DURGAPUR, July 24: Following the murder of their two party men in Laudoha on Tuesday, the CPI-M is now mounting pressure on the district police on stop illegal coal mining in this belt.

The party is seeking to put an end to the illegal coal smuggling, which has remained a recurring menace in this coal and industrial hub for more than a decade.

The Asansol Durgapur industrial hub is reeling under a severe crisis of disposal of solid waste these days. Though a solid waste management project has been planned under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, that still remains incomplete. The civic bodies having no other alternative are dumping garbage everywhere indiscriminately.

Indiscriminate dumping of garbage within the town was forcibly prevented by the college lecturers, environmentalists and residents in a Durgapur locality this morning. Several garbage trucks were stranded as a result. Angry locals also assaulted the chairman of the respective borough committee when he allegedly tried to ignore the agitators. The civic body has decided to stop dumping waste in the disputed zone temporarily. The solid waste management plant of the civic body, however, is yet to be prepared although eight months have already passed.

DURGAPUR : The CPI-M has decided to be very careful about acquiring land in areas which have elected Opposition candidates in the panchayat election.

Farmers of two Katwa mouzas refused to give land for the proposed 3,000-MW super thermal power station at the home district of industry minister Mr Nirupam Sen today. A group of 12 farmers from the Srikhanda and Debkundu mouzas in Katwa went to the office of the ADM (Land Acquisition), Burdwan, and registered their protest against land acquisition by the state government. The state intends to acquire 1,033 acres of farmland in villages surrounding Srikhanda, Katwa to help set up a thermal power project by the West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WBPDCL). n SNS

A recent decision by India to stop importing power plant equipment from China and instead source it from domestic PSUs may have diplomatic implications within and outside the country. For the 79,000MW total power capacity expected to be added in the 11th Plan, almost 16,000 MW

Around 100 miners today ransacked the office of Eastern Coalfield Limited's general manager after chunks of coal fell on two colleagues and grievously injured them. Bhagaban Chowdhury, 49, and Madhu Bauri, 47, were cutting coal at the north Searsole colliery in Ranigunj, 230km from Calcutta, when the incident occurred around 8am. They were rushed to the ECL hospital in Asansol.