Gosaba, Jan. 31: Mamata Banerjee today lent her voice to a pitch to facilitate land acquisition for a life-saving project — an uncommon plea that betrayed the government’s frustration at the slow pace despite the urgency and the promise of generous compensation. The chief minister persuaded the people of Sunderbans to offer their land to build embankments in low-lying areas of South 24-Parganas, which were devastated by the Aila cyclone in 2009.

Islampur, Jan. 30: The North Dinajpur district administration has started the proceedings to return more than 70 acres of land to its rightful tribal owners in Ramganj. This is the first time that the administration has taken up the initiative to restore illegally occupied tribal land, an official claimed. On January 16, the subdivisional officer of Islampur, Partha Ghosh, wrote to the district project officer-cum-district welfare officer to begin the proceedings for restoration of the land under the provisions of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955.

Siliguri, Jan. 17: The Bengal Ambuja Group will invest Rs 100 crore in three tourism projects in north Bengal, minister Gautam Deb today said.
A fourth project, by the developers of the Uttarayon Township here, will be in Sikkim. The chief minister, too, will announce a wide range of projects, quite a few of them in the tourism sector, when she visits the region next month.

Jalpaiguri, Jan. 16: The Centre has released nearly Rs 13 crore for the construction of spurs on the Teesta a few kilometres from here, where the river changed its course last monsoon and threatened to flood Jalpaiguri town. River expert Kalyan Rudra has termed the measure temporary and suggested that dredging could be an option. Subdivisional engineer of the irrigation department Keshab Roy said the Teesta had broken its bank at Gourikone last year and veered to the right, 5km off course towards Rangdhamalirhat, a densely populated area.

Gajoldoba (Jalpaiguri), Jan. 8: Bickering gave way to bonhomie today when water was released for the first time from the Teesta Barrage to farmlands along the left bank. Irrigation minister Manas Bhunia was showered with praise by his cabinet colleague, Trinamul Congress’s Gautam Deb, and the CPM MP from Jalpaiguri, Mahendra Roy. They lauded the senior Congress leader for channelling water into the Teesta’s left bank within eight months of taking charge of the irrigation department.

Calcutta, Jan. 6: Two of the three Bengal agencies tasked with procuring paddy directly from farmers have failed to do so till now because of lack of funds, a revelation that blunts the state government’s attempt to blame the Centre. Paddy procurement is one of the purported issues over which the Congress and the Trinamul Congress have been calling each other names. The state government had pointed fingers at the Centre-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) for poor rice procurement, which has been blamed for some of the farm suicides in Bengal.

Calcutta, Jan. 6: The Bengal government has told the Jindals to formally inform the WBIDC by Wednesday when the company can start work on the Salboni steel-and-power project. Jindal representatives today met officials of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation and the commerce and industry departments to discuss the Rs 35,000-crore project, which has hit a fresh roadblock over iron ore linkage.

Calcutta, Jan. 6: Calcutta High Court today “requested” Coal India Ltd (CIL) to put on hold till January 15 its move to increase prices. “Mind you, this is not an order. We are requesting CIL that if possible, they should not give effect to its December 30 notification in which the company increased coal prices, till January 15,” Justice Pinaki Ghosh said.

Alipurduar, Jan. 6: The Central Zoo Authority has agreed to release Rs 28 lakh for a tiger rescue centre here and the amount is expected to arrive this month, forest minister Hiten Barman has said. The CZA had stopped the grant for the South Khayerbari centre last year to cut costs and had suggested that six tigers be shifted to Bhopal. The Bengal government had refused to accept the proposal but agreed to another CZA suggestion: to stop the display of tigers for public viewing. The display was stopped in October.

Calcutta, Jan. 5: The corruption paranoia, blamed for the policy paralysis at the Centre, is threatening to take a toll on Bengal by clouding the timetable of the much-delayed Jindal steel plant at Salboni. Banks and financial institutions are unwilling to give loans to the project because of uncertainties surrounding the mining sector. The Jindal project may require loans totalling Rs 10,000 crore in the first phase to build a 3-million-tonne plant.