The state government of west Bengal has decided to allocate 750 acres of land in Raghunathpur, Purulia to Jai Balaji Group of the city. Jai Balaji Group would use the land for integrated steel, power and cement projects worth Rs 16,000-crore. It would start the first phase of project within a few weeks. The company has also decided to offer jobs to one member of each family whose land has been acquired to set up the projects.

An unbeaten 93 by S Badrinath steer Tamil Nadu to an eight-wicket win over Bengal and take his team to the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy on the fourth and final day of the match.

With a first innings lead of 39 and 173 runs to the good overall, Bengal appeared to be slightly better off. But Tamil players bounced back into the game strongly and bundled out Bengal for 187. Tamil Nadu batsman then ransacked the Bengal bowlers and notched up the victory target of 227 by just losing two wickets.

CBI sources said that the CBI officer, who investigated the Tapasi Malik murder case in Singur, was arrested, on Sunday for taking bribe from an accused in a murder case.

Partho Sarathi Bose, DSP, Special Crime Branch of CBI, was arrested in front of an electronics shop in Ultadanga, in north Kolkata, by a six-member CBI Anti Corruption branch team which had come from Delhi.

The sources said that Bose was arrested while taking a bribe of Rs 50,000 from Avtar Singh,  an accused in the murder of a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officer Tarun Dutta.

A complaint was lodged this year by Singh, in December , that Bose was demanding money from him. A trap was there after laid.

A tiger attacked a girl and a forest official from Betalpara village in Sunderbans on Sunday. The tiger was later caged by forest department personnel.

The injured people were identified as Krishna Pada Mondal, the forest official, and a Class V student named as Usha Sardar.

It is learnt that on Sunday morning, Usha had gone with her relative, Swapna Sardar, to cut grass in a nearby field at 7 a.m. Suddenly the big cat pounced upon Usha.

Sardar's screams for help alarmed the villagers, who compelled the tiger to leave Usha behind and flee into the bushes.

During the culling and moping operations, 4 culling members have come down with influenza-like symptoms in Malda last evening. One of them, Mohd Ellius (40) from satgharia was in a very serious condition. He had high fever and breathing problem, so he was admitted to the isolation ward and kept under observation. Chief medical officer of health (CMOH) Srikanta Roy said, “He does not have respiratory problem or influenza symptom so far. But we have kept him in the isolation ward for observations.”

Kolkata, Dec. 21 : Medical fraternity is concerned over the prevailing double-digit mortality rate among infants despite a decreased rate recorded over the last few years in the country.

The infant mortality rate has decreased from 68 to 57 per 1,000 births in the country. But, reports say that only 41 per cent of women deliver in hospitals and clinics, the rest still deliver at home. Consequently, one-third women and their babies are deprived of post-natal care within two days of delivery that leads to neo-natal deaths.

In India, two-and-a-half million babies die on an average before they turn five years of age. Of these, 1.25 million die in the neo-natal stage; within the first 28 days of birth.