SONARPUR: To resolve the problem of drinking water, the Sundarban Development Authority (SDA) is planning to install reservoirs in some blocks of Sundarban.

Malda, Sept. 19: The Bengal forest department is looking for 300 acres in Jharkhali on the edge of the Sunderbans in South 24-Parganas to set up a tiger rescue centre.

If the results of the recently concluded panchayat elections are anything to go by, the issue of conversion of farmland into industrial plots will continue to make or mar political fortunes in the state in the years to come. Strangely enough, brick kilns are destroying vast quantity of fertile soil every year in North 24-Parganas even as people of Singur and Nandigram have showed their avid dislike for those who tried to grab their land.

Raktima Bose The Bangladeshi barge m v Nilam moments before it sank. A Bangladeshi barge, on its way to the Narayanganj inland port, sank in the Hooghly river after it ran aground hitting an island at Noorpur in South 24 Parganas district on Monday. The barge was carrying 700 tonnes of steel coils worth Rs.4 crore. It left the Kolkata port on Sunday night. Kolkata Port Trust (KPT) sources said m v Nilam had 11 people onboard, all of whom were rescued by the local people.

- Eleven people die in Midnapores as Met office forecasts more rain in coastal areas The flood killed 11 more people in East and West Midnapore today, taking the toll to 20 and prompting the government to add to its relief purse. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who will be travelling to Kolaghat in East Midnapore tomorrow, held a meeting with finance minister Asim Dasgupta, health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra and relief minister Mortaza Hossain in Calcutta. He might visit some of the flood-hit areas tomorrow.

In tune with the CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat's prescription after the panchayat poll debacles to the CPI(M)-led government to put on hold any development project vis-a-vis land acquisition drive, the West Bengal government on Tuesday declared that in face of any protest during land procurement for the Dankuni Township in Hooghly district, the entire project might be scrapped. Significantly, the state government has already put a brake on Salim Group's proposed projects in East Medinipur and North and South 24 Parganas.