Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, principal correspondent, Hindustan Times, Kolkata, has been covering politics, socio-economic and cultural affairs for over 10 years. He takes special interest in monitoring developments related to Maoist insurgency and religious extremism.
Articles by Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Amit Shah targets Mamata Banerjee on CAA, Covid-19
The TMC hit back and accused the BJP of focusing on politics instead of battling Covid-19.
Updated on Jun 10, 2020 06:21 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
‘Hungry only for votes’: TMC attacks BJP after Amit Shah’s virtual rally
The TMC accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of presenting false data on funds spent by the Centre on various schemes and targeted him for reviving the issue of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Updated on Jun 09, 2020 08:17 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Amit Shah takes on Mamata Banerjee on virtual turf, seeks change in West Bengal
Shah accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of indulging in violence, corruption, extortion, infiltration, terror and politics of appeasement.
Updated on Jun 09, 2020 03:35 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by: Amit Chaturvedi
‘Take a minute’: Mamata Banerjee’s nephew jabs Shah ahead of Bengal address
This is the first time that the Trinamool Congress brought forth the issue of the recent tensions along the international borders with China.
Updated on Jun 09, 2020 01:57 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by: Shankhyaneel Sarkar
West Bengal’s Covid-19 deaths cross 400-mark but fatality rate improves
Bengal’s death rate due to Covid-19 is still higher than the national average. India’s death rate stood at 2.8% as of Monday morning, with 7,200 deaths reported against 256,611 persons testing positive for the disease.
Updated on Jun 09, 2020 12:04 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by Anubha Rohatgi
Bibliophiles help sellers at Kolkata’s iconic book market by buying damaged books
The College Street area in north Kolkata, popularly known as Boi-para or the book locality, is home to some of the most prestigious educational institutes and happens to be a storehouse of books, with nearly 1,000 small to large publishers and booksellers operating in the locality.
Updated on Jun 09, 2020 12:21 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by Sohini Sarkar
Unspent funds, incomplete work mark gram panchayats in rural Bengal: Mahua Moitra
Moitra has said that the local self governing bodies in rural Bengal were not taking up necessary infrastructure work that needed funds over Rs 3.5 lakh in an attempt to avoid mandatory administrative scrutiny.
Updated on Jun 07, 2020 11:38 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by Sohini Sarkar
Ahead of state polls, Mamata warns TMC against corruption in relief work
Mamata Banerjee also instructed TMC leaders to intensify political campaign on social media highlighting her government’s successes in the past nine years.
Updated on Jun 06, 2020 02:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya| Edited by: Meenakshi Ray
Bengal tally doubles in 12 days, crosses 7k-mark
As on Friday, the state reported 7,303 cases, with 366 persons dead and 2,912 persons discharged from hospitals after recovery.
Updated on Jun 05, 2020 11:58 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Mamata sharpens attack on BJP, asks party to prepare for the 2021 elections
Mamata was upset with the BJP’s launch of 2021 election campaign titled ‘No more Mamata’
Updated on Jun 05, 2020 10:21 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by Abhinav Sahay
Bengal rolls out red carpet for central team for cyclone damage assessment
The Bengal government’s attitude towards the inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) to assess the cyclone damage is in contrast to its stand when two such teams landed in April to take stock of the state’s Covid-19 management.
Published on Jun 04, 2020 02:50 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Koklkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya| Edited by Sabir Hussain
Mamata seeks Rs 10,000 cash transfer from Centre to each migrant worker
Banerjee’s demand came a day after her government claimed to have transferred Rs 20,000 to the bank account of each of those whose homes got destroyed by the cyclone Amphan.
Updated on Jun 03, 2020 12:44 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by Sparshita Saxena
Bengal BJP enters poll mode, Amit Shah to kick-start virtual meetings on June 8
Monday’s announcements came barely four days after the party released a 9-point charge-sheet against Mamata Banerjee’s nine-year rule and called for toppling the state government in 2021.
Updated on Jun 01, 2020 10:22 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by Sohini Sarkar
Amid spike in Covid-19 cases, Bengal’s testing matches up to national level
Bengal on May 31, reported 371 new Covid-19 cases, mostly from the different districts where migrant workers recently returned.
Updated on May 31, 2020 11:50 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by Sohini Sarkar
In Amphan’s trail of destruction, Sunderbans turn red, yellow
The lawmakers have never witnessed this unnatural phenomenon before, even after the cyclone Aila that devastated large parts in and around the Sunderbans in 2009.
Published on May 30, 2020 10:13 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Amid lockdown, this Kolkata hospital is conducting dialysis at ₹50 only
The hospital in central Kolkata, named Kolkata Swasthya Sankalp, has been a low-cost dialysis centre essentially for the poor and used to charge ₹350 per dialysis. This is nearly one third of the cost of dialysis at government-hospitals.
Updated on May 30, 2020 09:05 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by Sohini Sarkar
Lockdown 5: Mamata allows pvt offices to work with 100% staff from June 8; says nothing on local train
Mamata has allowed reopening of religious places from June 1 with some restrictions.
Updated on May 29, 2020 10:28 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by Abhinav Sahay
Cyclone Amphan: A trail of death, misery and destruction
The government had, two days before, sounded an alarm about an approaching super cyclone and evacuated roughly 360,000 people from the delta.
Updated on May 28, 2020 09:33 PM IST
Sunderbans/Kolkata/New Delhi | Joydeep Thakur, Dhrubo Jyoti and Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
BJP launches 2021 assembly poll campaign in Bengal, calls it ‘Aar Noi Mamata’
The Mamata Banerjee government is facing a three-fold challenge – combating the outbreak of Covid-19, dealing with the huge influx of migrant workers returning to the state and restoring normal life and infrastructure in the cyclone-hit areas.
Updated on May 27, 2020 05:02 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Returning migrants cause surge of Covid-19 cases in rural Bengal
According to a senior official of the West Bengal health department, 76 people tested positive for Covid-19 in rural areas of Howrah district; 67 in the rural areas of Malda; 46 in Hooghly district and 30 in Uttar Dinajpur over the past three days.
Updated on May 27, 2020 02:51 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Bengal Guv tells Mamata not to inflate figures on losses due to cyclone Amphan
Dhankhar’s tweets came after CM Banerjee said that the estimated loss due to the cyclone was Rs 1 lakh crore. She has said that 1 crore people have been rendered homeless due to the cyclone.
Updated on May 25, 2020 08:11 AM IST
Bengal records biggest single-day spike of 208 new Covid-19 cases, state tally at 3,667
The spike comes as a major concern for the state, as the cyclone-hit districts are also the ones most-affected by Covid-19.
Updated on May 24, 2020 11:08 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by Sohini Sarkar
Decade after Cyclone Aila, saline water will continue to haunt farms in Sunderbans
Of the 102 islands in Sunderbans, 52 are inhabited by 4.5 million people and the rest are tiger territories.
Updated on May 24, 2020 12:27 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Sunderbans | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya and Joydeep Thakur
Bengal parties spar over cyclone relief
Snigdhendu.Bhattacharya@htlive.com Kolkata: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s West Bengal unit chief, Dilip Ghosh, was on Saturday prevented from visiting a cyclone-hit area even as chief minister Mamata Banerjee underlined it was not the time to do politics and her Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders echoed her.
Updated on May 24, 2020 02:58 AM IST
Sunderbans left unfit for farming
Published on May 23, 2020 11:44 PM IST
Snigdhendu Bhattacharya and Joydeep Thakur
Cyclone-ravaged Bengal records highest Covid-19 tests at 9,009 on Saturday
After testing about 8,500 tests for a few days, Bengal’s testing took a hit due to the cyclone Amphan. On March 19 and 20, it tested 8,712 and 8,722 samples, respectively
Published on May 23, 2020 10:18 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Ravaged areas dread more damage with turn of tide
Published on May 22, 2020 11:23 PM IST
Joydeep Thakur and Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
For Bengal’s migrant workers back from other states, Cyclone Amphan is a nightmare
At Karanjali area in South 24-Parganas, dozens of migrant workers returned from Maharashtra on Friday morning, only to know that their home and their ponds had been devastated.
Updated on May 23, 2020 01:44 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya and Joydeep Thakur | Edited by Sohini Sarkar
Cyclone Amphan: Ravaged Bengal districts await further damage
After the cyclone, the coastal villages in the two Bengal districts are bracing for the impact of spring tide as river embankments lay breached.
Updated on May 22, 2020 10:40 PM IST
Hindustan Times, North and South 24-Parganas | Joydeep Thakur and Snigdhendu Bhattacharya | Edited by Abhinav Sahay
