Budget 2018-19

  The inoculation programme at the facility has been stopped following the incident At least 25 people were injured in  West Bengal ‘s Jalpaiguri district on Tuesday after hundreds of local residents tried to enter a vaccination centre together, leading to a stampede, police said. Six of them were critically injured in the incident, and they are undergoing treatment at Jalpaiguri Sadar Hospital, a senior officer said. “As soon as the main gate of Dhupguri Health Centre was opened, several people tried to get inside the facility pushing each other. A  stampede -like situation arose there. Several women were injured. We are probing the matter,” the officer said. Locals claimed that hundreds of people queued outside the vaccination centre since morning and social distancing protocols went for a toss. Asked about what led to the stampede, the officer said, “We are probing the matter. According to a preliminary investigation, those who were in the queue tried to enter the cent...

  West Bengal Council of  Higher Secondary Education  Tuesday asked school authorities to complete the formalities relating to promotion of students from class 11 to the next class by July 15 Secondary Education Tuesday asked school authorities to complete the formalities relating to promotion of students from class 11 to the next class by July 15. The council had on April 30 said that the annual examination to promote students from class 11 to 12 will not be required this year in view of the pandemic situation and the respective higher secondary schools will promote students to the next class. The council on June 8 asked guardians to come to the school premises with the identity card of their wards to complete the admission procedure by strictly maintaining all Covid-19 protocols. Chief Minister  Mamata Banerjee  said on Monday that the board examinations in the state for classes 10 and 12 will not be held this year due to the Covid-19 situation. The evaluation...

  More than 75,000 volunteers have been put on standby in Bangladesh to deal with the possible effects of Cyclone 'Yaas' which is now developing over the east-central Bay of Bengal , officials said More than 75,000 volunteers have been put on standby in Bangladesh to deal with the possible effects of Cyclone 'Yaas' which is now developing over the east-central Bay of Bengal, officials said. The volunteers of the Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) of the Red Crescent Society of Bangladesh are on standby at 41 upazilas in 13 districts of coastal areas of the country. CPP officials told IANS the volunteers have been kept standby to remove the inhabitants of risky coastal areas to the cyclone shelters within the shortest possible time. Maritime ports of the country, Chattogram, Cox's Bazar, Mongla and Payra have been advised to keep hoisted distant cautionary signal number 1. All fishing boats and trawlers over the North Bay and deep sea have been advised...

  In 2017-18, West Bengal accounted for 15 per cent of the total contributions made to the NSSF; its share increased from 12.4 per cent in 2007-08 A day after the finance ministry announced a reduction in rates on small savings schemes as part of its periodic review, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman   was quick to announce a rollback of the move on Thursday morning, calling it an “oversight” In a tweet, the FM said: “Interest rates of small savings schemes of GoI shall continue to be at the rates which existed in the last quarter of 2020-2021, ie, rates that prevailed as of March 2021. Orders issued by oversight shall be withdrawn.” If the ministry had gone ahead with its plan to lower the rates on small schemes up to 1.1 per cent, it would have been a second cut in two years and brought savings rate on many schemes, such as the  Public Provident Fund   (PPF), to historic lows. In the April-June quarter of last year, too, the government had cut rates on small...

Of late, BJP and party chief Amit Shah's cloak of invincibility has been perceived to be slipping The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) celebrations over winning Tripura, and forming coalition governments through the back door in Meghalaya and Nagaland, continued at its parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday morning. BJP Members of Parliament (MPs) distributed sweets, and raised slogans that now it was the party’s turn to win Karnataka. Yes, the BJP won Tripura handsomely. But it won neither Meghalaya, where it got two of the 60 seats, nor Nagaland. The Congress was decimated in Tripura and Nagaland, and emerged the single-largest party in Meghalaya. Together, the three states send five MPs to the Lok Sabha – Tripura and Meghalaya send two each and Nagaland sends one. The BJP has put some thought into its strategy to continue celebrating its Tripura win, and form coalition governments in Meghalaya and Nagaland. It needs to restore the impression of invinc...