West Bengal university vice-chancellor quits after ‘insult’

October 8th, 2009 KOLKATA - Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Thursday described West Bengal as an "university of Maoist activities" where the ultras get training and launch armed strikes in other parts of the country. "West Bengal is a university of Maoist activities.

October 7th, 2009 ALIGARH - The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Wednesday constituted an advisory committee to prepare a framework for academic activities to be undertaken in its upcoming centres in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and West Bengal. "The 12-member committee has been entrusted with the task of identifing courses that the university should offer at its new centres planned in the five states," AMU spokesperson Rahat Abrar told reporters here.

September 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - On his first day in office, Jamia Millia Islamia's new vice chancellor Najeeb Jung Thursday said there were huge challenges before him to make the university one of the best in the world. Jung, a former Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer, took over as vice chancellor from Mushirul Hasan, who was also on the panel of those shortlisted for the post.

August 20th, 2009 RAIPUR - A college girl in Chhattisgarh was arrested for sending a "threatening" sms to a university vice chancellor and ending the message with the words 'Lal Salam' a salutation used by the Maoist insurgents, police said Thursday. Crime branch officials said the girl, Archana Goswami, was arrested late Wednesday in state's northern district of Surguja on charges of sending a threatening sms to Laxman Chaturvedi, vice-chancellor of Bilaspur-based Guru Ghasidas University, asking him to pass all the students who have failed in college exams and have recently applied for re-evaluation of papers.

August 5th, 2009 KOLKATA - Three leading West Bengal universities Wednesday joined hands with China's Yunnan University to develop higher education and student exchange programmes. Yunnan University and three leading universities of the state signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) aiming to work towards the integration of a mutually rewarding education system.

August 3rd, 2009 KOLKATA - West Bengal Minister for Transport, Sports and Youth Affairs Subhas Chakraborty passed away at a private hospital in Salt Lake on Monday. Sixty-eight-year-old Chakraborty is survived by his wife and a son.

July 18th, 2009 HYDERABAD - Eight students of the Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati have been arrested and suspended for ragging their juniors, authorities said Saturday. Police said the arrests were made late Friday night following a complaint by few students of the first year M.Com.

June 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress Friday said the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which had alleged "semi-fascist" attacks on its cadres in West Bengal, has been the real perpetrator of unprecedented violence in the state for more than two decades. "If at all violence has been perpetrated in West Bengal, it has been by the left party and the workers of the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) have been at the receiving end of the this violence," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters.

June 2nd, 2009 AGARTALA - Tripura Tuesday decided to give Rs.5 million to cyclone-hit West Bengal to help in the relief relief efforts. "The people of Tripura are confident that with the resilience of the people and the adequate support of the central government, the West Bengal government would come out of this situation," Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said in a letter to his West Bengal counterpart Bhudhadeb Bhattacharjee.

May 5th, 2009 KOLKATA - The Congress Tuesday accused West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Debasish Sen of failing to ensure free and fair elections in the state by allowing criminals backed by the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) a free run. 'In the first phase of the polls (in West Bengal) April 30, the CPI-M-led goons created havoc.

April 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury Saturday termed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's attack on the Left government in West Bengal as 'tantamount to insulting the people of Bengal'. The people of West Bengal have elected the Left Front government seven times in a row, Yechury said.

April 14th, 2009 KOLKATA - The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) faces a tough fight in the Lok Sabha elections but would get a majority of seats in West Bengal, the party's general secretary Prakash Karat said here Tuesday. 'We will have a tough battle in the elections, but we have faced situations in the past when the opposition had virtually come together without an alliance,' Karat told reporters in response to the Congress and Trinamool Congress joining hands in the state.

March 18th, 2009 KOLKATA - Activists of Trinamool Congress and Congress party organised a yagna here for the success of the alliance of these two parties in the ensuing elections to the Lok Sabha. This was consequent to the finalisation of the tie-up and sharing of seats between the two parties in West Bengal.

January 26th, 2009 ROHTAK - Haryana's Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) Tuesday became a completely Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) campus with the commencement of an integrated telephony and internet system. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda inaugurated the facility on the university campus here.

January 4th, 2009 KOLKATA - Four Bangladeshi nationals sentenced to the gallows for the 2004 murder of an Awami League parliamentarian and close associate of prime minister-designate Sheikh Hasina, have been arrested by the West Bengal police. The four, who fled Bangladesh after being sentenced to death, were nabbed by the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) late Sunday night from Kolkata's adjoining South 24-Parganas district.