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Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
State nod to two more supercritical power plants
1 2 Kolkata: State cabinet on Monday approved the setting up of two supercritical power plants in Salboni, which would attract an investment of over Rs 10,000 crore. "There would be two new 800 MW plants at Salboni in Jhargram," said state power minister Aroop Biswas after the cabinet meeting. The units would be operated on PPP model. JSW Group was already setting up two 800 MW supercritical power plants, the minister added. Biswas said that work for the Sagardighi 660 MW supercritical plant was also on. "These plants are being planned as industrial demand is on the rise, and customers of the power sector are also increasing. The plans were made so that there is no crisis in power. During Left Front's stay in office, people had to suffer a lot from loadshedding." You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata During the inauguration of the 1600 MW power plant in Salboni, CM Mamata Banerjee had said that Bengal had come a long way from being called a loadshedding state. The CM had added that to ensure 24X7 power, the state had already spent Rs 76,000 crore on infrastructure that included generation, transmission and distribution since 2011 and would spend another Rs 48,000 crore in future. "We have built 3.5 lakh km of power line and 750 substations. In West Midnapore alone, we have spent Rs 3,700 crore," she had added. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area.
Indian Express
5 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
From the Opinions Editor: Viksit Bharat cannot be built on broken ecosystems. Uttarakhand flash floods, waterlogged Delhi are warnings
Written in rain While the rains sustain human life in most parts of the world, the monsoon is arguably the most consequential to the well-being of people in India. Rains rejuvenate farms, and their deficit often has negative impacts on the economy, even though it has been decades since the country has succeeded in drought-proofing itself. The monsoon influences poets and artists, it's a muse for gastronomes and uplifts the spirits of people after the harsh summer. Yet, in the past two decades, with climate change making its presence felt, the rains have also confronted most parts of the country, and their policymakers, irrespective of political ideology, with a sobering reality. Administrative machineries — whether the BJP-ruled governments in Delhi, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Assam, or Congress regimes in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, or Kerala's Left Front government — are at sea when it rains too much. Last week began with flash floods washing away an entire village in Uttarakhand. It ended with Rakhi festivities being soured in Delhi because lives were lost to a wall collapse, and waterlogging and traffic jams made commuting an arduous task in several parts of the city. One side of the story pertains to a relatively low-hanging fruit — designing cities and planning urban amenities in ways that can absorb excess water. Walls will not crumble, or bridges will not collapse – like in Vadodara, last month – and sewers won't overflow if municipalities and other authorities invest in their upkeep. Factoring in idiosyncrasies of low-lying areas and sensitivity to natural drainage systems – streams, nullahs, mangroves, wetlands — can alleviate much of the water-logging problems. Making municipalities accountable, improving their finances and empowering them with more autonomy are all a part of the solution. However, the elusive ecological in planning speaks of a larger and even more grave shortcoming – one that is almost inextricable with India's development story, cutting across economic regimes. Development and environment have been seen as binaries, when the economy was state-run as well as in the post-liberalisation period. Most often, ecological well-being has had to be sacrificed for economic well-being, the assumption often being that rivers, marshes, mountains, forests are doomed as collateral in the country's endeavour to improve the living standards of people and lift a large section of them out of poverty. That's why even the most well-drafted laws and regulatory provisions remain mostly on paper, and recommendations of government-appointed committees, like the two on the Western Ghat, scarcely receive meaningful follow-ups. In recent times, courts have ruled that the right to clean air and ecological well-being is an essential part of the Right to Life. The highest court of the land has even questioned the framing of the environment and development in a zero-sum game. But even directives and strictures of the judiciary go largely unheeded. The renewable energy thrust is an important, but only a small, part of the solution. Extreme weather events, melting glaciers and rising seas and oceans are forcing policymakers to answer questions they thought they could ignore. How to build houses without impairing an area's topography or encroaching upon water bodies? How to increase incomes in hill states without cutting away mountains? How to factor in the quirks of the rivers, streams and lakes in the Himalaya and at the same time fulfil the aspirations of people in the hill states and other ecologically fragile areas. How to shift to cropping patterns that do not involve guzzling up copious amounts of water? How to design transport systems that do not increase the particulate matter burden of the atmosphere? The answers are not always easy, and there are hardly any templates to work with. Also, to be fair, attuning economies with the demands of ecology is as much a problem for forest fire-plagued America, heat-affected Europe and Australia as it is for the rain-affected Indian cities, towns, and increasingly even rural areas. The variations in landscapes and ecosystems, as well as the diversities of socioeconomic conditions in the country, mean that a large part of the solution may well have to be local. This is a knowledge-related imperative, which, in a world challenged by global warming, has as much significance as syncing skill sets with the demands of the new cybertech, AI, and robotics-driven world. Most Indian universities have ecology departments. Several architecture, engineering and business schools also have courses on sustainability. Yet, the consistently increasing challenges — whether calamitous ones such as the Wayanad landslide last year, the toll taken by flash floods year after year, or the disruptions caused by waterlogging in cities — show that ecology rarely goes beyond academia or niche circles. The political class has rarely taken ownership of the crisis. Sustainability does, at times, find mention in the government's push for a Viksit Bharat. However, much needs to be done to find a place for the ways of the rivers, streams, mountains, forests and air in its vision for a developed nation. With flash floods sweeping away villages and rains drowning cities, making the ecology a part of the economic question should become a part of the government's moral imperative – and that of the political class at large. Till next time Kaushik Das Gupta
News18
30-07-2025
- Politics
- News18
Mamata & Bengali Regionalism Card: Bid To Deflect Attention From Corruption, Law & Order
During her speech, Mamata made it clear that she is going to bank on the card of Bengali regionalism to counter the BJP As usual, the ruling party of West Bengal, Trinamool Congress, held its annual mega 'Martyr's Day' rally in Kolkata on July 21. This rally is held to commemorate the police firing on the protest organised by the Youth Congress in 1993. For years, this rally has become an important event as it lays out the party's strategy for one year. With this annual event being the last one ahead of next year's state assembly polls, this event was awaited by state's political circles to get a glimpse of the ruling party's election strategy. And as expected, party supremo and also state's chief minister Mamata Banerjee charted out the party's strategy for the upcoming assembly elections in the mega rally. During her speech, Mamata made it clear that she is going to bank on the card of Bengali regionalism to counter the main Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Instead of playing the usual pro-Muslim card in the name of holding the flag of secularism high in the state, this time she has relied on playing the Bengali card by portraying the detention of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in the BJP-ruled states as attacks on the Bengali identity and drawing a conclusion by terming the saffron party as an 'anti-Bengali party". She also tried to motivate her party workers and supporters by calling them that her struggle won't end until and unless the BJP is removed from the Centre. It has to be mentioned that this isn't the first time that Mamata has invoked Bengali regionalism to gain electoral benefits. She had successfully done that in the last assembly polls, where she was able to defend her throne by portraying the saffron party as a 'bohiragoto" (foreigner) to the Bengali culture — and this strategy paid well with the TMC returning to power for the third time by getting a two-third majority. Unemployment and corruption are crucial factors Whatever spin the TMC and its ecosystem (comprising a section of intellectuals, journalists and political commentators of the state) may give, the fact is that there has been an unemployment crisis in the state under TMC rule. According to a National Statistical Office (NSO) report last year, the state lost 3 million jobs in the informal sector from 2015-16 to 2022-23. While the TMC establishment claims that the state has been performing well in attracting investments, critics have pointed out how the state has been lagging behind when it comes to actual investments. The ruling party also never fails to highlight that the state under its rule has been a top performer in the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME) sector forgetting the fact that the same sector has been a legacy of the previous CPM-led Left Front government. For years, the state maintained itself as one of the leading states in the MSME sector under the Left Front's rule. In the post-poll CSDS-Lokniti survey of 2021 state assembly elections, 51.4% of the voters had said that job opportunities deteriorated in the state. However, in the last assembly elections, the TMC led by Mamata was able to return to power banking on welfare policies, Bengali regionalism and stability as the BJP failed to provide itself as a proper alternative. Things have changed a lot since then. Corruption has become an important issue with many allegations against the TMC leaders from bottom to the top. That corruption has penetrated widely into the administration under the TMC rule got credibility when the Supreme Court annulled over 25,000 teachers and non-teachers recruited through the School Service Commission (SSC) calling the selection process tainted. In addition to this, the declining law and order combined with the rise of communalism has emerged as another major issue in the state. This was seen in the Murshidabad violence resulting in the death of 3 people and the subsequent order of the Calcutta High Court to deploy central forces in the violence-hit district — and this order undeniably reflected the failure of the state administration. Bengali regionalism: A strategy to deflect anti-incumbency Despite seeing a decrease of six seats in the last Lok Sabha polls in comparison to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP was still ahead in 90 assembly seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Although this number was lower than the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, where it was ahead in the 126 assembly constituencies, this was still higher than the 77 seats it got in the last assembly elections. This shows that the saffron party has established itself as a force to reckon with in the state, with the support from a large section of Left voters, who still view the former as the main challenger against TMC. Not only this, the main Opposition party learning from its past mistakes has been going through a makeover. This was visible through the appointment of Rajya Sabha MP Shamik Bhattacharya, a moderate leader within the state party leadership, as the state party president and the recent rally of prime minister Narendra Modi in Durgapur where the latter raised slogans like Jai Maa Durga and Jai Maa Kali instead of the usual slogan of Jai Shri Ram. In addition to this, Modi also tried to counter Mamata's claims, without naming her, on detention of Bengali migrants in BJP-ruled states by saying that the saffron party is not against Bengalis but against illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Let's not forget that illegal Bangladeshi immigration is a problem within the state too. Growing anti-incumbency and the ongoing makeover of the BJP as a party trying to align with the Bengal's culture, left Mamata with no option but to turn the heat of anti-incumbency against her government towards the BJP by playing the card of Bengali regionalism. She is in no mood to give the BJP any more space in the state. This became evident when she in her rally wasn't much vocal on the Muslim card. Instead she invoked the Bengali card strongly to appeal both the Bengali Hindus and Bengali Muslims to vote against the saffron party. This also shows her attempt to deny the BJP a chance to polarise the majority Hindus against the TMC. Apart from this, she also knows that she would be fighting a tougher battle next year as 15-years of anti-incumbency is definitely not a joke and welfare schemes can't always be the guarantor of victory as evident from the defeats of Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi. The author is a political commentator. His X ID is @SagarneelSinha. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. view comments Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: July 30, 2025, 18:54 IST News opinion Opinion | Mamata & Bengali Regionalism Card: Bid To Deflect Attention From Corruption, Law & Order Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
India Today
30-07-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Is Bengal headed for voter roll revision? A tell-tale sign on the ground
The Election Commission (EC) has uploaded electoral rolls from its last major Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal in 2002, marking a possible precursor to a fresh such process ahead of the assembly elections in the state next far, PDF downloads of electoral data are accessible for 103 of the 294 assembly constituencies spread over 11 districts—Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda, Nadia, Howrah, Hooghly, Medinipur and Bankura; rolls from the remaining 191 constituencies are expected to be uploaded in the days to 2002 SIR rolls have been uploaded on the website of the chief electoral officer of West Bengal. Their release is being interpreted as groundwork for a fresh SIR, wherein citizens will be scrutinised based on that list. The last SIR in Bengal was conducted during Left Front rule. With delimitation in 2008 having restructured constituencies and polling booths, individuals must now trace which constituency and booth they belonged to back in 2002 in order to locate their names or their parents' enrolment minister Mamata Banerjee has warned that genuine voters risk being excluded under a process she equates with discrimination and unfair targeting. On July 28, she stated: 'We won't tolerate this in Bengal. The double-engine government is behind this conspiracy.' 'No one will have their names in the voters' list, despite having Aadhaar, EPICs (voter cards) and PAN... The list is decided from Gujarat. I love Gujaratis, but some agency in Gujarat is working as the BJP's agency,' she also expressed dismay over reports that around 1,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) from Bengal had been sent to New Delhi for training under the EC's directive—without state government knowledge. 'Why were we not aware of that training? The chief secretary should have been informed,' she said during an administrative meeting with district magistrates. 'Please inform the chief secretary and us. You are making decisions on your own,' she added chief electoral officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal clarified the position. 'If SIR takes place, the training will equip BLOs to carry out their responsibilities effectively. However, the decision rests entirely with the EC. SIR may take place in the future. BLO training is a regular activity of the EC, and SIR, like many other aspects, is in our training syllabus,' he training of BLOs has continued within the state from July 24 to 28, with around 900 officers undergoing induction at Kolkata's Mahajati Sadan, and others in districts including Malda, East Burdwan, Midnapore and Jalpaiguri. The office of the chief electoral officer has also summoned assistant returning officers from Moyna, Baruipur and Rajarhat to explain alleged inconsistencies and presence of fake voters in the SIR is a constitutional mechanism allowing the EC to conduct door-to-door enumeration at any time, with the aim of rebuilding the electoral rolls from the ground up—without reliance on the existing list—in a time-bound process. Similar exercises have been conducted in various states since the early 1950s. The SIR in Bihar, in the run-up to assembly polls this year, has blown up into a political SIR typically requires submission of new enumeration forms by all registered voters, along with documentary proof of date and place of birth for those enrolled after the prior SIR cut-off—often extended to include parents' voter IDs and birth certifications to establish Bengal's context, those registered before or during the 2002 SIR may not need modern documentation; later enrollees likely will. Given the substantial demographic change—Bengal's electorate has grown from 47 million in 2004 to around 76 million by early 2025—the EC will be expected to balance inclusivity with Congress (TMC) MP Sushmita Dev has argued that the current exercise exceeds the EC's mandate and encroaches upon citizenship verification, which is constitutionally the domain of the Union home ministry. Meanwhile, BJP leaders, including leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, have called for a Bihar-style SIR in Bengal, citing fears of illegal infiltration. Adhikari flagged a sudden surge of 70,000 new registrations and urged the exclusion of domicile certificates issued after July 25 in the review caution that burdensome documentation and changes in booth allocation could disenfranchise the elderly, migrants, seasonal labourers and residents of remote areas. Civil society commentators warn that requiring legacy documentation for those enrolled post-2002 may impose an undue hurdle, especially when the EC lacks statutory authority for citizenship the other hand, proponents argue that SIR helps cleanse electoral rolls of ineligible or duplicate registrations, safeguarding democratic legitimacy. The EC itself insists that the process is routine and anchored in citizens, locating their name in the uploaded SIR roll is now the first step. Once the list is fully online, individuals must identify their 2002 constituency and booth—information often irretrievable without local knowledge or family memory—so they can match names before the SIR scrutinises eligibility Bengal gears up for a comprehensive voter enumeration process, both the EC and political camps in the state face mounting pressure: the EC to deliver a transparent, inclusive SIR; the TMC to guard voters against unfair exclusion; and the BJP to push for rigorous cleansing of electoral lists. On way to the battle of 2026, all eyes are now on the uploads, hearings and final shape of Bengal's voter to India Today Magazine- Ends
Time of India
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Modi woos Bengal with Kali-Durga chants amid TMC's bias barbs
1 2 Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's second rally in seven weeks in Bengal, in the industrial township of Durgapur on Friday, started with a "Jai Ma Kali, Jai Ma Durga" homage to the state's two biggest Hindu deities and largely focused on the BJP's commitment to Bengal's cultural and industrial development. Other leaders like former MP Locket Chatterjee and assembly opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari started with the customary "Jai Sri Ram" slogan but the BJP supremo's eschewing of Ram and his focus on Bengal's deities and past political, cultural and industrial icons (like Bidhan Chandra Roy, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Kadambini Ganguly, Dwarkanath Tagore and Bishnu Dey) gave a glimpse of the BJP's strategy in the run-up to the 2026 assembly poll: harp on the BJP's connect with Bengal to offset the Trinamool's hammer-and-tongs campaign against "the harassment and torture of Bengalis in BJP-ruled states". The PM took the Trinamool's campaign head-on, stating "infiltrators will be investigated as per the provisions in the legal system". "We will not allow a conspiracy against Bengal's asmita. It is Modi's guarantee," he said to a cheering crowd. "The Trinamool is putting Bengal's identity at stake in trying to protect illegal immigrants and that has become a threat to national security," he added, dovetailing barbs against "the Trinamool's appeasement politics" with the the new focus on "Bengali pride". You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata Modi also brought up the "classical language status" for Bengali, taking credit for "a BJP initiative", while accusing the Trinamool and the Left Front of never caring for the language. "Bengali asmita is of the highest importance for the BJP. People of Bengal get respect wherever there is BJP," he said, seeking to refute the Trinamool's recent campaign "anti-Bengali" against the BJP. CM Mamata Banerjee hit the streets of Kolkata with other Trinamool seniors in a rally that also showcased several Bengali migrant labourers, who recounted the torture they underwent at police's hands in BJP-governed states. The Trinamool was "anti-development", Modi said, attributing the flight of Bengal's youth to other states to that. "People across the country used to come here for employment. The trend has changed now. Existing industries are closing down. We have to pull Bengal out of this situation," he said. The PM wove this narrative with the BJP's usual anti-Trinamool litany as he blamed its use of "syndicate raj, gunda tax and mafia control" for driving out industries. "It formulates policies encouraging corruption. Its sudden changes of policy hinder investment. Which industrialist will dare to come to a state where there are riots?" he asked. Bengal's voters wanted "paribartan (change)" and "unnayan (development)", Modi said. "Give us a chance. Bengal needs an imandaar (honest), kamdaar (efficient) and damdaar (strong) administration. "Bengal will be counted among the country's top industrialised states if the BJP comes to office," he said, going back to the BJP's "double-engine" slogan of 2021 that did not work too well, with the Trinamool coming back to office winning 215 of the total 294 seats. Modi also touched on the law-and-order situation, specifically mentioning the recent grang rape of a first-year students at a law college in Kolkata. "Hospitals are not safe for women. The Trinamool protected the accused when a daughter was tortured in a hospital. And another woman has been brutalised in a college even before the memory of that incident has faded," he said, before going to the "scams" in the education system. "The Trinamool has launched a double attack of corruption and crime on Bengal's education system. Thousands of teachers lost their jobs because of corruption. Even the courts said it was a systemic fraud. Only the Trinamool's ouster can bring real change in Bengal," Modi said. The PM earlier laid foundation stones for projects worth Rs 5,400 crore for sectors like oil and natural gas, road and rail transport and cleaner energy production.
