SJDA protest

Siliguri, Aug. 11: The Left Front today held a demonstration in front of the office of the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority here to protest against alleged attempts to save the board members of the SJDA in the financial embezzlement case.

The protest that was attended by over 300 people was led by Siliguri mayor Asok Bhattacharya and Jibesh Sarkar, the Darjeeling district CPM secretary. "CID has submitted a chargesheet in which none of the board members has been named. We feel there is a clandestine attempt by Trinamul to safeguard those who were on the board of the SJDA when the scam occurred. The party is using the state machinery and investigating agencies like the CID for this purpose," Bhattacharya said.

"We want a CBI investigation so that those who made the former CEO and engineers violate government norms can be exposed," he added.

CCTV demand

Raiganj: The registrar of Raiganj University, Ajoy Kumar Ghosh, said on Tuesday that he would place a proposal before the vice-chancellor for installing more CCTV cameras on the campus for better surveillance and to identify those who carried out attacks like those on Monday.

A 12-hour general strike called by the Congress in North Dinajpur to protest Monday's violence at the varsity passed off peacefully on Tuesday. All shops, educational institutions and government offices remained shut in Raiganj town. Traffic on NH34 that passes through the town was not affected. North Dinajpur police superintendent Syed Waqar Raza said they were looking for two youths named in connection with the incident at Raiganj University. "We have gone through yesterday's CCTV footage and haven't found evidence of any firearms being used," he said.

Sandalwood

Siliguri: Two Chinese nationals and a resident of Delhi were arrested by Siliguri metropolitan police on Tuesday and over 100 pieces of red sandalwood were recovered from them. The Delhi resident, a cab driver, has said the foreigners had taken his car on rent. "A police team intercepted an SUV at Shivamandir on NH31. Our men found 105 pieces of red sandalwood in it," Shyam Singh, additional deputy commissioner (west), Siliguri metropolitan police, said. He said the vehicle with a registration plate of Delhi has been seized.

"The price of the smuggled stuff is around Rs 15 lakh in the international grey market," a police officer said. "We have also seized three cellphones and Rs 2 lakh." The arrested Chinese duo, Qiu Qinghua and Cai Jun, both from Fujian province, and the driver will be produced in court on Wednesday.

Trinamul fight

Cooch Behar: Nearly 15 people were injured in two separate clashes between factions of the Trinamul Congress in Cooch Behar and Tufanganj since Monday night. Sources said the clashes were between the followers of district president and Natabri MLA, Rabindranath Ghosh, and Rana Bose, the district Trinamul Youth Congress president. Ten persons were injured in the clash in front of the Ghugumari gram panchayat office, about 8km from here, on Tuesday afternoon. In the clash at Deocharai on Monday evening, four Trinamul members suffered injuries.