Kolkata, August 9: Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday faced protests from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers and supporters while visiting the family of a Trinamool Congress worker who allegedly died in police custody in Kanchrapara of North 24 Parganas district.

Demonstrators surrounded Mamata Banerjee’s car, hurled mud and a torn slipper towards her, and shouted slogans calling her a “thief”.

Following the attack, the former West Bengal Chief Minister told media persons, “Large stones were hurled at my car by anti-social elements, right in front of the police. The attack on the vehicle was so severe that if the windows had been open, my head would have been split open. We could have all been killed. This happened right in front of the police. I have never seen anything like this. What is going on? The police are providing protection to the BJP.”

The BJP alleged that the former Chief Minister had come to Kanchrapara to incite trouble and that ordinary citizens were protesting against it.

On the other hand, Mamata Banerjee lashed out at the BJP-led state government and targeted Police Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who is also the Chief Minister of West Bengal.

The Trinamool Congress supremo alleged that the BJP orchestrated the incident using their “goons”.

“Forget about security; the police are protecting lumpens! Bengal has fallen into the hands of lumpens. We will file a case,” she said.

The three-time former Chief Minister Banerjee claimed that large bricks were thrown at her car.

“My head could have been split open; I could have died here. The police are protecting the BJP,” she complained.

Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP Kalyan Banerjee and Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen accompanied Mamata Banerjee. They too vented their anger against the current BJP administration after facing the protests.

Kalyan Banerjee said, ” Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari is running his rule through the police and getting work done by the mafia.”

Police had to surround the former Chief Minister’s car as it passed through the roads of Bijpur in the same district.

The husband of the former Trinamool Congress Councillor of Kanchrapara Municipality in North 24 Parganas district died in police custody, the family alleged on Saturday.

The deceased’s name is Birju Keot. His wife Jenny Sharma Keot, the former Trinamool Councillor of Ward number 23 of Kanchrapara Municipality, alleged that her husband died after being beaten up in the jail.

There was no reaction from the police in connection with this incident.

The deceased Trinamool worker’s family on Saturday alleged that Birju was tortured in police custody after Friday midnight.

Jenny also alleged that her husband was beaten with his hands and feet tied.

A source from Halishahar police station said that Birju was found lying ill in the jail on after Friday midnight. He was rushed to Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital in Nadia district’s Kalyani where the doctors declared him dead.

Initial speculation is that he may have died of a heart attack. However, the real cause of death is not yet certain.

It is also not known whether there are any injury marks on his body.

The cause of death will be clear only after the autopsy report is received, a police source said.

After meeting the Keot family on Sunday, Mamata Banerjee remarked, “There is no such thing as law and order left in this state.”

Mumbai, Aug 9: Milk prices in Maharashtra will increase by Rs 2 per litre for both cow and buffalo milk from August 11 after the Milk Producers and Processors Welfare Association decided to revise retail rates, a move that is expected to impact consumers across the state.

The price hike comes amid ongoing debates over milk pricing and efforts to balance the interests of dairy farmers with those of consumers facing rising household expenses.

Producers and processors have argued that higher procurement and operational costs have necessitated the increase.

The development follows the Centre’s recent clarification that it has no proposal to introduce a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for milk, maintaining that prices will continue to be determined by cooperatives and private dairies based on prevailing market conditions.

In a written reply to a starred question in the Lok Sabha last month, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, also known as Lalan Singh, said milk pricing remains a market-driven process and that the government is not considering an MSP mechanism for the sector.

The minister said the government is implementing a range of measures aimed at safeguarding dairy farmers’ interests, stabilising milk prices, protecting consumers and strengthening quality monitoring across the dairy value chain.

According to the government, efforts are underway to bring more producers into the organised dairy sector.

As of March 2026, a total of 36,283 new village-level Dairy Cooperative Societies had been established, while 31,150 existing societies had been strengthened.

The government also created milk chilling capacity of 168 lakh litres per day and distributed 76,748 milk quality testing devices across the country.

In addition, projects with a combined milk processing and value-addition capacity of 418 lakh litres per day have been approved to enhance infrastructure and improve efficiency in the dairy sector.

The government highlighted the strong growth in India’s milk production over the past decade.

Milk output rose to 248 million metric tonnes in 2024-25 from 146 million metric tonnes in 2014-15, registering an increase of about 69 per cent.

Islamabad, Aug 9: Poor governance is the primary reason behind instability and deprivation in Pakistan’s Balochistan province as the Federal government regards the province as a security issue and does not address the social, economic, and political causes of the crisis there, a report said.

People of Balochistan do not get benefits despite the province being resource-rich, according to the report in Afghan Diaspora Network.

The majority of development projects in Balochistan, including the strategic Gwadar port and the Saindak copper and gold mine, have been operated by China. Chinese or people from Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh provinces earn profits from Balochistan’s resources instead of people from the province. The have-nots of Balochistan often take up militancy to fight for their rights and express their anger towards the foreigners in Balochistan, it said.

The majority of people in Balochistan live in extreme deprivation of resources, human rights and education, though Pakistan denies that people of the province are discontented. Its approach towards Balochistan has been security-centric while the development and governance agenda have taken the backseat. Currently, Balochistan faces the highest poverty in Pakistan, with 47 per cent of residents living below the poverty line. The province does not have basic infrastructure, employment opportunities, gas connections, and clean drinking water despite being a hub for extraction and mega projects, according to the Afghan Diaspora Network report.

“Experts blame the poor governance as a main culprit behind instability and deprivation. Quick to resort to repression, the state has considered Balochistan unidimensional as a security issue, ignoring the underlying social, economic, and political causes of the crisis. The ongoing ‘Operation Shaban’ might hit the headlines for killing terrorists, but it fails to ensure any sustainable peace and stability. The experts argue that the military cannot lead to durable peace without addressing the root causes of multiple causes of Balochistan’s unrest, including federalism, identity, and the fair distribution of resource wealth,” Kadeem Baloch, a freelance journalist based in Pakistan, wrote in the report.

On Saturday, the Baloch Republican Guards (BRG) claimed responsibility for destroying two electricity towers in the province’s Nasirabad, local media reported.

BRG spokesperson Dosteen Baloch said in a statement that the members of BRG blew up two 220 kV electricity towers going from the Och Power Plant to Punjab at the Piru Pul area near Mir Hassan area of Nasirabad, The Balochistan Post reported.

Two towers collapsed, and two more sustained severe damage as a result of the explosion. The spokesperson stated that BRG accepts responsibility for this attack and noted that such operations will continue until the independence of Balochistan from Pakistan.