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Mamata sworn in Bengal CM for second term, 41 ministers take oath

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Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee was on Friday sworn in for a second consecutive term as West Bengal chief minister at a grand public ceremony witnessed by thousands of supporters as well as eminent personalities.

Attired in a simple white sari and white stole, Banerjee was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi in a ceremony held at the city’s historic Indira Gandhi Sarani (Red Road), a wide boulevard that bisects the Maidan.

Banerjee, the state’s eighth chief minister and the first woman to occupy the post, took her oath in Bengali, and in the name of “Ishwar and Allah”.

She dedicated the event to “Ma, Mati, Manush” (Mother, land and people”, Banerjee’s pet slogan.

Along with the chief minister, 41 other ministers were also sworn in. The ministerial council has 18 fresh faces, including former Indian cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla, city mayor Sovan Chatterjee, noted Bengali singer Indranil Sen, veteran Trinamool leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, and Marxist-turned Trinamool lawmaker Abdur Rezzak Mollah.

Twenty-eight of the ministers were of cabinet rank, five ministers of state (independent charge) and eight ministers of state.

Chatterjee, Chattopadhyay and Mollah got cabinet berths, while Shukla and Sen were made ministers of state.

Three of the ministers are women, seven belong to the Muslim community, while the Scheduled Caste and tribe communities also got several representatives.

Amit Mitra, Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Mukherjee, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay and Joardar were the first group of ministers to be administered the oath by the governor after the chief minister. The other ministers were then sworn in in batches. A number of them were seen touching Banerjee’s feet after taking oath.

All the ministers took their oath in Bengali, except Golam Rabbani, who preferred Hindi.

Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay was among the guests who graced the occasion as well as Bangladesh Industry Minister Amir Hossain Amu. Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Babul Supriyo were present as well as chief ministers — Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, Akhilesh Yadav of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar’s Nitish Kumar. Former chief ministers — Jammu and Kashmir’s Farooq Abdullah and Bihar’s Lalu Prasad were also present.

Ex Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, leading figures from the Bengali film industry, frontline industrialists of the state, members of the diplomatic corps also attended the function.

Thousands of people braving the intense heat assembled under the open sky to watch Didi (elder sister – as Banerjee is fondly called) begin her second innings at the helm of the eastern state.

The state’s opposition Left Front and state units of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) boycotted the function in protest against the attack on their activists, allegedly by ruling Trinamool Congress, during the polls.

Banerjee had taken over as chief minister for the first time on May 20, 2011 when she led an alliance of Trinamool Congress, Congress and Socialist Unity Centre of India- Communist to a huge win in the state assembly polls, ending 34 years of Left Front rule.

In the recent assembly elections, Banerjee led the Trinamool to a landslide, with the party winning 211 seats – well above the two-thirds majority mark of 196 – to retain power. The Congress-Left Front alliance won 77 seats in the 294-member house. The BJP and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha got three seats each.

(IANS)

Bengal woman tied naked to tree, beaten; opposition slams Mamata

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woman-tied-beatenKolkata: A woman in West Bengal Monday alleged that she was tied naked to a tree, beaten and branded over allegations of stealing. A couple were arrested but got bail which prompted the opposition to accuse the Mamata Banerjee government of “patronising criminals”.

Police Monday arrested a man and his wife for the incident that occurred Sunday in Kultoli in Baruipur subdivision of South 24 Parganas district. However, both the accused were granted bail by a court.

“I was accused of stealing and a gang lead by Sanjib Maiti tied me naked to a tree and beat me with sticks. They also branded me with hot metal,” said the woman who later filed a police complaint.

Baruipur sub-divisional police officer Deepak Sarkar said Maiti and his wife were arrested, but granted bail by a court.

While the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) alleged the involvement of Trinamool Congress activists, the Congress and the BJP slammed the state administration over the accused getting bail.

“After tying her naked to a tree, they subjected her to indescribable atrocities. She was subjected to this brutality only just because she is a CPI-M supporter. Trinamool goons have been attacking our people for long. We demand the arrests of all the perpetrators,” former minister and CPI-M leader Kanti Ganguly said after visiting the woman.

However, Trinamool’s Kultoli block president Gopal Majhi denied the allegations.

“The entire thing has been staged by the CPI-M and their leader (Ganguly) is trying to frame us and malign the Trinamool,” he said.

Actress-turned-politician Rupa Ganguly, who recently joined Bharatiya Janata Party, slammed Chief Minister Banerjee for the rise in crimes against women in the state.

“When the chief minister herself described rape as a ‘petty matter’, then such crimes are bound to happen. It’s a shame that a state headed by a woman CM has been hitting the headlines for crime against woman,” said the actress, who gained cult popularity for playing Draupadi in the television series “Mahabharat”.

Former state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya too attacked the administration for pressing lighter charges against the two accused.

“Not a single day passes when attacks on women are not taking place. Instead of taking strict action, the administration is actually encouraging criminals by either not taking any action or by pressing lighter charges,” said Bhattacharya.

The incident comes days after a woman in Birbhum district was tortured and nettle leaves rubbed into her private parts allegedly by a police team to extract information about her nephew – a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader wanted for his alleged involvement in a political clash.

A National Commission for Women team, headed by chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam, Saturday recorded the Birbhum woman’s statement and assured of taking action in the matter.

(IANS)

‘Burdwan blast part of BJP's devious gameplan drafted by RSS’

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derek-o-brien

New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress has called national security adviser Ajit Doval a known RSS sympathizer and revealed that the Burdwan blast was a part of a “devious” master gameplan of the BJP that was “conceived, drafted and approved by RSS”.

“The NSA is a known RSS sympathizer, these plans are hatched at RSS headquarters,” TMC leader Derek O’Brien said on Sunday reacting to Arun Jaitley’s comment on Mamata Banerjee.

Calling it a part of a larger BJP gameplan, the TMC leader said they will come out with more facts in the next 48 hours.

Making a pointed reply to finance minister’s comment stating that Mamata’s action in Burdwan blasts probe was “neither responsible nor nationalistic”, the TMC leader said, “Jaitley ji do what you want but TMC doesn’t need lessons on nationalistic ideas.”

Questioning BJP’s funding, Derek O’Brien asked, “Where did BJP raise their money for LS polls, where is the party getting their big money?”

“Why don’t they (BJP) provide transparent accounts?” he said adding, “If nation knows how much black money is spent by BJP, they will become a blacklisted party.”

Trinamool Congress leadership has said it will raise the issue of black money on the floor of Parliament and seek support of like-minded parties on this issue.

Earlier, Arun Jaitley expressed disappointment over Mamata’s reaction to Saradha scam and Burdwan blasts. “Some individuals connected with the TMC have been involved in making easy money from the Ponzi schemes. The schemes have looted small investors. As a new political Party, it was incumbent on any responsible leader to purge the Party of such leaders. It is regrettable that Mamta Didi instead of doing that has chosen identify herself with the cause of these leaders,” Jaitley said in a Facebook post.

Referring to the Burdwan blasts probe, Jaitley wrote, “The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has arrested several people who have engineered the blast. They are enemies of the State. The West Bengal Police or the other intelligence agencies have no substantive material to establish that the blast was stagemanaged? If there is no such material, why has Didi chosen to allege that the blast was stagemanaged? Such allegations clearly help the actual culprits. This is neither responsible nor nationalistic.”

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