Kolkata, The security of the country is a shared responsibility of the centre and the state, union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Saturday here at the inauguration of the National Security Guard (NSG) hub, an event that was not attended by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The home minister said the central government is happy to work with the states on security. “Internal security is a very complex issue. The security of the country is a shared responsibility. It is a responsibility that is shared by the central government and the state governments,” Chidambaram said at the inauguration of the NSG hub here. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress is part of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), had earlier written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking the government to "review and withdraw" the executive order on the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), to be formed March 1 after a cabinet nod last month. Eight chief ministers of states voiced their opposition to the proposed counter-terrorism centre Friday, saying it is an infringement of the powers of the state. “We are happy to work with the new government of ...
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BADU (WEST BENGAL): West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday skipped the NSG hub inauguration function attended by Union home minister P Chidambaram. While her name was initially included in the brochure, it was subsequently deleted. Trinamool Congress leader and minister of state for shipping Mukul Roy attended the inauguration. Country's security a shared responsibility: Chidambaram Under attack from non-Congress-ruled states over setting up of an anti-terror institution, home minister P Chidambaram on Saturday sought to reach out to them saying that the security of the country is a shared responsibility of the central and state governments. "Security of the country is shared by the Centre and state governments. The Constitution of India assigns law and order to the state government and also assigns the Centre to protect the country against external aggression or internal disturbance," he said, speaking the inauguration of an NSG hub here, about 50 kms from Kolkata. Chidambaram said the founding fathers of the Constitution were also wise when they made article 355. "That is why they made national security, internal security a shared ...
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Panaji, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may be opposed to special economic zones (SEZ) as well as foreign investment in civil aviation and retail, but her party Trinamool Congress now wants to carve out a "financial district" in faraway Goa. The Trinamool, in its election manifesto released ahead of the March 3 Goa polls, states that they want to make the beach tourism state into a banking hub on the lines of Hong Kong. "Invite international banks and financial institutions to set up business in Goa (Hong Kong model)," the manifesto released by the Trinamool's state president Wilfred de Souza says, underlining the party's pitch to create a "financial district" in Goa, to facilitate the banking hub dream. Speaking to IANS, de Souza said the creation of a financial district here and turning Goa into a banking paradise on the lines of Hong Kong was in sync with Banerjee's economic policies. "It is in sync with Mamata Banerjee's policies," de Souza said. Banerjee has in the recent past been in the news for opposing foreign investment in civil aviation and retail sector. Her opposition to Tata's Nano manufacturing project in Singur, West Bengal over forcible ...
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Kolkata, State government employees affiliated to various unions shouted slogans against the Bengal administration's move to curb trade union rights of government staff - right to association, right to bargain and the right to strike. The state government isn't yielding, though. Agitators protested outside labour minister Purnendu Bose's chamber in Writer's Building. Bose is waiting for the Cabinet nod following which his department will release pamphlets explaining the government stand. No other state allows trade unions among government employees or the police. The Left Front government allowed it, though. "We are not against trade unions. I want to mention that the trade union rights that the employees are talking about have no legal nod. There is no such provision in the West Bengal Government Servants Conduct Rules, 1959. In September 1981, the state finance department issued a circular recognizing the rights of government employees to form associations. But the content is not in tune with other provisions of the Conduct Rules," Bose said. The dichotomy between the 1981 circular and the rules is apparent. For instance, the Rules say, "No government employee can ...
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Kolkata, Although she felt "betrayed" by the Congress leadership many a time, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee describes the late Rajiv Gandhi as "the leader of our hearts" and Pranab Mukherjee as her brother. Recalling her days in the Congress when she was attacked by alleged CPI(M) activists at a rally in 1991 in Kolkata, she says, "Rajiv ji, the leader of our hearts, took up the responsibility of paying for my treatment. He sent people to ask if I wanted to go to the US for further treatment". Even as Banerjee's current relationship with ally Congress has turned sour, she treats Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee as her elder brother. "I have always respected him and my relationship with him is that of an elder brother and his kid sister," she says recalling that when Mukherjee was once sacked by the party and formed the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress in 1986, she had repeatedly requested Gandhi to take him back into the party fold. In her autobiographical account in the recently published book 'My Unforgettable Memories', she says that on hearing the news of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991 she was so shattered that she could neither eat nor speak ...
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Baruipur: Attacked by the opposition CPM and coalition partner Congress for being autocratic and criticized for her "poor performance", chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday made an all-out attack against her critics at a government function at Baruipur in South 24-Parganas. Projecting herself as neutral, she repeatedly threatened that she could "turn out to be dangerous" and asked the CPM not to challenge her, find fault about her work. At the inauguration of a polytechnic college at Baruipur's Atghara, Mamata said she had already delivered what she had promised in the seven months that she has been in power, and what she was doing now was in "addition" to that. She alleged that the CPM was always up to some mischief - "they are always creating riots and trouble and are criticising us." Mamata, often called an autocratic leader who did not let others take decision, answered her critics in a veiled way by saying that she "created" leaders. "I took this responsibility that I am now carrying out, because you (the people) wanted me to." "I am not weak. I will go when I have to. I have come from Kalighat and will go back to Kalighat," she said, not making it explicit ...
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Panaji, Jan 11 : The famed moodswings of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and her partymen against the ruling Congress party seem to have got into a domino mode, spreading from Delhi to West Bengal to Goa. Less than a week after he was appointed state president by the Trinamool, Wilfred de Souza has called the ruling Congress-led alliance in Goa "corrupt, ineffective and lacking in ideas" and said his party would take the Congress head on during the Goa assembly polls March 3. "Goa needs a clean party; the Congress is corrupt and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is communal, whereas the local parties did not have any standing. So Goans did not have any viable third alternative. Now they have one," de Souza said even as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has dared the Congress to leave their alliance government in her state. In Goa's political circles, the octogenarian de Souza, a renowned surgeon, is known to match up to Banerjee when it comes to temperament. He is seen to have orchestrated coups in the past which have dropped governments and occasions, propped some. "He has changed the political course of Goa several times around in the last ...
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Kolkata: At a time when her cabinet colleagues kept the heat on Congress, chief minister Mamata Banerjee distanced herself from street politics and kept herself busy reassuring the captains of industry at the state-sponsored business summit in Kolkata on Monday. Rather than petty politics, Mamata shifted her focus on attracting investments to a state that desperately wants the private sector to come. On Monday, she gave a miss to the party rally at Mayo Road in Kolkata against Congress and assured the business leaders that her government was not against industry. "If anyone wants to set up industry in Bengal, all you need is to send a proposal to us. Land ceiling won't be a problem. I've already constituted a committee on industry and infrastructure that will examine the proposal and give clearance in seven days. The government has already cleared seven such proposals," she said. Mamata's move is seen as an attempt to get rid of the anti-industry tag that she had earned after the Tatas pulled out of Singur. Mamata has realized that she can't create jobs and jack up revenues without fresh investments. Her government wants the public-private partnership model in social sectors ...
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New Delhi, The Congress Sunday brushed off reports about cracks in the ruling UPA coalition, saying "too much" should not be read into the angry outburst of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee."I don't think we should read too much into these things...We all understand her (Banerjee's) concerns and I'm sure she understands our compulsions. I think there is a need for better communication," Law Minister and senior party leader Salman Khurshid told NDTV, a day after the Trinamool Congress chief challenged the Congress to walk out of the coalition government in West Bengal. Khurshid blamed the bickering between the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partners on "mismatch in expectations and responses". Banerjee's Trinamool is mainly responsible for blocking some key government policies and bills, including foreign direct investment in retail and the anti-graft Lokpal law. "I'm sure Mamataji also has expectations of people who voted for her and change in the ruling establishment of West Bengal after such a long time. But again, we are a national party and we have a lot of expectations that go beyond the concerns of only one state. So, there will sometimes be a ...
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Kolkata, Denying that she had any deal with the Congress on the issue of Lokayukta in the Lokpal bill, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said the Lokayukta should remain a perogative of the states. ''Some news channels are saying that there is a deal with the Congress on the Lokayukta issue in the Lokpal bill. But I want to say that there was no such deal. I don't believe in deals. I believe in transparent politics,'' she told reporters at the state secretariat. ''We have clearly stated that Lokpal is the matter of the Centre and Lokayukta is a matter of the state. The states should decide on the issue of Lokayukta. When our MPs protested in Lok Sabha, they were told that an amendment would be made so that states don't face any problem,'' she said. The amendment said those states which did not want a Lokayukta could opt out. But if any state wanted a Lokayukta, then it had to follow the model given in the central bill, she said. ''Why will we follow that model? I can make a better model. I had spoken in favour of all the states and the federal structure of the country,'' Ms Banerjee said. ''I think that Lokpal should be made in a good way and if ...
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Kolkata, The death toll in the devastating fire in South Kolkata's AMRI hospital pushed up to 55 with the recovery of more bodies of patients today. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who visited the spot, confirmed that so far 55 people were killed and five of them had been identified. Official sources said 42 bodies were lying in the state-run SSKM hospital and the rest in three other hospitals. The sources said two nurses of the hospital, who were on duty in the female general ward and a police officer who took part in the rescue operation, also died in the incident. It was believed that most of the victims, some of them admitted to ICU, ICCU and ITU, died due to suffocation. Ms Banerjee later issued an order for the arrest of few key persons in the hospital administration as the Fire Brigade lodged an FIR against the AMRI authorities. Leader of the Opposition Surjyakanta Mishra also rushed to the spot. Fire Brigade sources said most of the patients, some of them unconscious, had been evacuated with the help of hydraulic ladders while work was still on to rescue others who remained trapped inside the building. The sources said the fire originated in the ...
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