 30-minute stopover at Cooch Behar’s Tin Bigha corridor after a visit to the Bangladeshi enclave, Dahagram-Angarpota, this morning.

Mamata Banerjee, who had taken the sheen off Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka last month by opposing the treaty in the current form, was absent when Hasina was on Bengal’s soil.

NEW DELHI, 12 OCT: The Centre has released Rs 120 crore to West Bengal for relief and rehabilitation of the victims of last month's devastating earthquake.
Following a request from the state, the government approved Rs 120.02 crore for relief and rehabilitation of quake-affected people, a home ministry official said. The amount was the second instalment of Central share of State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF). This will be in addition to around Rs 554.55 crore available with the state government in SDRF for relief expenditure.

Guwahati: The animal husbandry and veterinary department in Assam has ordered the culling of wild and domestic birds to stop the spread of avian flu in Dhubri district.

Personnel from the rapid response team culled nearly 4,500 birds at Bhamundanga, regarded as the epicenter of avian flu in Dhubri.
“About 24,000 birds will be culled in the affected zone,” said a senior department official. “We have asked officials in Dhubri to meet the target as soon as possible. Since the disease is contagious, we don’t want to take any risk,” he said.

Sept. 5: If Delhi had agreed to share half the Teesta’s waters with Bangladesh against Mamata Banerjee’s wishes, the very purpose of the Teesta Barrage Project, aimed at providing irrigation water to north Bengal and generating electricity, would have been defeated.

Environmentalists and river experts have pointed out that if Bengal had to share the Teesta’s waters with Bangladesh on a 50:50 basis, there would not have been enough water to irrigate the fields of north Bengal in the dry months from December to April.

Jaldapara (Alipurduar), June 23: The state forest department will get funds of nearly Rs 400 crore from Japan for an eight-year project to develop the forests.

Jalpaiguri, May 19: Over 200 houses were partially or completely destroyed and power and water supplies were disrupted when a storm battered Jalpaiguri town and the adjoining rural areas last night.

It was around midnight last night when it began to rain and soon, a storm lashed the area and it continued till about 2am today.

Jiten Pramanik, a resident of ward 23 in the Jalpaiguri Municipali

Alipurduar, Jan. 10: The forest department has written to the Central Zoo Authority for permission to breed tigers and leopards in captivity at all rescue centres and zoos across the state.

Despite the CZA banning captive breeding in 2008, leopard cubs were born in a number of rescue centres across north Bengal in the past two years.

Siliguri, Aug. 18: An alert has been sounded in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts following the rise in the water level of the Teesta after heavy rain lashed the region for 24 hours.

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