Thirty-nine days left before Calcutta votes for the Assembly elections, political parties are competing to claim the city’s walls. Election graffiti, a vibrant art form in Calcutta that turns walls into political canvases and plays a crucial role in campaigning, ...
20 March 2026 TelegraphSeveral outlets of Hard Rock Cafe across India, including the popular outlet in Kolkata’s Park Street, are set to shut down after the brand’s parent company ended its partnership with the Indian franchise operator. In an official statement on March ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphAt Behala’s Kishore Bharati Bhagini Nivedita College, professor Nilanjana Sen stands before a classroom full of students every day and speaks of vision — not the kind that depends on the eyes, but the kind that helps us interpret ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission on Tuesday transferred 19 police officers across Bengal in another sweeping move since the announcement of the Assembly elections on Sunday. Four police commissioners — from Asansol-Durgapur, Howrah, Barrackpore and Chandernagore — the additional directors-general of police ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission is removing posters and banners advertising government schemes, pictures of political leaders and party flags from public spaces to enforce the model code of conduct. Chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar stated on Sunday afternoon, during the announcement ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphFactionalism within the BJP and the Trinamool Congress were witnessed in some pockets of north Bengal on Monday and Tuesday, following the publication of the list of candidates for the Assembly elections. On Monday, as the BJP announced the name ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphResidents of the erstwhile Bangladeshi enclaves in Cooch Behar have demanded that the Centre issue certificates of naturalisation or nationality to formally recognise their Indian citizenship, underscoring that thousands of them have been put under adjudication post-SIR. On Monday, hundreds ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has deployed 294 general observers, one for each of the 294 Assembly segments in Bengal — the highest in the state in an election and also the highest in the country in recent memory — making ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphThe Darjeeling Tea Association has written to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking her urgent intervention to address an acute industrial LPG crisis that threatens to shut down tea estate operations across the Darjeeling hills. In a letter dated ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphThe Opposition on Tuesday alleged that the Trinamool Congress list for the Assembly polls bore the imprint of a “corruption-ridden dispensation” attempting damage control. Leaders of the BJP, CPM and the Congress raised specific questions over the renomination of food ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphThe Trinamool Congress on Tuesday fielded party veteran and Siliguri resident Gautam Deb from Siliguri, one of the most prominent Assembly seats in north Bengal and the state, and nominated some new faces for some other seats of the ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphThe Communist Party of India (Marxist) will contest from the Raiganj Assembly seat after a gap of 25 years. It was in 2001 that the CPM last fielded a candidate in Raiganj. Despite the party’s declining vote share in recent elections, ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphMamata Banerjee will contest this year’s Assembly elections from her home turf, Bhabanipur, against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, which will be a battle for the chief minister to avenge her defeat by him in Nandigram in 2021. The question of whether ...
18 March 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission (EC) has cancelled the contract of the agency that supplied web cameras during the 2021 West Bengal assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections after finding major irregularities in footage. Three new vendors have now been selected to ...
17 March 2026 TelegraphThe Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with a Calcutta High Court judgment that had declined to quash the NIA probe into the violence at Beldanga in Murshidabad district in January under terror-related sections of the UAPA. A bench ...
17 March 2026 TelegraphThe word ‘Iran’ conjures many things for many people in this time of war in West Asia, but for Kolkatans of a certain vintage, the country is synonymous with Jamshid Nassiri. He came to India from Iran in 1979 – ...
16 March 2026 TelegraphBengal will go to polls in two phaseson April 23 and April 29 for the 294 constituencies in the state. The chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar made the announcement along with the poll dates for the states of Keralam, Tamil ...
15 March 2026 TelegraphThe last time that voters in all the 294 constituencies went to vote on a single day in Bengal was in the 2001 Assembly polls. Twenty-five years later Bengal will go to poll on two days, April 23 and 29, ...
15 March 2026 TelegraphWest Bengal’s new Governor R. N. Ravi reached Lok Bhawan in Kolkata on Wednesday evening. He will take oath on Thursday at around 11 am. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, BJP leader Suvendu ...
11 March 2026 TelegraphThe turbulence in the Middle East has hit Darjeeling earlier than other places in the region because of its tourism-dependent economy. Darjeeling hoteliers are worried about accepting new bookings as the tourism season is about to begin, after the Centre ...
11 March 2026 TelegraphA supply crunch of commercial LPG, triggered by disruptions in liquefied natural gas shipments from West Asia, has begun affecting Kolkata’s restaurants and cafes. Several restaurateurs and owners fear that a prolonged shortage could disrupt F&B operations across the ...
11 March 2026 TelegraphOpposition leaders targeted the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as reports poured in Wednesday of the cooking-gas crisis sparked by the war on Iran exacerbating across India with restaurants, hotels and eateries from Bangalore to Bihar feeling the ...
11 March 2026 TelegraphThe ripple effects of the US-Iran conflict have begun to surface in Kolkata, leading to a crisis in the supply of LPG and CNG across both commercial establishments and households. On March 10, the Centre instructed that the supply of ...
10 March 2026 TelegraphAt the onset of the birth centenary year of Annapurna Devi, the legendary surbahar player of the Maihar gharana, India Post, in collaboration with Annapurna Devi Foundation, brought out a special cover and cancellation in her honour on Monday. The ...
10 March 2026 TelegraphInterviews of candidates for teaching posts at the secondary level of government-aided schools will be held in April. The results of the selection test held on September 7, 2025, were declared in November. In December, the commission released a list of ...
10 March 2026 TelegraphA portion of Chittaranjan Avenue, near Girish Park Metro railway station, has been dug open to repair a leak in the water supply line, officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said. The leak in the 16-inch diameter main pipeline ...
10 March 2026 TelegraphThe state higher secondary council has told heads of institutions that no teacher will be exempted from script evaluation duties because the teacher strength is “critically low” compared with the number of students. In a letter to the heads of ...
10 March 2026 TelegraphIndian Olympian shooter Jitu Rai announced on Thursday that he would inaugurate the Jitu Rai Shooting Academy at New Rangia in Shivmandir, on the outskirts of Siliguri, on March 26. Rai, a retired captain of the Indian Army, is one ...
10 March 2026 TelegraphThe Jalpaiguri zilla parishad has introduced an online management system to modernise the “haats (rural markets)” under its jurisdiction, making it a first-of-its-kind initiative in north Bengal. The new digital system was officially inaugurated on Friday at the conference room ...
10 March 2026 TelegraphStudents who completed their graduation and post-graduation from Gour Banga University (GBU) are paying as much as ₹3,000 to obtain their original certificates within three working days, triggering discontent among applicants seeking the documents on an emergency basis. Many of ...
10 March 2026 TelegraphMembers of the Santhal community blocked the Malda-Nalagola state highway in Malda for nearly an hour on Monday, protesting alleged harassment and bribe demands by civic volunteers at the Rice Mill weekly market area under Habibpur police station limits. Four ...
10 March 2026 TelegraphChief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar faced protests and black flag demonstrations during his temple visits in Kolkata on Tuesday, even as he asserted the Election Commission’s commitment to ensuring violence-free elections in West Bengal ahead of the upcoming assembly ...
10 March 2026 TelegraphPurulia BJP MLA Sudip Mukherjee faced the wrath of a few individuals whose names were omitted from the final voter list while he was interacting with local people on Monday as part of an outreach exercise ahead of the ...
10 March 2026 TelegraphQatar has halted liquefied natural gas (LNG) production after its key facilities came under attack amid the escalating West Asia conflict, triggering supply disruptions to India and sharply squeezing feedstock availability for industry and city gas distribution (CGD) companies. India, ...
4 March 2026 TelegraphPortions of a house in Eliot Lane near Ripon Street in Calcutta collapsed on Tuesday morning, though no injuries were reported. The two-storey building is home to 13 residents. According to an engineer from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), an extension ...
4 March 2026 TelegraphTwo persons were arrested in Patuli on Monday night for allegedly hitting two riders and a pedestrian while driving recklessly in a car bearing a government sticker, police said. The arrested duo, who were allegedly drunk, have been identified as ...
4 March 2026 TelegraphMany passengers who were stranded in several countries of the war-ravaged West Asia returned to India on Tuesday after a few national and international carriers carried out some special flights to bring them back. Passengers arriving in Delhi recounted moments ...
4 March 2026 TelegraphLimited flight operations between India and some cities of West Asia resumed on Tuesday but thousands remain stranded as the airspace disruptions continued, as the US and Israel’s conflict with Iran entered the fourth day. Evacuation flights operated between cities ...
4 March 2026 TelegraphA portion of an old building collapsed in central Kolkata's Park Street area on Tuesday morning, police said. The incident happened around 6.30 am. As the occupants were outside the house at the time, they narrowly escaped the accident. Residents said ...
4 March 2026 TelegraphConcrete chunks fell off the exterior of the elevated Central Park Metro station on the Green line on Monday, exposing steel beams and instigating panic among commuters. Witnesses reported seeing chunks fall off the belly of the overhead station around ...
4 March 2026 TelegraphJadavpur: Installation of CCTV cameras began at Jadavpur University after several proddings from the high court. The university’s registrar said the education department sanctioned ₹68 lakh for the project in November. “Cameras have been installed in different parts of Aurobindo Bhavan, ...
4 March 2026 TelegraphFlight disruptions continued at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport on Tuesday as 10 more international services to and from Gulf destinations were cancelled amid the ongoing crisis in West Asia. According to airport officials, a total of five ...
3 March 2026 TelegraphThe rewaj of savouring rewaji mutton or kochi patha on Dol was a non-negotiable deal for many Kolkatans this year, with high demand leading to queues outside meat shops and pushing the price to Rs 1,000 per kg in ...
3 March 2026 TelegraphA 21-year-old Calcuttan, now in Dubai, narrated his experience and anxieties to Metro. The man, whom this newspaper is not identifying, lives in the Jebel Ali area with about 1,000 others. The Jebel Ali port, which is nearby, has been ...
3 March 2026 TelegraphPanic buying and rising food prices continued in Dubai on Monday, though the roads had a few more vehicles and pedestrians compared with the deserted streets of Sunday. Life is far from normal, but some people are venturing out despite ...
3 March 2026 TelegraphEmirates, Etihad Airways and flydubai announced on Monday that they would resume a limited number of flights from their West Asian hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi to repatriate stranded travellers. Two Etihad flights from Abu Dhabi landed in Delhi ...
3 March 2026 TelegraphA Calcuttan who travelled to Dubai for business 10 days ago is among many stranded there, uncertain when he will be able to return home. Md Asif Sadique, 42, a resident of Beck Bagan and a businessman dealing in electronic ...
3 March 2026 TelegraphUnion home minister Amit Shah on Monday promised abundant "corruption-free" government jobs and implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission for state government employees, in an apparent bid to counter Mamata Banerjee's Yuva Sathi scheme for unemployed youths and other ...
3 March 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has finalised the deployment plan for another 240 companies of central forces to reach Bengal on March 10, continuing its focus on the bordering districts as it did during the first phase of deployment. In the first ...
3 March 2026 TelegraphThe full bench of the Election Commission of India, led by chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, is set to visit Bengal on March 9 and 10 to review the state’s preparedness to conduct the Assembly polls after the contentious ...
3 March 2026 TelegraphThe Union Home Ministry has set up two additional empowered committees in West Bengal to handle the growing number of applications for Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), officials said on Monday. "The state already has two such ...
3 March 2026 TelegraphOn a street in Kolkata’s Patuli locality, a school teacher’s crusade to ensure education for all began with a defunct refrigerator and children’s books he could manage to buy on his personal income. But when Kalidas Haldar, a 51-year-old ...
1 March 2026 TelegraphIn a country where millions lack proper documents, the burden of proving identity cannot be shifted onto the people, senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan said at a talk on “Safeguarding Electoral Integrity in the Context of SIR” on Saturday. “In ...
1 March 2026 TelegraphMany Calcuttans scheduled to fly home on Saturday night or Sunday morning faced uncertainty after large parts of West Asian airspace were closed following US and Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation. Abesh Chandra Sinha Choudhury was one such ...
1 March 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission on Sunday called a two-day emergency meeting from March 2 to review preparations for the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections, with political circles closely watching for clues on the poll schedule. The meetings will be held in ...
1 March 2026 TelegraphFour women workers of a tea garden died and three others suffered grievous injuries as a car rammed into their cycles on Saturday morning near Bharnobari in Alipurduar. Police said that as the Bharnobari tea estate had been closed since ...
1 March 2026 TelegraphThe publication of the preliminary final electoral roll on Saturday triggered political unrest in several Matua-dominated Assembly segments in south Bengal and parts of north Bengal amid indications that a substantial number of voters from the community were excluded. Although ...
1 March 2026 TelegraphThe preliminary “final” list of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the poll rolls, published by the Election Commission on Saturday, revealed that nearly one-third of 60 lakh-plus voters pending adjudication are from two Bangladesh-bordering, minority-dominated districts — Murshidabad ...
1 March 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission on Saturday published a preliminary “final” post-SIR list for Bengal, which included 60 lakh “under adjudication” and over 5 lakh “deleted” voters, leaving people, parties and officials still confused about who and how many would be ...
1 March 2026 TelegraphThe dates for the West Bengal Assembly elections are likely to be announced in the second week of March, an official in the state CEO office said on Saturday. There has been sustained speculation over the number of phases in ...
28 February 2026 TelegraphThe 196-year-old Scottish Church College has decided to apply for autonomous status to step out of the control of Calcutta University and introduce courses “going beyond the confines of what is traditionally offered”. The governing board, the highest decision-making body ...
28 February 2026 TelegraphSwapna Barman — an Arjuna awardee heptathlete and 2018 Asian Games gold medalist based in Jalpaiguri — joined the Trinamool Congress in Calcutta on Friday. Her move led to speculations that Mamata Banerjee’s party will field her in one of ...
28 February 2026 TelegraphAn earthquake was felt across Kolkata and several districts of Bengal at 1.22pm, which was the result of a temblor epicentered in Bangladesh that measured 5.5 on the Richter scale. The quake was at a depth of 35 km, according ...
27 February 2026 TelegraphA final-year MBBS student of College of Medicine and JNM Hospital in Kalyani was found dead in a decomposed state inside his hostel room on Thursday afternoon. Pulok Halder, 24, was a resident of Dhamua in Mograhat, South 24-Parganas district. ...
27 February 2026 TelegraphA five-member team from the Calcutta branch office of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) conducted a search and seizure operation in two private firms of Siliguri on Tuesday in association with Bhaktinagar police and seized dubious plywood products. Sources ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphProtesters clashed with police in northern West Bengal’s Siliguri city on Thursday during a demonstration over the assault of a pregnant tribal woman. Members of the RSS-backed Janjati Suraksha Manch were on the way to gherao Uttarkanya, the branch secretariat ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphA section of West Bengal government employees on Thursday took to the streets and blocked the important Dorina crossing at Esplanade here, demanding that dearness allowance be paid to them as per a Supreme Court order. The employees, under the ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphUnion Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday asserted that the BJP would win the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections and prioritise expelling “every single infiltrator” from the state, which he described as among those “worst affected by demographic change”. Addressing ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphThe carcass of an adult female one-horned rhinoceros was recovered from the Ramsai forest area on the fringes of the Gorumara National Park in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday evening. The death, possibly from infighting, sparked renewed concern across the Dooars region ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphA cache of crude bombs was discovered in a bamboo grove at Anantapur village under Baishnabnagar police station limits of Malda on Wednesday morning. Grasscutters noticed 20-odd crude bombs hidden in three plastic jars in the grove and alerted other ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphThe “blood tea” campaign reached Calcutta on Wednesday, with supporters of the Ajoy Edwards-led Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF) drawing blood from their veins and splattering it on banners demanding that minimum wages be fixed for tea garden workers. “We ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphThe examiners who will check the Higher Secondary language papers (English and Bengali) have been urged “not to be overtly conservative” while awarding marks. “Examiners are requested not to be overtly conservative in awarding marks. Award full marks to all ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphPiles of waste continue to remain scattered across portions of Subhas Sarobar, including in the water body in the park, highlighting the poor upkeep of one of the city’s largest green spaces. About 20 days ago, a group of schoolchildren ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphTwo men, including the prime accused, who allegedly shot at a youth in Park Circus over a petty dispute on Tuesday, were arrested on Wednesday morning. Police identified the accused as Mohammad Arshad, alias Salman, and Mohammad Anwar. Both are ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphThe Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) in Kolkata and several post offices across West Bengal received bomb threats on Thursday, prompting authorities to immediately evacuate the premises and launch extensive search operations, officials said. A bomb threat at the PSK in ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphThe secondary education board has asked examiners to maintain “highest standards of security, confidentiality and professional discipline” while evaluating Madhyamik answer scripts. On Wednesday, the board said in a notification that the written answer scripts of the Class X board ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphAround a week ago, Calcutta-based content creator Shalini Mukherjee Banerjee – with 43,000-plus combined followers on Facebook and Instagram – received an email from an agency claiming to represent the BJP. The email said the agency was scouting for paid ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphBengal IT minister Babul Supriyo on Wednesday reviewed the progress of semiconductor firm GlobalFoundries' fabless design and testing centre in Calcutta, which began operations last year at the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) incubation hub in Sector V, ...
26 February 2026 TelegraphWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday vowed to continue her fight against the omission of citizens' names in the ongoing SIR, saying she apprehended that there is a conspiracy to delete over 80 lakh names, citing logical ...
25 February 2026 TelegraphA breathtaking Jacquard tapestry depicting one of Calcutta’s architectural jewels is on display at the Alliance Française in the national capital this week as part of the France-India Year of Innovation. The standout 200 x 700 cm gold-thread tapestry, called ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphThe faint whirr of sewing machines inside neighbourhood tailoring shops, workers bent over fabric with chalk in hand and others looping measuring tapes around customers. These form a distinct childhood memory for many Kolkatans. Those cramped rooms, which once throbbed ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphArtificial Intelligence can be used to generate ideas, but not to complete a child’s work. Children must be helped to understand both its real-life applications and its limitations, said new guidance documents released by two associations focused on early ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphOne arm of the state government on Monday accused another of failing to take adequate action to remove unauthorised constructions in the East Kolkata Wetlands during a hearing in the high court. The counsel for the East Kolkata Wetlands Management ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphA man was arrested on Sunday for allegedly running a cricket betting racket during the India-South Africa match of the ICC Men’s T-20 World Cup Cricket through multiple online apps. Police said Pratik Pincha, 32, a resident of Ganges Garden ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphThe number of individuals attending the Yuva Sathi camps has not decreased, despite an online alternative being offered On Monday, 22,899 people visited the camps in Calcutta, the third-highest footfall in the camps since they started on February 15, according ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphSt Xavier’s College, Burdwan, has been granted autonomous status by the University Grants Commission. The college, established in 2014 and affiliated with Burdwan University, will be the first college under the university to get autonomy. The Jesuit college had applied to ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphThe vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University has said that the university will take "strong disciplinary action" against those who assaulted two teachers on the campus on Friday. "I shall take strong disciplinary action. A committee will be formed to prosecute the ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphThe Ajoy Edwards-led Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF) has announced protests in Siliguri and Calcutta on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, demanding minimum wages for tea garden workers. Edwards candidly stated that the agitation is meant to exert political pressure ahead ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphHoteliers in Siliguri on Monday lifted a 13-month ban on Bangladeshi guests, citing recent political developments in the neighbouring country and a perceived decline in the anti-India rhetoric among leaders in the newly elected BNP government there. Members of the ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphCalcutta: The state higher education department has indicated that it will not be able to release salaries of officers and non-teaching staff of the University of Burdwan in March because of an acute funds crunch, even as teachers’ salaries ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphChief Justice of India Surya Kant, during the recent hearing of a case from Tamil Nadu, asked why should people work if they are provided everything for free. The bench questioned state governments’ tendency to dole out across-the-board “freebies” such ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphStarting with “Jai Maa Kali” instead of the usual “Jai Shri Ram”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent a missive in Bengali urging the people of Bengal to vote for change in the coming Assembly polls. “Jai Maa Kali. In ...
24 February 2026 TelegraphThe news that Mani Shankar Mukherjee had breathed his last did not strike Sanjib Chattopadhyay as a sharp stab. It arrived as a mild pause, almost like a held breath. At the other end of the phone, Chattopadhyay, Sankar’s contemporary ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphA society as “plural” as India cannot be sustained by uniformity of opinion, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in his convocation address at St Xavier’s University on Saturday. “A society as plural as ours cannot be sustained by uniformity of ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphThe nearly century-old Zeerut bridge over Tolly’s Nullah, which connects Alipore with the Maidan, requires urgent repairs and, if necessary, replacement, Kolkata Police have written to the state government. The bridge has been bearing heavy traffic loads for decades, the ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphCalcutta University will allow its affiliated colleges to conduct exams for minor papers at their respective institutions starting with the undergraduate examinations in June, vice-chancellor Ashutosh Ghosh said last week. Earlier minor papers that an honours student has to pursue ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphBengal’s chief secretary Nandini Chakravorty has written to the Union home secretary requesting the inclusion of Rajbanshi and Kurmali languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution. “It is pertinent to mention that a significant segment of the state’s ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphA race that has put Calcutta on the international running map is also changing the lives of some people in dire need. The 10th edition of Tata Steel World 25K Kolkata, partnered by The Telegraph, raised ₹45.68 lakh in charity. Fundraising ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphLoreto College has introduced Braille signs outside classrooms, washrooms, offices and elevators to improve accessibility for those with disabilities. The college also plans to make its website accessible to persons with visual challenges and build tactile paths across campus to ...
23 February 2026 TelegraphThe 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 Telegraph