Will not share any public platform with Mamata over RG Kar impasse: Bengal Guv
Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Thursday said he will not share any public platform with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in view of people's outcry over the RG Kar hospital impasse.
In a video message, Bose also said he will also socially boycott the chief minister.
"I will not be sharing any public platform with the chief minister. I will take proactive steps against her for violating Constitutional provisions. My role as the Governor will be confined to the Constitutional obligations," Bose said.
The governor's message came after the proposed meeting between the chief minister and the agitating junior doctors did not take place earlier in the day.
The medics, even after reaching the gates of the state secretariat Nabanna, refused to hold talks with the state government unless their demand for live streaming of the meeting to resolve the RG Kar hospital impasse was met. The Mamata Banerjee government did not allow live-streaming but said the proceedings could be video-recorded, an option rejected by the medics.
"I have been flooded with questions and representations from various sections of the public of what action the Governor is proposing to end the present crisis in Bengal. I stand committed to the people of Bengal," the governor said.
Bose reiterated his commitment to the parents of the RG Kar hospital doctor who was raped and murdered and also to those who are demonstrating for justice.
"In my assessment, the government has failed in its duties. The home minister has failed in her responsibility to maintain law and order," he added.
The chief minister is in charge of the home and health departments.
"The health minister has miserably failed in containing the liquidation in the medical system in the state. It is an irony that the health minister is the home minister who is also the CM who is protesting instead of protecting. There is violence in the streets, in homes, in campus, in hospitals, in villages, in the cities. Violence is everywhere and people are silent," Bose said.
The governor said he has been issuing instructions under Article 167 of the Constitution to the chief minister for compliance.
He said he had asked Banerjee to hold an emergency Cabinet meeting in the wake of the RG Kar Hospital impasse.
The governor has also asked for a white paper on the government's alleged financial mismanagement.
However, these instructions were not followed.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
