Browsing: TMC

Fresh protests have been announced by the Adivasi Kurmi Samaj in Purulia district, West Bengal, fWor September 25, following violent clashes with police at Kotshila railway station. The Kurmi community has renewed its long-standing demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. This has led to significant disruptions with railway and road blockades across the state.

The government of West Bengal is facing pushback from various industrial firms, such as UltraTech Cement, Electrosteel Casting Limited, Grasim Industries, Nuvoco Vistas, and Dalmia Cement, over its choice to revoke industry incentives with retroactive effect. The Revocation of West Bengal Incentive Schemes and Obligations in the Nature of Grants and Incentives Bill, 2025, was approved by the Assembly in March and enacted on April 2, eliminating all incentives provided to industries since 1993. The purpose of the Act is to reallocate state finances towards social welfare programs for marginalized groups.

The government of West Bengal has made a crucial move towards streamlining the process for issuing Scheduled Caste (SC) certificates. In a recent assembly of the West Bengal Scheduled Castes Advisory Council, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, it was resolved to ease the requirements for applicants who cannot provide their parents’ caste certificates. Presently, applicants must present the caste certificates of two blood relatives, but the government plans to amend this to just one blood relative’s certificate. 

The second SLST (School Level Selection Test) administered by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to hire assistant teachers to teach children in classes 11 and 12 in state-aided schools became a historic event in state education system and administration history when 93 percent of the students came to take the test.

A Special CBI court in Alipore granted bail to former state education minister Partha Chatterjee on charges related to the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment cases on Wednesday. The court released him on a personal bond of Rs 7,000. This is the first time a lower court has granted him bail in these specific cases. However, he remains in custody due to other ongoing cases against him.

Without a single Congress legislator in West Bengal Legislative Assembly post 2021 elections hopes of the Grand Old Party making its presence felt in 2026 polls appears slim. A growing rift between the Congress and Trinamool Congress at national level will prevent the Congress of being a power to reckon with in the next year’s election in the state.