Birbhum is the latest minefield where Adivasi lives are at stake
THE FIRST time Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee met Rabin Soren was five years ago; the West Bengal chief minister gave the 23-yearold his diploma for completing a government-run course in mass communication. The second meeting was on 9 July this year, when Soren was part of a 17-member delegation of Santhal Adivasi leaders.
Calcutta, July 18: Just as India was making progress in checking polio, Bengal threatens to spoil the effort because of what state officials themselves admit to be
Coal being lifted from a pit in Salanpur, on the outskirts of Asansol town. The illegally mined coal being transported across the dry Ajoy river towards Birbhum. Pictures by Gour Sharma
Asansol, April 21: Looting of coal has become such a lucrative proposition for villagers in the Durgapur-Asansol coal belt that many of them have stopped taking up jobs under schemes for the poor.
1. Men mount wagons to dump coal on the ground at Hazratpur dump yard of Borjore on Tuesday 2. The coal emptied from the rakes piles up while police keep watch
3. The looted coal is carried away from the dump yard in baskets 4. Coal is transferred from baskets to gunny bags and wheeled away
KOLKATA, 30 March: The state land use board has recommended that the state government should set up irrigation facilities for equal quantum of single crop land land acquired to set up industry to ensure food security even as the state agriculture minister, Mr Naren De admitted in the Assembly that every year the state is steadily losing 1000 acres of agricultural land.
Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) has taken up a project to identify people affected by arsenic contamination in Karimpur area of Nadia. It would tap the contamination in the cells of these people and gauge the extent of damage.
Though the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has reduced discharge of water considerably today, the flood situation in five districts mainly Hooghly and Howrah remained grim. State finance minister today said three more people died of floods yesterday taking the total toll to six.
