Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday hinted at the beginning of a peace dialogue in Kashmir in the next few days, and reiterated the government’s offer of a dialogue with all sections of the people and all political parties and groups in the state. He also said the Centre had acknowledged that a political solution must be found to the state’s problems.

New Town, Rajarhat will have a new name from October 1: Jyoti Basu Nagar. A children’s park is also being named after the former chief minister whose statue will also occupy a pride of place in the township. Announcing this on Wednesday, state housing minister Gautam Deb said, “A programme will be organised on October 1 to make the occasion memorable. Chief minister and senior Left Front leaders will be present. I will also invite Mamata Banerjee and the Congress leaders.”

Persistent rainfall since Tuesday evening has left several areas in the national capital submerged, leading to huge traffic snarls and waterlogging at more than 100 places on Wednesday.

After addressing a rally at Lalgarh on August 9, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will address a rally in the city on August 28 on the occasion of Trinamul Chhatra Parishad’s foundation day. The rally will be organised at the foot of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue. “Just as the Chhatra Parishad had played a key role against the

India renewed its concern over Britain’s decision to impose a cap on immigration from non-European Union (EU) countries, including India, when visiting British immigration minister Damian Green held talks here on Wednesday with Overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi, minister of state of external affairs Preneet Kaur and minister of state of home affairs Mullapally Ramachandran.

A hoax call informing that a bomb was planted in the Technopolis building in Salt Lake, triggered panic on Wednesday. Apart from launching a massive search operation to locate the bomb, the North 24 Parganas police also arrested a youth from Dankuni from whose phone the call was made.

Union home minister P. Chidambaram pointed out towards a “new phenomenon” which he called as “saffron terrorism”. The home minister warned that there has been no let up in attempts to radicalise the youth. “There is no let up in the attempts to radicalise young men and women in India. Besides, there is recently uncovered

Gurjant Singh, the driver of the truck that had intruded into railway minister Mamata Banerjee’s convoy at Kolaghat when she was returning to Kolkata after her rally at Lalgarh on August 9, was granted interim bail by a Tamluk court on Wednesday. However, Gurjant would not be allowed to leave West Bengal till the next court hearing on September 8.

The government introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha seeking more than double hike in salaries of MPs from `16,000 to `50,000 and doubling two of their key allowances to `40,000 each. The bill proposes to raise the daily allowance for members from `1,000 to `2,000 and the constituency and office expense allowances each from `20,000 to `40,000.

The Madan Tamang murder case took a new twist on Wednesday after the slain Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League president’s widow, Bharati Tamang demanded a CBI probe into her husband’s murder. She made this demand following the death of Raju Tamang, the security guard of her son Sanjog, under mysterious circumstances.