CM blames Opposition for halting development

Kolkata, 28 December: Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee challenged the Opposition on Sunday by saying that the land acquired for the small car project in Singur will only be used for industrial purposes.

Addressing the 22nd West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) employees’ union state conference at Barasat, Bhattacharjee accused the Opposition of “creating all sorts of problems for the government when it tries to undertake any kind of development work for which land acquisition is required”.

“They are a harmful power. In North 24 Parganas, they are preventing us from starting work on the widening of National Highway 34. Like Singur, the Trinamool Congress is causing disruptions here too. It was because of them that the Tata Motors factory could not come up. Now they are trying to create more trouble by demanding that the government returns all the acquired land,” he added.

Bhattacharjee, however, claimed all was not lost. “Some good news is coming up. I just want to say that only factories can come up on the Singur land, which has been acquired for industry. We will make it happen,” he said.

The chief minister also slammed the Maoists at the conference. “They want the inclusion of three districts to Jharkhand. Are the common people fools? The residents of those districts are part of our development programme. Will they get the amenities that we provide in Bengal?” “The Maoists want to create terror in the state. They are moving away from democracy and heading towards terrorism,” said Bhattacharjee .

“They are murdering policemen and creating obstacles in administrative work by threatening government officials,” he added.

Senior CBI officer caught taking bribe in Kolkata

DSP Partha Sarathi Bose was arrested after a Delhi CBI team laid a trap at Ultadanga crossing

KOLKATA, 28 December: The Deputy Superintendent of Police of CBI, Special Crime Branch, Kolkata, Partha Sarathi Bose, was arrested on Sunday by the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Wing (Delhi) while taking bribe. With Bose being the officer in-charge of various sensitive cases in West Bengal, including Tapasi Malik murder case, Chhota Angaria case and Rabindranath Tagore Nobel theft case, the arrest is expected to create a storm. He is the second high-ranking officer in the Special Crime Branch (SCB) of CBI to be arrested. On August 23, 2007, a month before his retirement, A K Sahay, an SP, was arrested on charges of extortion and amassing wealth disproportionate to his income. Sahay was in charge of the SCB and Bose’s immediate superior.

“The DSP has been asking for Rs 50,000 from a person and harassing him. After receiving the complaint, our special team from the Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch went to Kolkata. A trap was laid and he was caught red-handed,” said a source from Delhi.

According to the CBI, Avatar Singh, a truck operator from Kolkata, lodged a complaint with the agency saying the DSP was asking for a bribe and threatening to implicate him in the murder of an officer with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in Guwahati in 2006.

On September 12, 2006, Tarun Kumar Dutta, the DRI officer who had reportedly intercepted drug consignments estimated to be worth over Rs 40 crore in the international market, was shot dead by Assam-based drug mafia kingpin Samsul Haque Talukdar alias Pakhi Mian in Guwahati. Pakhi Mian was arrested this year on April 22 by the West Bengal Police from Baguiati. The SCB is investigating the case.

“According to Avatar Singh’s complaint, Bose said his garage was frequented by one Munna Musalman, a co-accused of Pakhi Mian. Bose threatened him that he would implicate him in the murder case if he failed to shell out Rs 50,000. He made a number of phone calls to Singh and also met him personally,” said another source. A trap was laid and Avatar called up Bose to arrange for a meeting to hand over the money. Bose and Singh fixed Ultadanga crossing as the venue. Bose was caught when he arrived at the spot at 12.10 pm and took the cash. Teams raided his office in Salt Lake and his residence in Ultadanga. The raids were on till last reports came in.

Bose, who was leading the investigation in a number of high-profile cases, is one of the most important CBI officers in Bengal. He faced sharp criticism from the ruling CPI(M) when he arrested Suhrid Dutta, party’s Hooghly district committee member, and his accomplice Debu Malik in the Tapasi Malik murder case. The two were recently convicted for life by a lower court. Bose was also criticised by the ruling party for his investigation into the Chhota Angaria case.

According to sources, the CBI top brass in Delhi is now preparing to replace Bose in the SCB’s Kolkata office, which is already reeling under a shortage of senior officers. Superintendent of Police (CBI) S Sunder Rajan was recently transferred to Orissa and held joint charge for both Kolkata and Orissa offices. Bose was at present in charge of the SCB Kolkata, in the absence of any superior.

Govt to demand centralised system to identify fishermen

Kolkata, 28 December: The state government will demand a centralised system for all the coastal states to confirm the identity of those fishermen, whose boat is intercepted by the police on the basis of suspicion. The demand will be raised in a meeting of home secretaries and DGPs of all the coastal states convened by Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta in Delhi on Monday.

The meeting will make an assessment of the progress made by the state governments in securing coastal areas of their respective states. “If a boat from Andhra Pradesh or Orissa is intercepted in Bengal, we may like to check the identity of the fishermen. But unless we have access to a centralised system, we cannot ascertain their identity. Similar situation may arise if a boat registered with us is intercepted in other states,” said Asok Mohan Chakrabarti, state Home Secretary, who will attend the meeting as well as the tripartite talks on Gorkhaland.

He added that if he could not make it on time for the coastal security meeting it will be DGP A B Vohra who will attend it. The West Bengal government is going to set up six coastal police stations and 17 outposts along its 269-km-long shore with Bangladesh. It is also going to get buy boats, sophisticated weapons and other equipment for coastal security.

According to Chakrabarti, besides these measures, the state government will furnish another plan to the Central government to ensure security along the state’s coast line.

“Fidel in Kolkata” photo exhibition

KOLKATA, 26 December : West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee inaugurated, here on Friday, an exhibition of photographs taken during the great revolutionary, Fidel Castro’s, brief visit to the city in September 1973.

Mr. Castro visited the city only once — on his way back from Hanoi — and that too for less than an hour. But the memories of that short visit, captured in the photographs taken by the late photographer Satya Sen, will give city residents the opportunity of reliving the past at the “Fidel in Kolkata” exhibition.

Organised by the Prabha Khaitan Foundation in collaboration with Nandan-West Bengal Film Centre and the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba, 35 rare black and white photographs of Mr. Castro’s visit to the city will be displayed to celebrate the 35th anniversary of his visit as well as the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.

Mr. Bhattacharjee felt that this exposition would provide an opportunity for all people who were unaware of Mr. Castro’s visit, to savour those moments. He said the former President of Cuba had been an inspiration to people worldwide.

“Fresh in your memories should be legendary football player, Maradona’s visit to the city. His affection for Fidel and Cuba are well known…I can imagine that the same crowds were drawn by Fidel when he came to the city,” said Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba.

He added that the message behind the exhibition was of friendship, solidarity and mutually shared values in a better world where social justice could prevail. Left Front Chairman Biman Basu, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury and eminent filmmakers Mrinal Sen and Goutam Ghosh were also present at the ceremony.

Referring to Mr. Castro’s famous speech — “… History will absolve me,” Mr. Basu said that history had already absolved the great leader who had become history himself.

Assembly bypoll tomorrow in Bengal

Purulia, Dec 26: The bypoll to Para assembly constituency in Purulia district of West Bengal would be held at 7 am tomorrow.However, the bypoll to the assembly seats of Nandigram in East Midnapore and Sujapur in Malda district, which were scheduled to be held together, have been deferred to January 5.

A total of 161,042 voters would cast vote for candidates of CPI(M), Congress, BJP, PDS and JMM(S). Security has been tightened with the deployment of three companies of central paramilitary forces in all the 174 booths and 23 auxilary booths of the Maoist-affected district.
Micro observers have also been posted in 154 booths.

The district & states border with Jharkhand have been sealed by erecting five checkposts between Para and Raghunathpur of the district and Bokaro and Dhanbad districts of Jharkhand.

GJM to attend tripartite talks on December 29

Siliguri, Dec 26: The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) today said it would take part in second tripartite talks with the Centre and West Bengal government in New Delhi on December 29."The single agenda of GJM is statehood," GJM general secretary Roshan Giri who would lead a 17-member delegation to New Delhi tomorrow for the second round of tripartite talks said here.

He criticised West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for reportedly stating that the Gorkhaland proposal would not be accepted.