Latest news with #WestBengalAssembly
The Hindu
12 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Durga Puja organisers will get honorarium of ₹1.10 lakh: Mamata
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that the Durga Puja communities this year will receive an honorarium of ₹1.10 lakh, a hike of almost 30% from last year's ₹85,000. The announcement made ahead of the West Bengal Assembly polls received criticism from the Opposition parties, who described the honorarium hike as a 'bribe'. Stating that there are about 45,000 Durga Puja clubs, Ms. Banerjee said that the honorarium is going to cost ₹495 crore to the State exchequer. The CM also urged electricity supply companies to give an 80% rebate to the clubs. 'Last year the sum was ₹85,000, this year how much you want?' asked Ms. Banerjee while addressing a gathering in Kolkata's Netaji Indoor Stadium. 'Let us fix it as ₹1.10 lakh this year,' she added. Highlighting the significance of the festival to the people of the State, the Chief Minister urged the organisers to focus on crowd management, and she advised the clubs not to compete with each other to draw large crowds. The clubs should engage more volunteers and have separate entry and exits at Durga Puja pandals, Ms. Banerjee said. The festival will be held in the last week of September, and the Durga Puja Carnival will be held on October 5. Ms. Banerjee urged the Durga Puja organisers to help the migrant workers who have returned to the State after facing harassment in BJP-ruled states. 'I request the committees to help migrant workers, who are returning to Bengal after facing torture in BJP-ruled states.' LoP hits out Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said that the CM can even pay ₹2 lakh to Durga Puja, but before that, she should pay the Dearness Allowance (DA) to employees. 'She should increase the salary of ICDS, Anganwadi workers, civic police volunteers and other contractual staff,' Mr. Adhikari said. The LoP also predicted that before the Assembly polls, Ms. Banerjee would hike the honorarium given to imams and muezzins by ₹500. The honorarium to Durga Puja clubs has on several occasions been challenged before the Calcutta High Court, and the State government has argued that the funds deemed to be used for increase in awareness on several issues. The Mamata Banerjee government had introduced an honorarium to committees organising Durga Puja in 2018, promising a sum of ₹10,000 to each club. In seven years the grant has increased by 11 times.
Hans India
a day ago
- Politics
- Hans India
New voter registrations without documents raise alarm ahead of SIR in Bengal
The West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer's (CEO) office is on high alert following reports of new voter registrations being processed without valid supporting documents, even before the commencement of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. According to officials, 127 instances of new voter registrations without proper supporting documents have already been flagged. These are just from two constituencies -- Moyna in East Midnapore district and Baruipur (Purba) constituency in South 24 Parganas district. Of these 127 instances, 87 names have surfaced from Moyna and the remaining 38 from Baruipur (Purba). The figure has kept the officials at the CEO's office on high alert, since these irregularities have surfaced from just two assembly constituencies, and that too before the beginning of the SIR. There are 294 constituencies in the state. Interestingly, neither Moyna nor Baruipur (Purba) is located near international borders with neighbouring Bangladesh, making the revelations more concerning. Senior officials fear that the number of such dubious registrations could be far higher in districts neighbouring Bangladesh. The concern is further compounded as the number of Form-6 applications in certain districts during the last two weeks has witnessed a sharp spike. These districts are Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Malda, North Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, and North & South 24 Parganas -- all having international borders with Bangladesh. Form 6 is an application for the inclusion of one's name in the electoral list. On Wednesday, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to initiate an immediate investigation and appropriate action against the electoral registration officers (EROs) who are clandestinely involved in accepting Form 6 applications from fictitious voters without proper verification. Even the office of the CEO, West Bengal, had already issued a memo this week, citing instances of EROs receiving a considerable number of Form-6 applications from such fake voters during sample checks. The situation, officials say, underscores the need for heightened vigilance ahead of the upcoming electoral roll revision exercise.
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Suvendu Adhikari writes to EC alleging West Bengal CM attempting to 'intimidate' BLOs
KOLKATA: Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari on July 29, wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner of India, alleging that Mamata Banerjee was attempting to 'intimidate' Booth-Level-Officers (BLOs) in West Bengal. He urged the Election Commission of India to take cognisance of this matter and act swiftly to ensure the integrity of the electoral process in West Bengal. In his letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Adhikari alleged that Banerjee made public statements that 'constitute a direct and unwarranted interference in the duties of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and the broader electoral framework overseen by the Election Commission of India (ECI)'. Referring to the Chief Minister's remarks at a public meeting in Bolpur in Birbhum on July 28, he said, 'Mamata Banerjee expressed displeasure over the training of approximately one thousand BLOs in Delhi, alleging that neither she nor the Chief Secretary were informed about this initiative. She further reminded BLOs that they are employees of the State Government, implying that their allegiance lies with the State Administration rather than the ECI during the pre-election and post-election periods.' 'Additionally, she instructed BLOs to ensure that no voter's name is removed from the Voter List, which could be interpreted as an attempt to influence the revision of electoral rolls for political motives,' Adhikari alleged.
Hans India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Bengal migrant workers: Complaint against CM Mamata for social media post on harassment refuted by Delhi Police
Kolkata: BJP Lok Sabha member from Kanthi constituency in East Midnapore, Soumendu Adkhikari, on Tuesday, complained to Delhi Police against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of allegedly disseminating fake and provocative content on her social media handle on the issue of alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking migrant workers from West Bengal in BJP-ruled states. Soumendu Adhikari is the younger brother of Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari. His complaint was about a video shared by the Chief Minister on the wall of her official X handle on Sunday, where she accused the Delhi Police of harassing and torturing a Bengali-speaking migrant family there. The Chief Minister shared the video and claimed that a child and his mother, who belong to a migrant family from West Bengal's Malda district, were allegedly beaten up by the police in New Delhi. In a written complaint with the Cyber Crime Branch of Delhi Police, a copy of which is available with IANS, Soumednu Adhikari asked the police to register an FIR against the Chief Minister under relevant Sections of the IT Act and take appropriate legal actions against her in accordance with law. "I am writing this letter to lodge a formal complaint against Smt. Mamata Banerjee, the Hon'ble Chief Minister of West Bengal, for the deliberate dissemination of false, fabricated, and communally charged content via her official social media handle, with the intent to malign the image of the Delhi Police, provoke public discontent, and stoke inter-community disharmony," read the letter. Adhikari said that the incident not only undermined the rule of law but also damaged the inter-state and inter-community harmony, and the faith of citizens in law enforcement. On Monday, the Delhi Police called the video "fabricated" and "politically motivated." Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Abhishek Dhania said that after a thorough investigation and enquiry, the Delhi Police have concluded that the entire video was baseless and fabricated. 'This video has been deliberately circulated on social media to tarnish the image of the Delhi Police. Further investigation is still going on," Dhania said on Monday. Soon after the rebuttal from Delhi Police, BJP's Information Technology Cell Chief and the party's central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, slammed Mamata Banerjee and accused her of spreading fake news.
The Hindu
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Prepare to be unseated in 2026, Suvendhu tells Mamata; parties ramp up rhetoric
Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said on Monday (July 21, 2025) that he would 'make Mamata Banerjee the former Chief Minister of the State' in the Assembly elections of 2026. 'Trinamool has challenged us by declaring that they will win more seats in 2026. I am also challenging them — I defeated you in Nandigram in 2021; I will make you the former Chief Minister in 2026,' Mr. Adhikari said, directing his remark at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The BJP MLA staged a protest march to Uttarkanya, the branch secretariat of the West Bengal Government in Siliguri, on Monday, the same day that Trinamool supremo Ms. Banerjee spelled out the party's political line at the party's 33rd Martyrs' Day event in Dharmatala, Central Kolkata. Demands revision of poll rolls 'We want Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list here, like in Bihar. Everyone can rest assured that the tortured Hindus who have come from Bangladesh are refugees, not infiltrators… But we will not allow even one Rohingya Muslim or Bangladeshi Muslim to remain on the voters' lists,' Mr. Adhikari said during the programme. The Chief Minister, in her address on Monday, stated that 40 lakh voters have been disenfranchised in Bihar due to SIR, and that if the same is done in West Bengal, massive agitations and gherao programmes will be conducted. Mr. Adhikari also took a jab at Trinamool, claiming that the ruling dispensation had questioned the religious identity of the Rajbanshi and Matua communities of West Bengal, which constitute a large portion of the State's scheduled caste population. The two communities have been a source of political contention between the two parties and are expected to exert significant electoral influence in the upcoming Assembly polls. At the Trinamool rally at Dharmatala, Ms. Banerjee brought on stage Uttam Kumar Brajabashi, the 55-year-old Rajbanshi farmer from Coochbehar, who had received an NRC notice from the Assam Foreigners Tribunal. 'The Chief Minister claims she has given everyone employment in this State. Then why are there 60 lakh migrant workers from West Bengal? Why are 2 crore 15 lakh people unemployed? Why is there no industry? She has no answers,' Mr. Adhikari said at the rally. He also announced that he will visit Cooch Behar on August 4. BJP here to stay Meanwhile, the recently appointed State president of the BJP, Samik Bhattacharya, said on Monday that the Chief Minister will 'not see India or the Central government be free of the BJP in her lifetime.' 'The Trinamool is attacking the Bengali language. They are attacking Rabindranath Tagore, Vande Mataram, and the works of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. They are trying to erase the history of West Bengal,' Mr. Bhattacharya claimed. At Kharagpur in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur, former BJP MLA Dilip Ghosh organised a separate party programme 'to pay tribute to our martyred party workers who lost their lives to political violence.' The Trinamool Congress has been observing Martyrs' Day in Central Kolkata on July 21 with a massive rally for over two decades to pay tribute to 13 people killed in police firing during an agitation by the West Bengal Youth Congress on 21 July 1993. 'I believe this is Trinamool's final Martyrs' Day programme. Next year, Trinamool itself will get martyred. They will not be able to observe this day next year,' Mr. Ghosh said.
