The BJP fielded its only female chief minister, Delhi’s Rekha Gupta, to energise its women’s wing in poll-bound Bengal in an attempt to make inroads into Mamata Banerjee’s arguably most loyal vote bank. At her maiden meeting with BJP women ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphKalyani University has developed herbal abir aimed at promoting a safer and environmentally friendly Holi. A joint initiative by the university’s botany department and Institution Innovation Council and its incubation cell, with active participation from students, the herbal colour has ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphTrinamool Congress and CPM workers clashed over graffiti space at a village in Tapan block of South Dinajpur late on Saturday. Each group claimed assault by the other. Three persons, including Dilip Biswas, the CPM's Tapan area committee secretary, were ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphDescendants of Baboo Unnoda Persaud Banerjee (1818–1902), the eminent 19th-century Bengali lawyer of Calcutta, have donated his private papers, certificates, will and court-related legal documents to the National Archives of India (NAI) in New Delhi. Following the signing of a ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphThe Tea Board of India has mandated that all imported tea would be tested for quality from May 1. C. Murugan, the Tea Board deputy chairman, in a directive dated February 10 stated: “…in exercise of the power under paragraph ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphThe Bengal government is all set to sign a memorandum of understanding with German federal enterprise GIZ and the state mission for clean Ganga (SMCG) to develop a master plan for the Ichamati and Jalangi river basins. The Ichamati and ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s tribute to Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa on his birth anniversary triggered a fresh political debate after he prefixed “Swami” to the 19th-century spiritual icon, prompting Mamata Banerjee to criticise the Prime Minister’s “cultural insensitivity” towards Bengal’s ...
20 February 2026 TelegraphAn anxious Supreme Court on Friday roped in the Calcutta High Court to ensure publication of poll-bound Bengal’s electoral rolls post the special intensive revision (SIR) within the deadline. “We are left with hardly any other option but to request ...
20 February 2026 TelegraphThe West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) has directed candidates appearing for the upcoming Group C and Group D recruitment examinations to wear slippers or sandals instead of covered shoes like boots inside test centres. The written examinations will be ...
20 February 2026 TelegraphMani Shankar Mukherjee, known in Bengali literature by his pen name Sankar, passed away on Friday at a private hospital in Calcutta. Born in Howrah in December 7, 1933, Sankar, still in his teens, served as a clerk to the ...
20 February 2026 TelegraphThe city’s small Chinese community is ushering in the New Year with colour, music and culinary celebrations. Their numbers may have dwindled to around 2,000, but they have embraced Calcutta, and the city has embraced them in return. For Calcutta, ...
20 February 2026 TelegraphThe state higher secondary council said it will award full marks to the examinees who attempted the three “out of syllabus” questions in the mathematics paper of the ongoing higher secondary exams. The council president said in a signed statement ...
20 February 2026 TelegraphSenior officers of Kolkata Police on Thursday visited the Behala Chowrasta intersection and stretches of Diamond Harbour Road and James Long Sarani in Thakurpukur, where at least five road deaths have been reported in the last 10 days, to ...
20 February 2026 TelegraphCamps set up across the city to enroll unemployed young people for the state government’s ₹1,500 monthly assistance scheme have also become hubs of voter outreach, particularly for the Trinamool. Thousands of jobless youth are queueing up at the Yuva ...
20 February 2026 TelegraphIn a move that could alter political equations in the Darjeeling Hills, BJP MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma joined the All India Trinamool Congress on Thursday, months before West Bengal heads into assembly elections. A first-time MLA from Kurseong, Sharma joined ...
19 February 2026 TelegraphWith the West Bengal assembly elections drawing closer, the state government has asked district administrations to provide additional eggs to students under the mid-day meal scheme, setting off a fresh political exchange between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the ...
19 February 2026 TelegraphThe ongoing dry spell of winter has prompted the Bengal forest department and the Sikkim government to suggest preventive measures to avoid sudden wildfires. Officers of all forest divisions in Bengal were asked to keep a close watch in their ...
19 February 2026 TelegraphOn erstwhile Calcutta’s Bentinck Street, shoe shops once stood shoulder to shoulder, their wooden shelves stacked with polished leather brogues and lace-ups, drawing thousands of customers from the city and outside. The Chinese ran the show then, creating sturdy ...
18 February 2026 TelegraphAdditional space for vehicles heading to Science City during the evening peak hours has been carved out of EM Bypass between the Chingrighata and the Metropolitan intersections. Furthermore, police have decided to relocate two existing bus stops situated on the ...
18 February 2026 TelegraphInvestigators probing the Salt Lake Stadium debacle during football star Lionel Messi’s visit last December appealed to the Bidhannagar court on Tuesday to cancel the bail of Satadru Dutta, the primary organiser. The prosecution stated that if Dutta could influence ...
18 February 2026 TelegraphParents of the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee who was raped and killed at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in 2024 submitted a fresh petition before the Sealdah court on Tuesday, saying they were still of the opinion that Sanjay ...
18 February 2026 TelegraphCoronavirus, responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, transcended all religious, political, and ethnic boundaries, said P. Balaram, former director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, during his address at the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta on Tuesday. “This fact ...
18 February 2026 TelegraphThe Bengal government has lodged FIRs against four officers — two former electoral registration officers (EROs) of Baruipur East and Moyna and two former assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) of these two Assembly segments — following an Election Commission ...
18 February 2026 TelegraphDarjeeling’s famous winter bite went missing this season, with temperatures hovering around 3 degrees Celsius above average. Gopi Nath Raha, the head of the India Meteorological Department (Gangtok), said that temperatures remained higher in Darjeeling this winter. “The average minimum and ...
18 February 2026 TelegraphTwo senior professors of Gour Banga University (GBU), who are also members of the university’s executive council — the highest decision-making body of the varsity — were issued show cause notices on Tuesday over alleged “inappropriate” activities. Sanatan Das, a ...
18 February 2026 TelegraphThe Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission have established a self-financed primary school in Jhargram district, which follows the CBSE curriculum. The general secretary of the Math and Mission, Swami Suvirananda, inaugurated the new school building on Sunday. The school will offer ...
15 February 2026 TelegraphCalcutta University finds itself in a quandary over the degree to be awarded to students enrolled in its four-year undergraduate programme who opt to exit after successfully completing three years with the requisite credits. The first batch admitted to the ...
15 February 2026 TelegraphAround 15 to 20 per cent of enumeration forms were uploaded in five districts in Bengal with "strange documents" after the hearings of unmapped voters and those with logical discrepancies in their forms, said sources on the Election Commission. The ...
15 February 2026 TelegraphStakeholders of the tea sector believe the export of the beverage will increase in the coming days following on India’s trade deals with the European Union (EU) and the United States. The recent data published by the Tea Board of ...
15 February 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has set February 17 as a deadline for the West Bengal government to ensure that FIRs are registered against four officers over the alleged inclusion of 'ghost' voters in the electoral rolls in two districts, an ...
15 February 2026 TelegraphSenior foresters and the state police held a coordination meeting regarding the protection of one-horned rhinos at the district police lines in Jalpaiguri on Friday. Senior officials from both departments reviewed the current security arrangements to strengthen joint conservation strategies ...
15 February 2026 TelegraphThe Heritage School on Monday urged parents to be alert to changes in their children’s behaviour and to regulate their screen time. The advisory follows the death of three sisters in Ghaziabad who were reportedly deeply immersed in the virtual ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphA 42-metre Bailey bridge connecting Dakshindari on VIP Road and Salt Lake’s AA Block is ready to be opened to traffic, an official of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) said. Officials said they have written to Bidhannagar police to ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphChief minister Mamata Banerjee visited United Missionary Girls’ High School in Bhowanipore and spoke to the guardians of children writing their Madhyamik exams on Tuesday. Around 11, she stopped at the school on her way to Nabanna, the state secretariat ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphKolkata Police on Tuesday launched a cybercrime helpline to assist residents with queries related to cybercrime and guide them on the steps to follow if they fall victim to cyber fraud. The helpline was inaugurated by Kolkata Police commissioner Supratim ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphAkhtar Ali, former deputy superintendent of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, who first raised allegations of financial irregularities against then-principal Sandip Ghosh, surrendered before the CBI First Court in Alipore on Tuesday. He was sent to judicial custody ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphSocial workers and science activists across the state on Tuesday strongly condemned the arrest of a Krishnanagar-based schoolteacher who had facilitated the donation of his deceased mother’s eyes in accordance with her formally recorded pledge. They warned that the police ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphChief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced that Yuva Sathi — a scheme to assist unemployed youths in poll-bound Bengal — would commence from April 1 instead of August 15 as announced during the state's vote-on-account on February 5. Under ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphThe Chinese New Year is less than a week away, starting at midnight on February 16. Before the coming year, the Sea Ip Church has been hosting the practice sessions for the lion dance on the eve of the ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphIn July 2024, Nahoum & Sons, Kolkata’s 120-year-old Jewish bakery in New Market, stopped selling chicken and mutton. The move sparked widespread speculation that the bakery had turned vegetarian. But that assumption missed an important distinction. Nahoum’s did not discontinue ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphThe body of a minor boy was recovered from a tea garden in Sukna near here on late Monday night, triggering protests in the Matigara block of the Siliguri subdivision. Subhajit Modak, 15, a resident of the Simultala area under ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphCalcutta: The Election Commission on Tuesday announced that the final electoral rolls for Bengal would be published on February 28, issuing a fresh schedule a day after the Supreme Court extended by at least seven days beyond February 14 ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphOnce capable of deciding political fortunes in Darjeeling hills, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung sounds bitter. The hill leader indirectly held both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP responsible for his present “halat (state)". When asked whether he would support ...
11 February 2026 Telegraph“DRUNKER”; “Forgot (after) drinking wine”. The bottle appears to be dearer than the ballot for some Bengal voters, reasons cited by Election Commission officials for SIR hearing absentees suggest. Sources in multiple districts said several voters failed to appear at the ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphA group of tribals from the western Dooars region, led by the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP), demonstrated in front of the office of the district land and land reforms officer in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday, alleging large-scale irregularities ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphThe Siliguri unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested a man on Monday and seized diamonds worth more than ₹4 crore from him. Dipak Kumar Mahasuklal Mehta, a 50-year-old resident of west Delhi, was intercepted at the Bagdogra ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphThe Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested two real estate developers with alleged links to a coal smuggling syndicate in Asansol and Durgapur following their contradictory statements during interrogations. The two businessmen, Chinmoy Mondal and his nephew Kiran Khan, along ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphTrinamool Congress Lok Sabha leader and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee attempted to corner the Modi government over its treatment of Bengal and Bengalis during the discussion on the Union budget in Parliament on Tuesday. In his emotive speech, Abhishek ...
11 February 2026 TelegraphTrinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday sought to explain why his party stayed away from an opposition notice seeking the removal of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, saying the INDIA bloc should first place its grievances before the ...
10 February 2026 TelegraphThe Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned to February 18 the hearing on a plea moved by the ED alleging obstruction by the West Bengal government, including by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in its search operation at the I-PAC office ...
10 February 2026 TelegraphNearly 10 shops, including makeshift stalls which sell garments, were destroyed when fires broke out at three locations at the regulated market in Dhupguri, Jalpaiguri district, late Sunday night. Firefighters faced major difficulties controlling the blaze because of scattered electrical ...
10 February 2026 TelegraphA civic volunteer was found dead on his bed at the state armed police battalion training centre in Fulbari near Siliguri on Monday, triggering protests by fellow civic volunteers and demonstrations by the BJP. According to sources, Pankaj Barman, 32, ...
10 February 2026 TelegraphMayor Gautam Deb criticised BJP MPs and MLAs of the region on Monday, accusing them of failing to undertake development projects despite having access to substantial development funds. “The MLAs of Siliguri and Dabgram–Fulbari and the BJP MP of Jalpaiguri ...
10 February 2026 TelegraphThe West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) on Friday suspended a teacher, reportedly with Trinamool links, for allegedly helping Madhyamik examinees write their history paper at Mathurapur BSS High School in Manikchak, Malda. Suspended Sanwar Ali Parvez teaches maths ...
10 February 2026 TelegraphAround 500 para-teachers in West Bengal staged a sit-in for nearly five hours on Tuesday, demanding a pay hike and clashing briefly with police after being stopped from marching to the state education department headquarters. Members of the Sangrami Sikshak ...
10 February 2026 TelegraphThe final electoral roll in West Bengal is unlikely to be published before February 21, though efforts are underway to release it by the end of the month, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal said. The Supreme Court on ...
10 February 2026 TelegraphThe Bengal government on Monday evening sent a list of 8,505 "Group B" officers to the Election Commission to engage them in duties related to the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list but the list is likely ...
10 February 2026 TelegraphWest Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal on Saturday requested the Election Commission of India to extend the final date of hearing under SIR of electoral rolls by seven days, after several district election officers reported delays in completion ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphThe civic body has issued notices to 17 rooftop bars and restaurants for violating a standard operating procedure (SOP) that mandates at least half of the terrace of each establishment remain open and free of structures. The SOP, published in ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphSocial media influencer Shamik Adhikary, accused of confining a 22-year-old woman at his Behala apartment for over 12 hours and allegedly raping her, was remanded to 10 days of police custody after his production at the Alipore court on ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphThe office of Naba Durga Puja Committee in Garia, one of the popular pujas in south Calcutta, was allegedly vandalised, robbed, and its members beaten up by a gang on Friday morning. Club members blamed a developer for the attack, ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphEden Gardens has been decked up for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, with West Indies set to take on minnows Scotland on Saturday, the opening day of the tournament at the venue. The first match of the competition ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphA booth-level officer (BLO) died in Murshidabad district on Friday, with her family alleging that relentless work pressure related to the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list led to her death. Maya Mukherjee, 58, a resident of Shripur ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphCPM state secretary Md Salim on Friday accused chief minister Mamata Banerjee of trying to “hijack” a petition filed by a party worker in the Supreme Court over the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll. “The chief ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphLeaders of the BJP and the Trinamool Congress on Friday engaged in a war of words inside and outside the Assembly over the vote-on-account tabled by the Mamata Banerjee government. While the BJP sought to portray the vote-on-account as an ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphSikkim was jolted 33 times in a span of 13 hours since 1am on Friday, and even though the magnitude of the quakes was 4.5 and less on the Richter scale, experts warned that the tremors were a grim ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphThe Siliguri Mahakuma Krira Parishad (SMKP), the subdivisional sports body of Siliguri, will organise the Kiran Chandra Night Football Tournament at the Kanchenjungha Stadium here from February 8, marking the return of the prestigious event after a 10-year gap. Mayor ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphSiliguri mayor Gautam Deb on Friday called the proposed Varanasi-Siliguri high-speed rail corridor a “political gimmick” of the BJP and questioned the project’s viability in the absence of key details in the Union budget. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphMobile forensic laboratories will be operational in all eight districts of north Bengal soon, ensuring swift collection of samples from crime scenes and their timely examination. Highly advanced vehicles equipped with forensic labs have already reached the eight districts, officials ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphPeople visiting the mini zoo at Rasikbil in Cooch Behar may soon see a wide range of animals, such as the Bengal tiger, Himalayan black bear, wild dog (dhole), anaconda, Bengal fox and pangolin. The state forest department has drawn ...
7 February 2026 TelegraphA tube in his mouth, fear on his mind. A 25-year-old male nurse who tested positive for the Nipah virus said that despite irritation in the throat and uncertainty about what lay ahead, he had faith in his doctors and ...
5 February 2026 TelegraphThe tunnel ventilation system of the underground stretch of the north-south corridor (Blue Line), Calcutta’s oldest and most popular Metro link, is being overhauled. Fifteen underground stations between Belgachia and Rabindra Sarobar will be part of the facelift. A majority ...
5 February 2026 TelegraphA standardised “sarkari chhap” building that looks like the letter L with a humongous bottom line and an undernourished top has come up at 85 AJC Bose Road in the Moulali area. The building has a glass spine that divides ...
5 February 2026 TelegraphCalcutta University has decided to defer the third-semester examinations at the undergraduate level as the syllabus could not be completed, said vice-chancellor Ashutosh Ghosh. The examinations were scheduled to commence on February 23. “We have decided to defer the exam as ...
5 February 2026 TelegraphBengal BJP leaders on Wednesday dismissed chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s three-day-long legal and political offensive in New Delhi against the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as a failed bid to derail the process and warned that any ...
5 February 2026 TelegraphThe Mamata Banerjee government has started reaching out to people across Bengal by distributing its booklet — “Unnayaner Panchali (development report card)" — from ration shops before the Assembly polls. From Tuesday, the state food and supplies department began distributing ...
5 February 2026 TelegraphThe orange cultivators in the Darjeeling hills should be provided with clean, disease-free planting material to revive production of the famed Darjeeling Mandarin Orange, say agricultural experts. The Darjeeling Mandarin Orange has recently received the Geographical Indication (GI) tag, which ...
5 February 2026 TelegraphMamata Banerjee won unlikely admirers on Wednesday when she became the first serving chief minister to argue in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, alleging that Bengal was being "targeted" and its people were being "bulldozed" by the special intensive ...
5 February 2026 TelegraphMamata Banerjee on Wednesday became the first serving chief minister in the country to argue a petition in the Supreme Court. Then Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had last year argued his own bail application before a sessions court in ...
5 February 2026 TelegraphChief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday herself argued her case against the Election Commission in the Supreme Court, accusing the poll panel and the BJP of targeting Bengal and “bulldozing” its citizens through the SIR drive. Appearing as petitioner-in-person to ...
5 February 2026 TelegraphMultiple roads across Calcutta, dug open for infrastructure projects, remain unrestored, raising concerns that Madhyamik candidates could encounter snarls, dust and uneven stretches on their way to exam centres. The Class X board examinations began on Monday and will continue ...
4 February 2026 TelegraphA new washroom block has been built at the Calcutta airport for passengers arriving on flights and entering the terminal via aerobridges. The facility became operational on Monday, officials said. Previously, arrival passengers using aerobridges had no washrooms on the ...
4 February 2026 TelegraphThe Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned to February 10 the hearing on the Enforcement Directorate’s plea accusing the West Bengal government, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, of obstructing searches linked to an alleged coal pilferage scam. A bench of Justices ...
3 February 2026 TelegraphThe Congress on Tuesday stepped up its attack on the Modi government over the India-US trade deal, demanding that the Centre place the details of both the US and European Union agreements before Parliament and allow a full discussion ...
3 February 2026 TelegraphA dispute between two groups at Kankulia, close to Golpark, on Sunday night resulted in shots being fired in a residential community, leaving at least one person wounded. Ten people were arrested during a night-long raid. Sources have reported that ...
3 February 2026 TelegraphThe academic council of the Indian Statistical Institute said in a resolution adopted at a special meeting on January 20 that it “was not consulted as a stakeholder during the drafting of the ISI Bill, 2025”. The resolution stated that ...
3 February 2026 TelegraphA project to upgrade a road in Kalimpong has been stopped by the contractor after the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) allegedly failed to make payments against submitted bills, raising questions on the fund flow from the Bengal government to ...
3 February 2026 TelegraphThe Union budget presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Sunday left a bitter taste in the brew belt of north Bengal. Many tea planters said there was nothing for the tea industry whereas other cash crops found ...
2 February 2026 TelegraphBoys can cook, girls can play kabaddi. In the Sundarbans delta, where social prejudice often hardens into tradition, a programme initiated by a Calcutta-based social organisation is challenging deeply rooted notions of what boys and girls are “meant” to do, ...
2 February 2026 TelegraphThe absence of a special package for Bengal in Sunday’s Union budget has caused major embarrassment for the state BJP ahead of the Assembly elections, with the party fielding its leaders to defend the allocations and argue that Bengal ...
2 February 2026 TelegraphAmit Mitra, the principal chief adviser to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, on Sunday termed the Union budget as anti-farmer, anti-youth and anti-weaker sections and asked who the budget was presented for as there was nothing for the middle-class too. “I ...
2 February 2026 TelegraphChief minister Mamata Banerjee has moved the Supreme Court against the Election Commission of India and the Bengal chief electoral officer over the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state. Sources said the petition was ...
2 February 2026 TelegraphImport duty on drugs for seven more rare diseases would be abolished, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech on Saturday, paving the way for easier availability of the prohibitively expensive medicines. Historically, patients or their families ...
2 February 2026 TelegraphThe Union Budget's promise of an easier income-tax return process and the prospect of cheaper foreign tours got a thumbs up from many. Several others, however, alleged that the budget lacked concrete measures to tackle unemployment and alleviate the distress ...
2 February 2026 TelegraphFire and emergency services officials who were engaged in the search operation at the warehouse fire site in Anandapur off EM Bypass were withdrawn on Sunday. The search operation is over, sources said. “We have withdrawn our men from the spot. ...
2 February 2026 TelegraphMadhyamik, the state’s Class X board examination, will start on Monday and will continue until February 12. Around 9.71 lakh students will appear in the exams to be held from 10.45am to 2pm. Candidates must enter the exam venues by 10am. The ...
2 February 2026 TelegraphBaruipur police constituted a special investigation team (SIT) on Saturday to probe the cause of the fire that engulfed two warehouses on Nazirabad Road, off EM Bypass near Anandapur, early on Republic Day morning, and to identify those responsible ...
1 February 2026 TelegraphA Trinamool Congress councillor on Saturday protested at an SIR hearing centre in Bhowanipore after officials failed to provide receipts to voters submitting documents, despite a Supreme Court directive mandating the practice. Ashim Bose, councillor of Ward 70 of the ...
1 February 2026 TelegraphUnion home minister Amit Shah on Saturday renewed his attack on chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress over their alleged non-cooperation in stopping infiltration along the Bangladesh border, linking the issue to nationalism and internal security. Citing a ...
1 February 2026 TelegraphThe leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, on Friday demanded the resignation of Bengal fire services minister Sujit Bose and the arrest of the owner of the momo factory, who had allegedly accompanied chief minister Mamata Banerjee on one ...
1 February 2026 Telegraph