The Communist Party of India (CPI) is suspending the publication of its Bengali daily Kalantar – the party’s mouthpiece in West Bengal, due to severe funds crisis. The daily will discontinue from November 1. Kalantar is being published for more than 50 years.
Earlier, it used to be a weekly newspaper and it was published as a daily from the late 1960s.
There are plans to bring out a fortnightly newsmagazine by the same name till there are enough funds to revive the daily, the CPI members have said.
Earlier, when the Left Front government in power, Kalantar received government advertisements, along with some ads from the Centre. However, there are no government ads for the past few years, said a CPI member. It is therefore difficult to meet the costs and the party doesn’t have the required funds.
For now, there are plans to lease out the press which may bring in some money and the party wants to revive the newspaper with the funds within a year.
