Bihar Darshan

Bihar: Rising From the Shadows

2010-03-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

CM Nitish Kumar has wrought a remarkable change in Bihar, but for the state to truly come into its own, he needs to go far beyond the quick fixes he has applied so far............

Winds of Change
We are driving from Patna to Munger. This is the first time I have ever travelled on these roads. The two-lane highways are smooth, though for a big city dweller used to eight-lane expressways, they seem narrow and congested. But almost everybody in the state is raving about how roads in Bihar have transformed. “Nitish has changed the condition of the roads completely,” gushes Patna-based Raman Jha who runs Super Travel Agency. In the last five years, his 12-car fleet has expanded to 30. His car rental business has grown 100 percent during the period. Earlier people would avoid roads at night. Not any more, he says. Better law and order conditions have helped. For long distances like Patna to Bhagalpur (250 km), train used to be the best option. Now people prefer roads. Travel time between Patna and Munger has come down from about seven hours to about 4 hours. Even city roads in Munger are well maintained.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has rated the road work in Bihar as one of the best. “The aim is that within the state you can reach from anywhere to Patna in six hours,” says Pratyay Amrit, CMD, Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam. For example, Sitamarhi to Patna took 12 hours; now it takes just three. “By 2015, we want Bihar roads to be the best in the country,” he says. Amrit is now preparing his company to bid for projects outside the state.

Government hospitals too are changing. In Munger Sadar Hospital, K.C. Singh, civil surgeon and superintendent, can feel it first hand. The hospital once wore a deserted look. Stray dogs roamed freely. “Today, at times we have so many patients that we can’t handle,” Singh says.

“I come here once in a while. Earlier I wouldn’t have even peeped here,” says Mridula Jha, a retired higher secondary school principal, who lives alone in the city. What’s bringing back the patients is the improved facilities. From note-pads for doctors to ambulances and generators, the government is investing in hospital infrastructure. Hospitals are clean and better staffed with more doctors. At the Munger hospital facilities like x-ray, ultrasound and 15 pathological tests are free.

It’s a similar story at the Baidyanath Girls High School (IX to XII Standard), Munger. The school had no teachers for many subjects. “No recruitment for 15 years had taken its toll,” says Syeda Parveen, the principal. Out of the 45 teachers that they have today, 30 have been hired on contract. The average class size has come down from 100 to 60 now. The number of girls too has gone up from 500 to 1,400 even as academic results show improvement.

Nitish’s Magic Formula
How has Nitish Kumar managed Bihar’s turnaround? Where the Laloo-RABRI government did nothing — or worsened things — for 15 years, even modest work by Kumar’s government makes him look good. He has picked his battles well. Law and order, roads, healthcare and education — the four big thrust areas, have a broader relevance for the people, cutting across income and social class.
Of course, Kumar has tremendous motivation to deliver. His political career hinges on it. Unlike Laloo Yadav who became complacent, assured of loyal Muslim-Yadav votes (which gave him a 26 percent upfront edge over others), Nitish Kumar has no such loyal support base. Only his work will hold the key to his electoral fortunes, as the state prepares to go for election this year. And he knows it well.

Law and order is perhaps the biggest area of emphasis. The government sent a clear signal that political patronage of criminals has ended. “Bahubalis” (strongmen) like Shahabuddin were tried and jailed. “We monitored selected cases, irrespective of the parties, ensured evidence and speedy trial and punishment. It worked,” says Amir Subhani, home secretary, Bihar government. State policing infrastructure is being beefed up — from recruiting constable, sub inspectors to building police facilities like training academy, police stations (200 are under construction). After being neglected for years, the state’s spend on law and order will touch Rs. 2,006 crore in 2009-10. Lawlessness had scared away many. For example road contractors would simply did not bid for Bihar projects. Under Nitish Kumar, any ransom call or threat was tackled on a war footing, says Amrit. `

2qNitish has picked his team of bureaucrats well. Amrit has overseen completion of 400-plus bridge projects. Once a loss-making state unit with Rs. 300-crore turnover, it is now a profitable enterprise with a turnover of Rs. 2,700 crore.

Use of technology, outsourcing and smart initiatives have enabled him to scale-up rapidly, improve quality and bring transparency. E-tendering has cut the 60-day process to 21. Smart devices like mobile inspectors — GPRS-enabled mobile phones — helped effective real time project monitoring.
Outsourcing and appointment on contract has been a consistent thread across different departments. It enables the government to do quick scale-up, offer flexibility for course correction and
improve delivery.

Teachers, doctors and even retired policemen have been hired on contract. In hospitals, from generators, diagnostic facilities, X-ray machines, housekeeping, ambulances and even food has been outsourced to third parties who are paid depending on services delivered, with regular monitoring.

A Task Unaccomplished
Bihar is vastly better today than it was five years back. But perhaps it’s still not good enough.
To me, Munger still looks like the city I left in 1989. Power cuts are severe; the city survives on invertors and generators. There’s still just one good private school. While contract appointments in government schools and hospitals have kindled new hopes, private corporate investment is missing. Unemployment is a major problem. While schemes like NREGS may have held back the poor in the villages, the Bihari exodus continues. Malls, multiplexes, restaurants, hotels — the consumerist wave sweeping other parts of the country — are years away.

From Worst to Near First

2010-02-21T14:52:00.000-08:00

How India's most desperate state transformed itself to become a model for the rest of the country.

For centuries, it seems, the northern Indian state of Bihar has been plunging downhill. Once the seat of one of the world's most glorious empires, the state was first devastated by colonial policies that enshrined feudal landlords, then shunned by a succession of Indian governments, and finally riven and destroyed when the seeds of caste and class conflict matured into a small-scale civil war in the 1970s. As the militias of upper-caste landlords clashed with revolutionary guerrillas fighting for the oppressed, and caste-based political agitations threw up a series of incompetent and allegedly corrupt governments, state services ground to a halt, highways disintegrated, bridges crumbled, and career criminals ascended from the back rooms of party offices to take seats in the state legislative assembly, and even the Indian Parliament itself. By the 1990s, brazen and deadly highway robberies put an end to traveling after nightfall, and as business activity plummeted, kidnapping for ransom was declared the state's only growth industry. The so-called Republic of Bihar—viewed as a criminal fiefdom beyond the purview of the government of India—was effectively a failed state. "Institutions had collapsed," says Nand Kishore Singh, a member of the upper house of Parliament. "Law and order had come to a grinding halt."

Read more...

http://www.newsweek.com/id/233502

No irregularities in dept: Excise secy

2010-02-21T14:43:00.000-08:00

PATNA: After a long silence and anticipating `hungama’ over the alleged excise scam during the budget session of the state legislature beginning from Monday, excise department secretary Amir Shubhani pooh-poohed the charges levelled by sacked excise minister Jamshed Ashraf, claiming all is well in the department.

The excise secretary said that it was wrong to drag the name of chief minister Nitish Kumar in the episode because as per Bihar Excise Act the files pertaining to the excise department doesn’t go to the CM’s secretariat and is normally disposed of at the minister’s level itself. Only such files which are related to policy matters goes to the cabinet, he said.

“Jamshed Ashraf has levelled false allegation that molasses were purchased on higher rates and sold to distilleries at lower rate which caused huge loss to the state,” Shubhani said, adding the fact of the matter is that purchasing and selling of molasses were beyond the ambit of the excise department.

Shubhani, who is also in-charge of the home department, said there is no question of handing over the charges levelled by Ashraf, to the CBI as there is not even a single transaction in the excise department which showed irregularities. The department rather had earned revenue which no other department could generate, he said.

When asked if everything was well in the department then why was excise commissioner N Vijayalaxmi shifted amidst controversy, Shubhani said, “Transfer is a routine thing and one should not read much into it.”

To a charge levelled by Ashraf that Bihar has a market of mobilizing Rs 2,500 crore, but because of the corrupt practices pursued by the officers at the CM’s secretariat, the excise department could generate only Rs 900 crore, Shubhani said, “I don’t know on what basis he could say that there is a liquor market of Rs 2,500 crore when to date no survey has been conducted.” Shubhani further said, “Hamney hamesha mantri ka adesh mana hai.”

Bihari youth to develop course curriculum for US varsities

2010-02-10T20:47:00.000-08:00

PATNA: A linguist, M J Warsi, currently teaching in the department of Asian and Eastern Languages and Literatures, Washington University, has been assigned to develop course curriculum of South Asian languages, particularly Hindi and Urdu for US universities.

Warsi hailing from Kusheshwar Sthan village in Darbhanga district has been given a grant of US $ 25000 to develop course curriculum funded by a grant from the US department of education's International Education and Graduate Programme Service.

"The project would be completed latest by August this year. The course design would be based on communicative method which is very modern and scientific way of teaching languages and linguistic courses," he told TOI from Washington.

"I belong to a place in Bihar, where there in no electricity, road and safe drinking water. Being a proud Bihari, I am fortunate to get important assignment to design course curriculum for the best universities of US," he said.

A gold medalist from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and a West Bengal Urdu Academy award holder, Warsi has also authored many books to make people understand the efficacy of common contact with regard to languages and culture.

Besides his academic commitment, Warsi has also been very actively involved with the community on the campus. He has been described as an "unsung hero" by the students of Berkeley University for his "extraordinary contribution" to academic and personal matters.

He has been chosen as a role model by undergraduates of the Berkeley-based university in a survey conducted to identify those staff persons who went beyond their duty to assist students in academic and personal matters.

Warsi's journey has been a long and tumultuous one marked by obstacles, dedication and tremendous courage in the face of great adversities. He has to his credit 23 papers and five books, besides many articles.

Irfan to gift Obama litti-chokka

2010-02-07T21:48:00.000-08:00

BEGUSARAI: Bihar's famous snack litti-chokha will soon find place on the plate of US President Barack Obama. A day after his meeting in Patna with the US ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer, bihar's own Irfan Alam who has been invited to the Entrepreneurship Summit called by Obama told TOI on phone that he would carry a tin of freshly baked litti with dry chokha besides a model of his rickshaw to hand over to President Obama at the White House in April this year.

Irfan, who hails from Begusarai and even graduated from the local G D College, said: "I have already conveyed my decision in this regard to the US envoy when he asked me what I would like to present the US President when I meet him during my US visit," Irfan said.

Irfan said the dry littis will have the provision to be soaked in the ghee.

"In fact, I'll like to carry a large tin of littis so that others may also get the taste of this famed Bihari delicacy," he added.

Irfan said he has gifted a model of his rickshaw to the US envoy which the latter assured would be put on display at the US Embassy in New Delhi. Irfan termed his propsed meeting with the US President as "unique" as he will represent of one of the most socially and economically backward sections of the world, while Obama is the President of the world's most powerful nation.

The Bihari enlightenment

2010-02-07T21:30:00.000-08:00

One of the more unlikely case studies offered by Harvard Business School describes the turnaround of Indian Railways under Lalu Prasad Yadav, a shrewd, roguish politician who ruled Bihar, India’s most depressed and unruly state, for 15 years. His predecessor at the railways, Nitish Kumar, now leads Bihar. He may one day draw similar interest from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, for rarely has a failed state escaped political bankruptcy so fast.

With a population bigger than Germany’s, Bihar still suffers from potholed roads, indolent teachers, apathetic officials, insurgent Maoists, devastating floods, shortages of power, skewed landholdings, caste resentments and an income per head that is only 40 per cent of India’s as a whole. And yet, bad as that may sound, Bihar is far better today than it was in November 2005, when Mr Kumar came to power.

Today Bihar has pot-holes, where formerly it didn’t have roads. Businessmen grumble that they cannot raise money to invest in the state, whereas before they spirited their capital out of it. People complain that Mr Kumar’s government has fallen short of its ambitious development plans. But at least it has ambitions. Mr Yadav did not offer development. At best, he promised izzat, or self-respect, to downtrodden castes, who once voted as their landlords demanded, and later enjoyed picking someone their “superiors” could not abide.

How has Mr Kumar pulled off this transformation? He first imposed law and order, restoring the state to its role as night-watchman rather than rogue. He has put several gangsters — the sort of people who in the past became heroes — behind bars. He demanded speedy trials, where formerly defendants could intimidate witnesses and drag out proceedings. He has ensured that convicted criminals no longer get lucrative licences for liquor stores and ration shops, which sell subsidised food and fuel. And just as police reformers in America fixed broken windows, Mr Kumar’s police improved perceptions of safety by forcing Bihar’s many gun-owners to conceal their weapons, rather than brandishing them out of their cars.

People now feel confident enough to buy cars and go out after dark. The economy, always volatile, has grown at double-digit rates, on average, since he took power, partly thanks to funds from Delhi. He built over 2,400km of roads last year. In Bihar’s villages, posters advertising immunisation compete with adverts offering cheap mobile-phone calls.

Thanks. Now what?

The policies Mr Kumar has pursued so far have broad appeal. After the national elections in May 2009, a survey found that 88 per cent of people were at least somewhat satisfied with the state government’s work. His second act will be trickier. He has shied away from land reform, which is both fiendishly complex and deeply unnerving to the upper-caste landowners included in his coalition. And to overcome what one minister describes as a “crisis of implementation” — teachers who don’t teach, nurses who don’t nurse, roads built but not maintained, funds received but not spent — he will have to overcome the most obdurate caste of all: the local bureaucracy.

More than the floods that frequently test Bihar’s embankments, local officials fear the rising expectations of people who no longer meekly accept their lot in life. Their instinct is to contain the waters by discouraging such self-assertion. But it is only by giving people their say, by turning unmet need into a political demand, that the state apparatus will begin to do its job. Mr Kumar must win re-election before the year is out. The biggest risk to him may be the rising expectations of his constituents. But that is also the measure of his success.

UP and Bihar India's top two IAS churners

2010-02-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

Uttar Pradesh may still be reigning supreme as far as recruitment to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is concerned, but Bihar has emerged a not- so-surprising second, leaving civil services nurseries such as Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh far behind.

The latest personnel ministry figures for 4,443 IAS officers show that while 671 (15 per cent) of them are domiciled in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar contributes 419 (9.4 per cent) officers to the service.

Most of these bureaucrats are working outside their home states, and that is expected under the recruitment rules of the IAS, an all- India service.

Although the figures include names of state service officers promoted to the IAS towards the end of their tenure, the data convincingly shows that bureaucracy continues to be a major draw for the youth from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The total number of IAS officers in the country is more than 5,500.

Tamil Nadu ranks third with 290 officers, 129 less than Bihar, while Andhra Pradesh occupies the fourth slot with 269, followed by Delhi ( 233), Rajasthan (233), Punjab (228), Maharashtra (222), Haryana (158) and Madhya Pradesh (152).

" While Uttar Pradesh has always been on top, the swell in numbers from Bihar is mainly because of the absence of other career options in the state. In the underdeveloped Bihar, government service has always enjoyed a premium," a senior IAS officer from Bihar said.

" Bureaucracy, just as other top- notch competitive exams such as IIT- JEE, is an easy and legitimate way to gain social mobility and recognition in Bihar, a state which still carries remnants of its feudal past. Tamil Nadu has seen a rapid expansion of the private sector while youth in businessoriented Gujarat prefer nongovernment options quite early in their life," he added.

The observation is not off the mark because only 76 IAS officers are domiciled in a state such as Gujarat while ' tiny' Kerala has contributed By Ashish Sinha in New Delhi UP and India's top IAS churners 143 bureaucrats to the pack and the Left Front- ruled West Bengal accounts for only 117.

The Bengal youth used to opt for civil services in good numbers before Independence and the years immediately after, but the numbers have diminished over the years.

Besides the Hindi heartland, the sheen of the civil services has grown in other north Indian states as well. The number of IAS officers domiciled in agrarian states of Punjab and Haryana is 228 and 158. While a relatively larger Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh account for only 150 and 152 officers respectively.

Delhi is another interesting case. The number of IAS officers domiciled in the national capital is an impressive 233.

" This is expected because parents of a large number of aspiring civil servants are based in Delhi. Most of them are already in government service. Delhi also happens to be the education hub of the north," an official posted with the Union Public Service Commission said.

Experts say that 27 per cent reservation for the other backward classes ( OBCs), which was implemented in the early 1990s, has also made a qualitative difference to the recruitment trend. For instance, the number of OBC entrants to the civil services has been going up in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The benefit of reservation for the scheduled tribes ( STs) is more remarkable in Rajasthan, which has seen a good number of Meenas joining the IAS. Candidates from the North- East have also made good use of the ST quota. Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland have contributed more than 20 officers

Govt to promote ‘Bihar Gaurav’ with Oscar films

2010-01-31T16:55:00.000-08:00

PATNA: By common knowledge, improvisation has never been the part of normally stiff-necked bureaucrats when handling matters related to art and cultural affairs. For a change, however, the state government and its information and public relations department (IPRD) have shown resilience in their bid to sing songs of `Bihar Gaurav (Bihar Pride)’ under Nitish Kumar regime.

The IPRD has decided to go for packaging its propaganda products with an Oscar film. As it is, the IPRD, in collaboration with Cine Society, has come out with the project of screening `Bihar Gaurav (Bihar Pride)’ documentaries on the state by coupling it with the screening of an Oscar film every week in February. In fact, the month would be celebrated as Oscar Month.

In other words, it would be a combo show, when the audience would have the opportunity to watch a documentary on Bihar, and at the same time, subsequently they would also enjoy the screening of an Oscar film. The event would be held every Saturday in the auditorium of Lok Nayak Bhawan.

As a prelude to it, a show was organized on Sunday in which a department’s documentary titled `Bihar Gaurav Gaan’ was screened, followed by the screening of a Shyam Benegal directed film `The Making of the Mahatma’. IPRD minister Ramnath Thakur inaugurated it.

According to an IPRD communique, during the screening of Bihar Gaurav documentary and an Oscar film every Saturday in keeping with the month-long project, the department would not charge any fee. The audience, however, would get the entry into the Bhawan auditorium to occupy the seats on the first come first serve basis.

It is not the first time that the department has shown interest in cinema. Earlier, the department had organized week-long film-screening programme by coupling it with a course in film making, direction and cinema criticism.

This time, however, February as the Oscar Month has seemingly been conceived to also inject and infuse the sense of `Bihar pride’ among lucky viewers. An IPRD improvisation could really prove to be interesting for both the amateur and professional cine enthusiasts.

Bihar Special Court Bill approved by Centre: Nitish

2010-01-26T22:03:00.000-08:00

STAFF WRITER 15:10 HRS IST

Patna, Jan 26 (PTI) The Centre has approved the Bihar Special Court Bill 2008, aimed at weeding out corruption in public offices in the state, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said today.

"The Centre has given its assent to the bill which was passed by the state legislature and sent for approval in March 2009 after repeated reminders... I received an intimation that the Centre has now okayed it a couple of days ago," he said here.

Kumar said he had taken up the issue with Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily during his visit to New Delhi in October.

The bill empowers agencies probing corruption cases to confiscate assets of public servants if they are found to be disproportionate.

Kumar said he has decided to use the palatial buildings owned by corrupt public servants as schools.

'Bihar's factory output races to match India's pace'

2010-01-21T13:48:00.000-08:00

Laggard state of Bihar seems to have caught up with the rest of India as it clocked 14.80 per cent growth in factory output in 2007-08, marginally less than the country's rate of 15.24 per cent.

"Bihar is doing well," Ashish Kumar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) said releasing summary of Annual Survey of Industries 2007-08, the volume of which would be out within a month.

The survey conducted by Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) and National Sample Survey Organisation under MOSPI provides information on factories, and bidi and cigar units across India. State-wise details are expected in the volume.

"Bihar's total factory output was 14.80 per cent and total employees grew by 10.02 per cent in 2007-08 over 2006-07," Kumar said, adding that India's factory output during the year grew by 15.24 per cent.

Recently, Bihar had hit the headlines as a CSO data showed the state clocking an astonishing 11.03 per cent growth per year during 2004-05 and 2008-09 second only to Gujarat at 11.05 per cent, when the country grew at 8.49 per cent.

According to the ASI 2007-08, the highest number of working factories was in Tamil Nadu (14.37 per cent) followed by Maharashtra (12.50 per cent).

Maharashtra had the highest invested capital at 16.78 per cent followed by Gujarat at 16.37 per cent and Tamil Nadu at 10.12 per cent, it said

Has India's poorest state turned the corner?

2010-01-16T19:33:00.000-08:00

By Amarnath Tewary

BBC News, Patna

Has India's poorest and most lawless state turned the corner?

If you believe the government of the northern state of Bihar, the answer appears to be in the affirmative.

According to it, Bihar clocked up a giddy growth rate of 11.03% in 2008-2009.

This would make it India's second fastest growing state economy, just behind the industrially-developed western state of Gujarat.

Not so long ago, Bihar was written off as a basket case, trailing behind every other Indian state.

Its infrastructure was shambolic, jobs had disappeared, factories had shut down, lawlessness was rife and the government was in limbo.

Many believe that with a change of regime four years ago - regional leader Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) leads a coalition government with the Hindu nationalist BJP - Bihar's fortunes have picked up.

Even if this is an exaggeration, there are definite signs of the economy turning the corner.

Revival signs

Consider this:

• The government plans to spend $3.5bn during 2009-2010, up from $327m in 2001-2002

• Revenue accruals have climbed to $1.1bn, up from $649m in 2003-2004

• Government spending on infrastructure and "social development" has been pegged at $444m every year

• Use of cement in the state has grown 28% in the last four years against the national average of 9%, pointing to increased construction work

• There has been a 78% growth in air traffic in and out of the state during the same period, the fourth-highest in India.

• Automobile sales in the state have recorded a whopping 700% growth.

• More than 6,800km (4,225 miles) of roads have been rebuilt and 1,600 bridges and culverts have been constructed

• The State Investment Promotion Board claims to have received proposals worth $20b from industrialists. But it is not clear how many of these proposals will be implemented

The government says it is working overtime to tame Bihar's runaway crime rate - nearly 40,000 criminals, it says, have been convicted in the last four years.

'Abysmally low'

"All this proves that there has been all round growth and development," says Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

"Bihar is back on track."

But many doubt these claims.

"These figures are too good to be true," says economist Nawal Kishore Chaudhury, who teaches at Patna University.

He wonders how the state could have recorded double digit growth when last year's economic survey - a federal government publication - showed that the growth rate was just 5%.

Nitish Kumar's government has increased public spending Photo: Prashant Ravi

Also, last year's economic survey said that Bihar had recorded negative growth in the farm sector.

At $32, per capita social spending remains one of the lowest in the country.

Most economists do however agree that the Keynesian nature of growth in Bihar - most of it spurred by government - has led to increased spending in construction.

Also, the savings rate remains pretty high - Patna alone has $5.2bn in bank deposits, which is higher than many prosperous small cities in India.

"Since Bihar's development base is abysmally low, even a small investment here results in impressive growth in percentage terms," says social scientist Shaibal Gupta.

Mapping Bihar's big recovery: One-off or sustainable?

2010-01-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

Year 2010 opened on good news of a kind that few of us were expecting. Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) data showed that in the last five years, Bihar clocked a growth rate of a little over 11%. It was second only to Gujarat albeit on a smaller base and also many of the formerly referred to as Bimaru states such as Orissa and Rajasthan have also posted good growth numbers though not as good as Bihar.

Does this data indicate a change in fortunes of Bihar?

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, NK Singh, former member of Planning Commission and currently Rajya Sabha Member from Janta Dal (U) and Arjun Sengupta, former member of PM's Economic Advisory Panel and currently Member of Parliament debate whether this was a one-off for Bihar or is the growth really sustainable.

Below is a verbatim transcript of the interview.

Q: Were you surprised at the numbers you saw with regards to Bihar’s growth rate for the last five years or were you expecting this considering that it comes on a pretty small base in that sense in comparison to other states? Do you believe that it is a turn in the fortunes of Bihar?

Sengupta: I must say that the numbers as they appeared were rather difficult to believe but I have a strong belief in the Indian statistical system. So I would rather go by attempts to explain these numbers then by just saying that these numbers are not correct. The reason why one can feel that there must be something wrong in these numbers is a sudden jump. For example in the case of agriculture, it gives a rate of growth of 7.5% over the five years, which is substantially higher than most other places.

In industry it moves from a negative figure to about 22% figure and the construction figure is 45%. It’s a very large number. These are rather implausible but not impossible. It is not something you should say that it can never happen but the most important thing is that if these numbers are true, then definitely we have reached a new phase of our economic development because these are the poorest states. These are the most backward states. Bihar is first in them then Jharkhand, Orissa – all of them have shown remarkable improvement according to these numbers.

So I would love to believe them. I would love to see that these numbers now indicate that we are moving into a new era but I would say all these things with a bit of caution that maybe they are not quite correct but let us try to understand.

Q: What is your response to that?

Singh: Arjunda is being cautious but he has also conceded that as far as the Indian statistical system is concerned, they are fairly robust, methodology is employed. These numbers of course came at a very pleasant surprise to me personally because when I was the Deputy Chairman of Bihar State Planning Board and I was finalizing the Bihar’s 11th Five Year Plan, I was hoping that towards the last year’s plan, we would be able to achieve somewhere between 8-9%, which will enable Bihar’s growth rate to try and mirror what the national averages are and therefore I was also pleasantly surprised that not only have we achieved that, we have surpassed the target, which Bihar had laid for itself in the 11th Five Year Plan clocking 11.03%.

But I am not surprised at another level because I realized that apart from the low base – no doubt from where we have started – improved governance factors, improved security scenario and improved climate overall in terms of fostering gainful economic activity the trigger with which it has happened, in terms of construction which Arjunda rightly pointed out has registered a very high rate of growth. The road building activity in terms of what we have done by facilitating a better regulatory framework for the urban sector.

Of course on the agriculture sector, I think also the Nitish’s special effort in an agricultural action plan which tends to improve agricultural productivity with a very robust seed replacement programme and what he calls rainbow agriculture, which given the adverse land bank ratio in Bihar in fragmentation of land holding, the emphasis on farmers pursuing agriculture along with elide activities, horticulture, fisheries, dairies and so on improves farm incomes very significantly.

So I can see a conciliation of factors ranging from improved security scenario, to improve regulatory framework, laws and policy of fostering development centric but socially cohesive policy with which I think seem to have been benefited from.

Cabinet meet on floating restaurant, now

2010-01-12T13:42:00.001-08:00

PATNA: Now floating restaurant on the Ganga would be the venue of cabinet meeting on Makar Sankranti day. Special Bihari delicacies would be served to nearly 200 guests, including ministers, bureaucrats and mediapersons, on Thursday noon.

It would be held on the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation’s (BSTDC) 48-seater AC floating restaurant — MV Ganga Vihar. CM Nitish had launched city’s lone floating restaurant on the Ganga on July 20 last year. It has now become a major tourist attraction in the city.

The BSTDC has been entrusted with the task of serving delicacies like Gaya’s famous `tilkut’, `lai’, yoghurt and fried green `chana’ and `chura’ to the VVIPs attending the cabinet meet on the day.

“Besides, we have also made arrangements for light snacks, `bhoonja’, sweet (dry), juice, tea and coffee on the vessel for the VVIPs during the two-hour meeting,” said an official.

The government has already booked it for the cabinet meeting mainly to boost tourism in the state. The entire cabinet, including the CM, and around 200 VVIPs, including senior bureaucrats, would spend nearly two hours on the vessel.

“The vessel carrying VVIPs would sail up to the Collectorate Ghat and then take turn for downstream journey to Gandhi Setu from where it will return back and be anchored at Bankipore Club Ghat,” said BSTDC deputy GM Navin Kumar.

Tourist department officials are making final arrangements, including cordless mikes, proper lighting arrangements and genset. The Patna district administration has made adequate security arrangements for the VVIPs.

All the VVIP dignitaries would park their vehicles at the Bankipore Club parking slot. They will board the vessel from the ghat itself on Thursday at around 1.30 pm.

Earlier, two cabinet meetings were held outside the state capital. The last was held at Ratnagiri hill at Rajgir in Nalanda district on December 29 last. Nitish had chosen Rajgir’s famous world peace pagoda as the destination for his cabinet meeting for decade’s last cabinet meet.

On February 10 last year, two-hour long cabinet meeting was held at a huge `pandal’ at the remote Barbighi village, 18 km from Begusarai and 140 km from Patna.

The meeting, which was chaired by Nitish, assumed significance as it was perhaps the first of its kind in the hinterland. Almost all ministers and top `babus’ along with an army of secretariat staff were present at the meeting. They were ferried from Patna in the morning in luxury buses of the BSTDC.

Nitish Kumar: Bihar's change agent charms all

2010-01-11T20:02:00.000-08:00

Change you can believe in. That was the crisp one-line message that Bihar’s turnaround chief minister Nitish Kumar sent across to the audience, Nitish Kumar, CM, Bihar

seeking the same backing from corporate chieftains assembled there as much as from the ET jury that chose him for the Business Reformer of the Year accolade.

A minute into his speech, Mr Kumar had the audience in splits. “Bad governance was never Bihar’s problem. The problem was no governance,” he said. The allusion to his mercurial predecessor was in response to the introduction given by the awards ceremony compere Dina Vakil. She had a narrative that illustrated the new change in Bihar: a visiting Japanese delegation told the then CM Laloo Yadav that they could change Bihar into Japan in two weeks. Mr Yadav is believed to have retorted: “Give me Japan, I will turn it into Bihar in one week!”

But that’s all history now, and ‘Badland’ is no more a prefix to Bihar. “Around the world, the perception about India is changing. And across India, the perception about Bihar is changing,” the chief minister said.

Bihar under him has now become next only to Gujarat among the fastest-growing states in the country — it has achieved a stunning 11.3% growth in 2008-09. That being feted in high-profile gatherings is not the culmination of his development and growth blueprint for Bihar was made amply clear by the CM in his acceptance speech, although the progress of his efforts is clear.

Outlining the challenges he faced on the road to this milestone, Mr Kumar, once perceived by the political fraternity as the unlikeliest to succeed in turning around the state mired in class and caste problems, pointed to a basic change in government offices: old and dysfunctional Remington typewriters. He inherited these when he took office, but there have been now replaced by computers that are being used to strengthen e-governance across the state.

“I cannot justify this award to the people of Bihar without backing it up with new investments,” Mr Kumar said to an applauding audience. That the state would need the Centre’s help was also emphasised by the CM. Turning to FM Pranab Mukherjee, Nitish Kumar asserted that to ensure Bihar wouldn’t have to look back, the Centre needed to pay special attention. “We have proved that Bihar can be governed. The rest is up to Pranabda,” Nitish said with a wink, as the finance minister smiled approvingly.

Smooth drive: Bihar roads ‘to show the way’

2010-01-11T09:20:00.000-08:00

PATNA: Once mocked for bad roads, Bihar is winning praises now. The state will make a presentation on the implementation of a road project at

Tripartite Project Review Meeting (TPRM) in Mumbai on February 19.

The meeting is to review the performance of Bihar Road Construction Corporation, aided by Asian Development Bank. ‘‘Bihar will show the way,’’ said BRCC MD Pratyay Amrit. The corporation, a newly-established state government undertaking, is executing ADB’s road projects.

BRCC got a letter from the department of economic affairs, ministry of finance, on December 23, applauding the progress made in construction of roads under ADB projects. The letter, signed by under-secretary Mohandasan P, noted that the state undertaking was the best performing one in India for its innovations and new techniques. The letter asked BRCC to make a presentation at TPRM, which will be attended by ADB officials as well as representatives of the Centre and various state governments.

Bihar has taken a $ 420 million loan for construction of the 820-km road, known as Bihar State Highway Roads Phase I Project. The loan was disbursed in December 2008 and the project has to be completed by December 2011.‘‘Already, 20% of the work is complete and we are sure of completing the rest within the stipulated time,’’ said Amrit. Encouraged by its own progress, the state has sought another $500 million from ADB for Phase II.

According to road construction department sources, around 50% of over 13,000 km of district roads, state highways and national highways have been upgraded. The district roads are around 8,000 km long, followed by 2,035 km state highways and about 3,000 km national highways.

A major part of the work is likely to be completed this year. As a result of improved roads, the transport business is thriving. Number of people using buses, private cars/SUVs, taxis and two-wheelers has increased substantially.

Nitish dedicates Biz Reformer Award to people of Bihar

2010-01-11T07:47:00.001-08:00

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday dedicated the 'Business Reformer Award' conferred on him by the 'Economic Times' in Mumbai to the people of Bihar.

"Its not my personal achievement...The credit goes to the people of Bihar, my cabinet colleagues, the bureaucracy and all those who contributed in the forward march of the state," Kumar told reporters after holding his 'Janata darbar'.

Reminding Bihar had registered a negative 5.5 per cent growth rate during 2003-04 with the plan outlay a meagre Rs 2,500 crore, Kumar said "today we have managed to increase the plan outlay to Rs 16,000 crore by judicious investments and taking up infrastructure development work."

Recalling the moment of his getting the honour at yesterday's function, Kumar said "after receiving the award from Union Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, I used the platform to invite the corporate honchos to invest in Bihar in a big way as there cannot be inclusive growth of the country unless the state catches with the rest."

I assured the top industrialists of total security and told them that their investments will be safe as the government has taken a number of policy decisions to provide tax concessions and other benefits to possible investors.

Kumar charged the Centre of not giving clearance to produce ethanol for sugar cane juice and not providing coal linkages to the thermal power thereby blocking investments worth over rupees several thousand crores.

Pay Committee Submits Report on 6th Wage Commission

2010-01-10T20:52:00.001-08:00

Home Secretary Amir Subhani on Monday presented Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi a report prepared by the Pay Committee that would determine the government's decision in implementing the 6th Wage Commission.

The Nitish administration is expected to mull over the report at the upcoming Cabinet meet in Rajgir at the end of this month.

Sources said all indications pointed to a 'New Year Gift' by the state government to the people of Bihar.

The Pay Committee was formed a year ago. Led by Chief Secretary Shubhkirti Majumdar, the Committee also included Bihar Development Commissioner and the Secretary of Finance.

Modi said the government would carefully study the committee report and take proper steps to implement the recommendations made in it.

Nitish Kumar Steals the Show at ET Awards 2009

2010-01-10T20:47:00.001-08:00

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was awarded the Economic Times Business Reformer of the Year for 2009 at the award function held yesterday.

Bihar, always considered backward, benighted and hopeless, saw Lady Luck smiling on it when Janata Dal (United)-BJP alliance headed by Mr. Kumar came to power in 2005. Ever since donning the thorny crown, Mr. Kumar started systematically revamping and rebuilding the state, ably supported by a set of sincere officers.

At the time of election, Mr. Kumar was hailed as the last hope for Bihar, ravaged by the 15-year long rule of Lalu Prasad Yadav. Lawlessness was the biggest issue in those days. Mr. Kumar has managed to achieve the impossible – turning around law and order of the state and thereby its economy.

Bihar’s economic growth for the last five years came a close second to Gujarat, touted as India’s economic wonderland. The consistency of growth displayed by the state makes it nothing short of a miracle.

Mr. Kumar has embarked on the right path to bring the state back to its glorious old days. He started with infrastructure – almost 7,000kms of road repaired, above 1,500 bridges (259 major ones) built in four years. This has shortened the traveling time by almost half.

Another coup for Mr. Kumar is the containment of kidnapping ‘industry’ by putting the state’s notorious dons behind bars. The number of reported kidnapping has come down dramatically.

Bihar is attaining an atmosphere of normalcy with more banks, malls, mobile service providers and private educational institutions opening shop. Automobile sales surged at an amazing rate of 45%.

However, despite the astounding growth rate, the social indicators have remained pathetic and unchanged. Four years is too short a period for this to happen. When the basics are set right and strengthened, let us hope that the rest will eventually follow.

Tags: Astounding Growth, Automobile Sales, Bihar, Bjp, Chief Minister, Economic Times, Gujarat, Lady Luck, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Last Hope, Law And Order, Lawlessness, Mobile Service Providers, Normalcy, Nothing Short Of A Miracle, Private Educational Institutions, Reformer, Social Indicators, Thorny Crown, Times Business

Nitish Kumar Steals the Show at ET Awards 2009

2010-01-10T20:47:00.000-08:00

Bihar, a growth story

2010-01-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

Roads “as smooth as Hema Malini’s cheeks” was a promise that Lalu Yadav had once given to the people of Bihar. Ironically, it is his rival Nitish

Kumar who seems to be delivering on that front. Despite three years of floods followed by a year of drought, ‘backward and benighted’ Bihar reports a miraculous figure: 11% GDP growth, second only to Gujarat. The state’s economy has never grown so fast so consistently as it has since 2004-2005. A few pointers on what’s going right in Bihar:

* Getting anywhere in Bihar has always been an exercise in endurance. But that’s changing. More than 6,800 km of roads have been relaid and 1,600 bridges and culverts constructed in the last four years. Journey time in India’s 12th largest state, sprawling over 94,163 sq km, has been cut by half today in many places. Now, most of the state’s 38 districts — from northernmost West Champaran to Kaimur on the western end — are a drive of six hours or less from Patna.

* Automobile sales in the state grew 45% in 2009, at a time when sales had dipped 20-25% in several other states during the economic slowdown. Is this buying spree an indication that a section of Biharis have more money to splurge than they did earlier? “A few people had money earlier too, but they didn’t flaunt it for fear of attracting extortionists and kidnappers,” says Ranjit Singh, director of a high-end Patna hotel. That fear may have evaporated now.

Only 317 kidnappings for ransom were reported during the last four years as against 1,393 during the previous four. The kidnapping industry has clearly fallen on hard times. One indication of this is that doctors no longer refuse to go to patients’ homes on emergency calls. “Today you can see boards at clinics saying we go on calls,” says Dr Amulya Kumar Singh, who runs a nursing home in Patna.

* Most of Bihar’s infamous dons are behind bars. That includes Mohd Shahabuddin, the former RJD MP who had once gone live on TV, daring the state police chief to arrest him. Things are a little different now. A ruling JD(U) MLA, Sunil Pandey, attempted an encore of sorts in early 2006 when he brandished a revolver and talked murder on TV. But Pandey found himself behind bars within no time. Speedy trials have ensured a total of 38,824 convictions between 2006 and September 2009.The convicts included dons and their henchmen.

* Gun-toting strongmen are no longer a common sight on the streets of Bihar. Policemen patrol them now. And places like Siwan, where Shahabuddin once held sway, do not get deserted after dusk.

This improvement has shown results. Malls, shops and private educational institutions are coming up. So are mobile service providers and banking firms. It’s boom time for real estate with apartment buildings coming up all around. “That’s because even non-Biharis for a change want to have a foot in Bihar which has become a better place to live in,” says economist Shaibal Gupta of the Asian Development Research Institute. Adds Faizal Alam of Kalyanpur Cements, “Cement inflow to the state went up 18% to 51 lakh tonnes in 2008-09.” That’s an indicator of the construction boom.

Ironically, this economic growth has happened without any worthwhile contribution from the manufacturing sector. The state’s economy is growing because of a boom in agriculture and services sectors. “It’s government-induced growth,” admits Bihar Industries Association (BIA) president S P Sinha. According to former BIA president K P S Keshri, private investments in the manufacturing sector have been as little as Rs 1,500 crore during the last four years.

Many attribute the growth to the fact that the flow of Central funds to states has increased manifold in recent years. In the case of Bihar, it went up from Rs 37,341 crore during the five-year period 2000-2005 to Rs 55,459 crore during the next three years. But equally importantly, the funds are now getting better utilized than during the Lalu-Rabri regime when large chunks remained unspent. Also, adds Gupta, the state made concerted efforts to mobilise internal resources with its own revenue collection going up from Rs 2,919 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 5,256 crore in 2008-09.

The flip side is that much of this growth does not get reflected in social indicators which remain abysmal. But, as Gupta says, it would be unrealistic for anyone to “expect the moon” at this stage. “Right now the fundamentals are getting corrected and therefore you can find mostly infrastructural indicators of growth; one will have to wait for social indicators to become visible,” he says.

While contractors and realtors stand to gain, more than half the state’s 8.2 crore people — 1.25 crore families — still live below the poverty line. For these families to prosper, Bihar desperately needs huge investments and more growth. The State Investment Promotion Board, formed by the Nitish government, has received proposals worth Rs 96,000 crore. But most of them, especially the major ones, remain on paper as Central rules prove a stumbling block. For instance, thermal power plants cannot come up in Bihar because the Centre has so far refused to provide coal linkages to ensure regular supplies to any such new plant.

Also, Bihar has a lot of catching up to do with the rest of India. “There cannot be any comparison between Gujarat and Bihar, both of which reportedly grew by over 11%; since our base is low, even a small investment results in impressive growth in percentage,” Gupta points out. State officials admit that crucial sectors like health are still sick with meagre resources in comparison to other states.

From its bleak past, Bihar may be finally moving towards a brighter future, but the common Bihari is not patting himself just yet. Maybe he is still waiting for this high growth to translate into better food on his table and more money in his pocket.

Nitish asks India Inc to invest in Bihar; assures them safety

2010-01-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

MUMBAI: Assuring India Inc of full safety, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday invited corporate honchos to invest in the state as there can
be no inclusive growth unless the state catches up with the rest of the nation.

"I can assure you that you will be safe there (in Bihar)...you will return safely from Bihar and would love to visit Bihar again and again," he said after receiving the Economic Times' Business Reformer of the Year Award from Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

umar said things are changing and that there are no worries about the law and order situation in the state. Without naming his predecessor Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, Kumar said, there was absence of governance in the state before he took over as Chief Minster in November 2005.

Bihar has never been the case of bad governance. It was actually the case of absence of governance. Now governance is visible," he added.

According to the recent Central Statistical Organisation estimates, Bihar emerged as the fastest growing state in the country clocking a rate of over 11 per cent during 2008-09.

Pride and Prejudice

2010-01-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

Who carries you on a rickshaw or an autorickshaw in Delhi? Biharis. Who drives the cars of Delhiites? Biharis. Who built the Delhi Metro? Biharis.

Who is building the new houses and the expanding suburbs of Delhi? Biharis. Who made Punjab the most prosperous state in the country? The answer again is Biharis. (Here too you may not agree.)

The credit for building the Delhi Metro or making Punjab prosperous will never go to Biharis. Does anyone ever say that blacks built America?

In colonial days, Bihar supplied the "girmitiya", or indentured, labour force that built countries like Mauritius, Suriname and Fiji. A bulk of the labour employed in the Raj capital of Calcutta came from Bihar. After Independence, as opportunities grew, Bihari workers flocked to places like Delhi, Punjab and Mumbai.

At the same time, Biharis excelled in other fields. Many of them became great political leaders, ICS and IAS
officers, scientists, doctors, engineers, writers and artists. Delhi and other Indian cities attracted huge white-collar Bihari populations and Biharis formed a large part of the Indian diaspora of professionals.

But in the eyes of the rest of India, "Bihari" had come to mean a labourer, a person doing menial jobs. It had become a term of scorn and contempt. In their anglicized lingo, places like Delhi University turned the word into "Harry", but the pejorative tone remained unmistakable.

Heaping scorn on the working classes is a universal phenomenon. That is how words like Negro, Paki (used for Pakistanis and Indians in Britain) and some of the words denoting dalit castes in India earned contemptuous connotations.

In fact, while Biharis were getting their hands dirty on Punjab's farms, Punjabis were migrating in hordes to the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Never mind that they would take up blue-collar jobs as taxi drivers, petrol pump attendants and waiters in those faraway lands.

As the years passed, many of the Biharis who had come to Punjab or Mumbai as manual labourers started moving up the economic ladder as did the blue-collar Indian emigrants abroad. A usually unnoticed aspect of the so-called racial attacks against Indians abroad is the threat the rise of working classes poses to the entrenched social order. This accentuates the contempt they face. Viewed thus, the attacks on Biharis in Punjab, and Mumbai, and the attacks on Indians abroad are manifestations of the same phenomenon.

What stopped Biharis from bringing about a green revolution or building a Metro in Bihar? The answer is geography and history. Geography, because ravaged by floods, the land of Bihar was unable to feed its growing population. And history, because what was the centre of the biggest Indian empire in ancient times was reduced to an obscure provincial existence. The skewed landownership system introduced by the British rulers worsened the situation.

It is a story of a couple of hundred years. Things could have improved after Independence had the political leadership of Bihar been able to exert influence on the rulers in New Delhi to get enough funds for development projects and set off a process of industrialization in the state.

On the contrary, Bihar continued to live the same, conveniently ignored, provincial existence. A system built on casteism, nepotism, corruption and crime came to dominate the state. It spawned a neo-rich class of netas, babus, contractors and government engineers who would build palatial houses for themselves with the money meant for dams, power projects, ration for the poor or even fodder for cattle.

The money meant for roads, other infrastructure and public amenities would go into their bank accounts. No wonder, the roads - supposed to be built with public money - in front of those houses would be full of ditches and become the playground of pigs every monsoon.

With limited options of higher education and hardly any employment opportunities in the state, the youth of Bihar started looking out. They flooded places like Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. They started dominating the country's toughest competitive tests like the IIT Joint Entrance Examination and the UPSC's civil services examination. With this success, Biharis started believing that they were the brainiest. As for others, they at least began to acknowledge that Biharis were inferior to none when it came to brainpower.

The academic success, however, did not do much to rid the word "Bihari" of the scorn it had gathered. People in Delhi continued to laugh at those who spoke with a Bihari accent. Those who spoke without an accent would get this compliment: "Oh, you are from Bihar? But you don't sound like a Bihari."

Biharis, meanwhile, were retreating into a shell, with little but the glory of ancient and medieval heroes like Buddha, Mahavira, Chandragupta, Chanakya, Ashoka, Aryabhatta, Guru Gobind Singh and Sher Shah to bask in. Now comes 11% growth. The state can recover from the damage it has suffered over hundreds of years only if such a high rate of growth can be sustained for many, many years. Then Biharis would not have to till others' land or build cities and countries elsewhere.

The writer is proud to be a Bihari.

Bihar student murder: SI's role to be investigated

2009-12-11T18:42:00.000-08:00

The special cell of Delhi Police has said they will investigate the role of the SI whose family has been arrested for murdering a 23-year-old

student from Bihar. "We are investigating the role of the SI before we arrive at final conclusions," said Alok Kumar, DCP, special cell.
Twenty-three-year-old Shazia Urus from Betia in Bihar had come to Delhi to pursue a course in aviation. She was found dead by the Rajasthan police some time ago, though they could not establish her identity.

It was at the Delhi police commissioner's direction that the special cell took up the case and finally stitched the murder mystery together.

On Tuesday, the special cell arrested Raj Rani, her son Lalit Sharma and her nephew Narendra Sharma for allegedly murdering Shazia Urus, who had gone missing on September 26 this year from her rented home in Nangloi, close to her aviation institute.

"It all started after Urus had an argument with her landlord. The police were called to solve the case. Urus came in contact with SI Rajender Sharma (50), who was the investigating officer in her case. He was posted at the Nangloi police station at the time. Raj Rani is his wife," said a senior investigating officer.

Police said after her first meeting with SI Sharma, Urus got friendly with him. Sharma had reportedly promised to get her a job with Delhi Police and had even made her fill out some forms. His wife didn't like the association between the two and reportedly had an argument with Urus.

"Sharma's wife asked the landlord to throw Urus out of the house. Her nephew Narendra then persuaded Urus to stay at a paying guest (PG) accommodation in Rohini," added the officer.

Later, Sharma's family came to Urus's PG and apologized to her, police said. They then asked her to join them on a trip to Rajasthan. "We suspect Urus was killed in Rohini and her body was later dumped in Rajasthan to mislead the police," said the officer.

Sharma has been transferred to the security wing of Delhi Police and investigators are ascertaining his role in the crime

BPL population of Bihar 55%, says report

2009-12-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

PATNA: The Tendulkar report, submitted to the Planning Commission puts the percentage of population below poverty line (BPL) at 55% and not 43% as

Chief minister Nitish Kumar feels vindicated and appears to be in "I told you so" mood. "The actual BPL population in Bihar would be around 75% as the N C Saxena report suggests. We held an international seminar on poverty in which internationally renowned economists took part. We have sent its proceedings to the Centre. Ever since we came to power, we have been maintaining that the yardsticks used to identify BPL families is not for identification of poor but of a daridra (pauper)," he said.

Nitish said the Tendulkar Committee report had vindicated his stand to a large extent. "It proves that the planners for poverty eradication in Delhi live in a make-believe world and give imaginary figures about the BPL population. In the draft food security Bill, the BPL population in Bihar has been reduced. I have written to the Centre that since they decide the yardsticks for BPL, they should also take up the job of identifying BPL families. The Centre takes credit for poverty eradication schemes but sends funds in accordance with the numbers decided by itself even as there is a hue and cry over the non-inclusion of people in the BPL list in Bihar. The state government gets discredited."

A war of attrition has been going on between the state and the Centre over the BPL population. The Centre puts the figure at 65 lakh families while the state insists that the actual figure is 1.23 crore and likely to touch 1.5 crore. The Centre has been allocating foodgrain, kerosene and funds to Bihar on the basis of its estimate of 65 lakh BPL families.

The Tendulkar Experts Committee, constituted to devise a new methodology for identification of BPL families, has done away with the old system of 13 points given for consumption of food, possession of TV, raido, clothes and other items. It has concentrated on the monthly expenditure of a household. According to its report, the per capita expenditure in rural Bihar is Rs 433.42 per month and urban area Rs 526.18. The BPL population in rural Bihar is 55.7% and 43% in urban Bihar. Only Orissa at 60% rural BPL population has more.

Economists and social activists appear to agree with Nitish's perception. "If 10.9% of the BPL population of the country is living in Bihar, then it should be allocated funds for poverty eradication schemes in that ratio. But it is not so. It is just getting 4.9% of the funds earmarked for NREGA," said Promod Kumar Singh, state convener of Hunger Free Campaign in Bihar.

Civil society turns election watchdog

2009-02-27T17:33:00.000-08:00

28 Feb 2009

HYDERABAD: It was Mikhail Gorbachev who brought in ‘perestroika’ to restructure and reform the erstwhile Soviet Union in the mid-80s. A similar
trend is catching on in Andhra Pradesh to cleanse the electoral system that could define the very outcome of the coming elections. Heading the poll perestroika brigade are veteran election officials and top bureaucrats like J M Lyngdoh, K J Rao, E A S Sarma, Prof Trilochan Sastri, Justice Ambati Laxman Rao, B P R Vittal and K R Venugopal, who believe strengthening of the democratic foundation is possible only through greater accountability and transparency in the electoral process. But what’s the provocation to step in as an election watchdog this time round? Apparently experts see Rayalaseema as a major trouble spot in this year’s election. “The situation in the region could be as bad as in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh,” an analyst averred. Former CEC Lyngdoh has already sounded the warning bugle that Rayalaseema constituencies are an area of concern that need a close watch. Ironically, Rayalaseema is the hotbed from where the heavy weights in the AP political arena - Rajasekhara Reddy, Chandrababu Naidu and Chiranjeevi - will be in the fray. So what does one do to stem the rot? Though Lok Satta had initiated the process to raise awareness on poll-related irregularities, its efforts petered out once it became a full-fledged party. This is when the state-level forum, ‘Ennikala Nigha Vedika’ (ENV) stepped in. A conglomeration of various NGOs like Samatha, Forum for a Better Visakha (FBV), Forum for a Better Hyderabad (FBH), intellectuals, ex-bureaucrats, scientists and concerned citizens, ENV will act as a means to enforce civilian involvement in the electoral process. “This watchdog role is aimed at improving the quality of elections and its conduct,” a spokesman of ENV said. Not only in Rayalaseema, ENV is set to reach out to all regions in the state with the participation of locals. “An election watch forum has been floated at Bapatla in Guntur district with an objective to educate and empower voters,” its convener P C Sai Babu said. EAS Sarma, former Union power secretary, stresses the need to set up a system to ensure that the election machinery for the coming elections functions impartially and to see that the elections for the Assembly and Parliament are conducted in the best traditions of a healthy democracy. The FBV, for which he is the conveyor, is holding a meeting in Vizag to discuss the issues of ‘election watch’ in the region with NGOs and RTI activists. Welcoming the civic society’s initiative to keep a watch on the conduct of elections, former secretary to Election Commission K J Rao said people should join the movement in a big way. “Distribution of liquor by candidates on the eve of elections is a menace in the state. This can be curbed only when the people are vigilant and the official machinery is impartial,” he observed. Deploying electoral officials from outside is the only way out, opined Rao, who has earned a name for himself for the smooth conduct of Bihar polls. Experts said not only do voters have the right to know the educational, financial and criminal background of the candidates contesting the elections, but they also have a right to reject a candidate. “If the voters feel that no candidate in the fray is fair, he can go to the polling station and inform the presiding officer that he is not interested in voting for anybody,” Sarma said. This right was given to the voter under Section 49(O) of Election Rules-1969. “If the number of these rejected votes are more than the votes polled by any candidate, then the election gets cancelled,” he said. Rao said their effort is to ensure that the elections are conducted in a spirit of inclusiveness and fairness. It remains to be seen whether the ENV exercise would be a flash in the pan or it would work for the society’s good.

Stone laid for Bihar centre for disabled

2009-02-27T17:28:00.000-08:00

28 Feb 2009

PATNA: Union minister for social justice and empowerment Meira Kumar and CM Nitish Kumar jointly laid the foundation stone
of a Composite
Rehabilitation Centre (CRC) for the physically challenged, here on Friday. "It will be a boon for persons with disabilities," Nitish said while speaking at the function. He, however, urged the Centre to allocate funds so that construction work could start at the earliest. The Union minister did not disappoint the CM. While thanking the state government for allocating land for the CRC, she said a sum of Rs 6 crore has already been allocated and the construction work would start soon. "We have also sanctioned 19 posts for the CRC-Patna and in order to ensure that people of this state are not deprived of the services of the composite centre till the building is completed, we have decided to run the CRC from a makeshift building," she said. Earlier speaking at the function Ashish Kumar, deputy director general (DDG) in Union ministry of social justice and empowerment, spoke at length about the purpose of opening the centre. Bihar is the sixth state after Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, UP, Madhya Pradesh and Assam to have such a centre where people with disabilities would get composite service under one roof. The Patna centre would also have facilities to train people who would be used for imparting skill-development training to people with disabilities. Chief commissioner for persons with disabilities, Dr Manoj Kumar, and Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Scienees
(IGIMS) director Dr Arun Kumar also spoke at the function. The proposed centre would come up on a 3.3-acre plot which is located on the IGIMS premises. The stone-laying function was followed by inauguration of the CRC in the makeshift building, the Red Cross building, near the Gandhi Maidan.

QuestNet & RYTHM Foundation Supports UNICEF in Bihar, India

2009-02-27T17:25:00.000-08:00

The affect of devastating floods in 2008 in North Bihar (India) are still being felt today, almost six-months after flood waters ravaged the districts of Supaul, Saharsa, Araria, Madhepura and Purnia.

Bihar, India (PRWEB) February 27, 2009 -- The affect of devastating floods in 2008 in North Bihar (India) are still being felt today, almost six-months after flood waters ravaged the districts of Supaul, Saharsa, Araria, Madhepura and Purnia.
RYTHM Foundation Trustee Mr Bernhard H. Mayer presents the cheque on behalf of QuestNet and RYTHM to Unicef and the children of Bihar
The resulting devastation led to the displacement of over 2.5 million people, as well as damage or destruction of essential infrastructure like roads, bridges, water supply systems and schools. UNICEF, in view of the scale of the floods and over stretched national and state capacities, has been supporting the Government of Bihar and other civil bodies in emergency relief efforts and the rehabilitation of the affected populace in an attempt to restore stability to the affected region. In keeping with its commitment to the flood-affected people, especially those living in marooned and/or difficult to access areas, UNICEF has made rehabilitation of flood-affected people a priority. UNICEF programmes, like Water and Sanitation, Child Protection, Child Development & Nutrition, HIV, Education, Health, Programme Communications and Advocacy & Partnerships are working in partnership with the Government of Bihar and other donors to rehabilitate people, especially those in marooned still flooded areas.
QuestNet and its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm RYTHM Foundation was established in 2005 to support the companies commitment to disaster mitigation, improving conditions for children, poverty elimination and a better environment across the globe. A shared concern for children, especially in the light of mass flooding in North Bihar, brings QuestNet, RYTHM and UNICEF to a shared common platform to support rehabilitation in the state.
RYTHM Foundation Trustee Mr Bernhard H. Mayer met with representatives of UNICEF Bihar office on Tuesday, 17 February 2009, to officially present a USD 30,000 donation to UNICEF in support of their various flood-related emergency programmes in the affected districts.
The cheque was presented by Mr Mayer in a simple ceremony to Mr Bijaya Rajbhandari, Chief, UNICEF Field Office, Patna.
Both Mr Mayer and Mr Rajbhandari also discussed potential future co-operations between the organisations in working towards similar relief and support programmes in the troubled state.

Lalu gifts Bihar 36,500 km rural roads

2009-02-27T17:22:00.000-08:00

Patna: Feb 27, 2009

With the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections expected any time, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad gifted Bihar 36,500 km of rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY).
Standing amidst hundreds of shiny black granite plaques detailing projects connecting or to connect 18,369 villages, a beaming RJD supremo laid the foundation stones for 36,500 km of roads in one go.
The finished and yet to be started projects would involve an estimated expenditure of a whopping Rs 16,300 crore.
Lalu removed the huge curtains over the plaques on the both sides of the dais at the sprawling Gandhi Maidan to unveil the Centre's largesse to the state, which he and his wife Rabri Devi ruled for 15 long years before being voted out in the November 2005 assembly polls.
Out of 36,500 km rural roads, altogether 1190 roads in a stretch of 5050 km have been completed at a cost of Rs 2150 crore, the Railway minister said in his address.
"The Centre has pumped in vast funds for a variety of development schemes but unfortunately, the state Government is unable to make full use of these funds. Still, whatever development work you see going on, is courtesy the UPA government," Lalu said.

Strike hits functioning of government offices in Bihar

2009-01-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

Patna, Jan 13 :The indefinite strike by more than 300,000 government employees in Bihar, which entered its seventh day Tuesday, has badly affected the functioning of government departments across the state.

Most of the government offices, particularly the treasury and registration departments, wore a deserted look as employees kept away.

The state employees went on indefinite strike Wednesday, demanding implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission in "letter and spirit" after failure of talks with Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio.Functioning of the Patna Medical College and Hospital as well as the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital here was virtually paralyzed.Similarly, all the display galleries at the Patna Museum remained closed, disappointing hundreds of visitors and resulting in a huge loss of revenue.The striking employees have ignored the state government's "no work no pay" warning. "We will not end our strike unless our demands are accepted by the government," said Manjul Kumar Das, general secretary of the Bihar State Non-Gazetted Employees Federation (BSNGEF).

Das claimed that functioning of the government, from the block to the secretariat level, had come to a standstill due to the strike.

"There is total strike. Only five percent of the pro-government employees are attending work," he said.The employees are seeking payment of arrears according to the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations from Jan 1, 2006, and have termed as "unacceptable" the government's proposal to pay the arrears with effect from April 1, 2007. However, the Bihar High School Teachers Association and Bihar Inspector Supervisor Association are among some employees' associations that have not joined the strike.

Employees’ bodies blame Nitish, Modi for strike

2009-01-14T10:05:00.000-08:00

13 january 2009 _Patna, (Bihar Times): Leaders of different striking unions have trained their guns on the chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi for creating a situation that led to the indefinite strike.

The strike entered seventh day on Tuesday with no sight of end in the near future.

The strike had not only hit the work in secretariat and different collectorate but has its impact on the health services. Almost all the government hospitals are either closed or are hardly functioning.

All the medical colleges and hospitals, including the PMCH, wore a deserted look.

Poor patients are the worst hit as they can not afford private treatement.The leader alleged that the government was trying to sow seeds of disunity among different unions and warned that this strategy would not work.

In a joint statement, union leaders Manjul Kumar Das, Anil Kumar Singh and Rambali Prasad said on Monday that they had been persistently submitting memoranda to the government, but neither CMnor deputy CM nor even the officials concerned paid any heed to it.

The government ignored the pleas and demands for the removal of anomalies in grade fixation. Had the government responded then there would have been no problem and the situation would not have led to the strike, they alleged.

Bihar Secretariat Service Association (BSSA) general secretary Anil Kumar Singh said that Nitish should intervene and personally look into the matters involved for the amicable resolution of all disputes through dialogue.

Most leaders of both BSSA and other unions felt that deputy CM was largely to be blamed for the present situation, Singh said, adding that he has been presenting misleading statistics on the matters.

Bihar State Non-gazetted Employees’ Federation (Gope faction) maintained that the government, by holding talks with association not on strike, was trying to divide the rank of the striking employees.

This tactics of the government would not work, said its general secretary Rameshwar Singh.

Lalu Prasad begins tour to woo Japanese investment

2009-01-13T09:21:00.000-08:00

patna_Railways Minister Lalu Prasad left on a seven-day visit to Japan and Singapore late Sunday during which he will seek investment for his nationwide dedicated freight corridor project and ride the bullet train to see if it can be introduced in India, officials said.The Japan International Cooperation Agency has already agreed in principle for a loan of some Rs.15,000 crore (Rs.150 billion/$3 billion) for the freight corridor project and the minister will seek to clinch the deal during the visit, the officials added.
The corridor, criss-crossing the country, will sharply reduce the time taken for transportation of goods from Mumbai to New Delhi, for example, from 60 hours to around 35 hours, officials explained.
“Our minister’s turnaround story is famous all over. So he will be delivering lectures in both Japan and Singapore on how he managed to bring surplus to the Indian Railways,” a senior official in the ministry said.
One such lecture will be delivered at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, the official added.
“But his visit is mainly to attract Japanese investment for the freight corridor project and for understanding disaster management techniques. He will also travel on the famous bullet train and see if it is feasible in India.”
Those accompanying Lalu Prasad on the two-nation visit include Minister of State for Railways R. Velu and Railway Board Chairman K.C. Jena.
According to officials, the team is scheduled to attend a workshop on disaster management on Jan 15 in Tokyo. The minister is also likely to meet top officials of Mitsubishi in Osaka.
“This workshop is also very important as our ministry is trying to gear up for any kind of eventuality in the backdrop of the recent terror strikes in Mumbai,” said an official.
According to Tehseen Munnawar, the media advisor to the railways minister, Lalu Prasad is also well prepared to ensure that he gets his basic staple food during his stay in Japan and Singapore.
A strict vegetarian now, he is expected to carry Litti Chokha (a staple food for people from Bihar) and homemade clarified butter during the trip. “Laluji always carries his own stuff whenever he is on a foreign tour,” said his media advisor.
“When he visited Pakistan last year, then also he carried his own food,” Munnawar told IANS. “He has very simple taste and generally avoids outside food. He is a strict vegetarian.”

Trade unions blame Nitish for strike

2009-01-13T09:09:00.001-08:00

PATNA: leaders of striking unions blamed both CM Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi for creating a situation that led to the
indefinite strike, which entered sixth day on Monday. They also said that the government had adopted "an attitude of negativity and inertia".

The corridors of the state headquarters remained empty even on Monday, while the striking employees organised their rally outside Vikas Bhawan.

The speakers insisted on sticking to their demand, saying that the government's bid to sow seeds of disunity would not prove to be successful.

In a joint statement, union leaders -- Manjul Kumar Das, Anil Kumar Singh and Rambali Prasad -- said that they had been persistently submitting memoranda to the government, but neither CM Nitish Kumar, nor deputy CM Modi and nor even the officials concerned paid any heed to it.

On the contrary, they ignored the pleas and demands of the employees' representatives regarding the removal of anomalies in grade fixation, they said, and added that if the government had responded, then there would have been no problem and the situation would not have led to the strike.

Reiterating that the government deliberately ignored their pleas, the union leaders said that they were adamant on total implementation of the Centre's Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. Bihar Secretariat Service Association (BSSA) general secretary Anil Kumar Singh said that CM should intervene and personally look into the matters involved for the amicable resolution of all disputes through dialogue.

Most leaders of both BSSA and other unions felt that deputy CM was largely to be blamed for the present situation, Singh said, adding that he has been presenting misleading statistics on the matters.

Bihar State Non-gazetted Employees' Federation (Gope faction) maintained that the government, by holding talks with association not on strike, was trying to divide the rank of the striking employees.

This tactics of the government would not work, said its general secretary Rameshwar Singh

Crime graph increased during NDA regime in the state: RJD

2009-01-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

Patna, Jan 13:
Terming the Bihar government's claim that the crime graph in the state has gone down significantly as a "farce", Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday alleged that the crime graph has, instead, increased during the three years of 'sushashan' (good governance).
"This (crime graph presented by the state's DGP) is false", Shyam Rajak and Shakeel Ahmed Khan, RJD general secretary and spokesman told reporters in Patna on Tuesday.
Presenting statistics from the National Crime Record Bureau, contrary to the claims of the Nitish Kumar government that crime had gone down during its rule, the truth was otherwise.
Comparing the crime record with the figures during the RJD government, they said that the total number of cognisable offence had increased from 115216 in 2004 to 119993 in 2008. Similarly, the total number of criminals held in 2004 was 220666 whereas the same number went down to 141451 in 2007.

The crime against the children also rose during NDA's regime, they said and added that altogether six children were killed and four cases of rape with minor were found in 2004.
In contrast, 2007 witnessed increase in the figure as the cases of child killing went to 41 and rape with minor to 37. Total of number of rape cases were 1390 in 2004 which rose to 1555 in 2007.
Similarly, dowry cases have also gone up to 1172 in 2007 from 1029 in 2004, the RJD leaders said claiming that during RJD rule only seven districts were affected by naxal menace which spread to 31 districts during the current dispensation. Ridiculing Nitish Kumar's Vikas Yatra, they said Kumar would be leading a royal life in the tent with all fanfare at the cost of tax-payer's money.

Shatrughan demands Patna Saheb seat

2009-01-12T10:17:00.000-08:00

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday indicated that it might give in to film star-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha's wish to contest from the Patna Saheb constituency in Bihar in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Sinha, a party member from the Rajya sabha, dramatically stated at a public rally in Patna Saheb Saturday that he would contest only from this constituency even before any official announcement from the BJP. He claimed the BJP leadership had asked him to pick any seat he wished.
"His name is very much in consideration from this constituency. Sinha is a senior and capable leader of our party. We will soon discuss and decide," BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told. Naqvi did not say by when will the party decide on Sinha's seat.
"It is Patna, Patna and Patna," Sinha said at a large gathering of partymen and villagers at Sampatchak village, 15 km from Bihar's capital Patna.
"I have the blessings of senior leader Lal Krishna Advani and party president Rajnath Singh who have allowed me to pick a constituency of my choice," he said. "It is my native constituency where I was born and brought up."
Sinha, also known as Shotgun among his fans, stated this a day after former union minister Ravi Shanker Prasad said he would not mind contesting from Patna Saheb.
Sinha told the rally he merely expressed his desire to contest the polls from the newly-carved Patna Saheb constituency. "It is now up to the party high command to make a formal announcement."
However, Sinha has already launched his election campaign from this constituency with a road show, well before any official announcement by the party.

Steel frame cracking in Bihar, Jharkhand

2009-01-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

Patna, January 12, 2009

A politician's prime job is to formulate policies while the bureaucrats are required to execute them. This simple division of duty, however, leaves both Bihar and Jharkhand with a Herculean task to grapple with.

This is because while the two states have a surfeit of politicians to frame policies, there are just not enough IAS officers to execute the plans to fruition. Bihar currently has 264 sanctioned positions, but only 232 IAS officers to choose from. Besides, because of being on the central deputation, many officers aren't available for duty now.

This leaves Bihar with less than 200 IAS officers. The story is even worse in Jharkhand where the number of IAS officers available at present is just 103 against a sanctioned strength of 143. Besides, 20 bureaucrats have been sent for central duty.

In Jharkhand, of the 43 posts for promoted IAS officers, more than a dozen are lying vacant. In addition to this, three vacancies for non-civil service officials also exist. The status in Jharkhand has worsened following the superannuation of five IAS officers—P.P. Sharma, S.D. Sharma, Siyaram Prasad Sinha, M.P. Mishra and Virendra Kumar—in July, 2007. In addition to this, IAS officers Jai Shankar Tiwari and Mohan Lal Rai have also hanged their boots, last year. This is not all. The acute shortage of IAS officers is likely to worsen, as 11 of them—Sushma Singh, A.K. Rath, Rahul Sarin (secretaries in the Union government), A.K. Basu, J.S. Burjia, Jhunnu Kisko, Sahjanand Sharma, S.S. Prasad, V.P.N. Singh, R.S. Jaipuriar and Carnelius Ekka will retire in 2009. Indeed, IAS officers of Jharkhand cadre are attaining the superannuation age in bulk every year, even as Delhi is allotting only one or two elite babus for the State.

Jharkhand has been allotted only 9 direct recruits since 2000 when so far over a dozen of them have retired while two—Chintu Nayak and Mary Beena Kachchap—died in harness. If the figure of promoted IAS officials is included the number of total IAS officers who retired in Jharkhand will cross 40. But, so far less than 15 officers from state service have been promoted to IAS cadre. In Bihar too, two chief secretary rank officers—Madan Mohan Singh and R.C. Vaishya—have superannuated last year. Two other 1972 batch officers, M.N. Prasad and K.D. Sinha will hang their boots in 2009 along with four 1973 batch IAS officers—Chief Secretary R.J.M. Pillai, S. Vijayraghawan, V. Jayashankar and G.S. Dutt.

This is likely to spell further trouble for Bihar, considered India's most trouble-ridden state, which stands pushed to the bottom of many tables. In fact, the state government is willing to accommodate IAS officers of other cadres on lateral deputation to Bihar.

The trouble is that none seems to be wiling to this effect. "The state government has already taken up the issue with the Centre, demanding the increase of IAS cadres. The initiative, however, is yet to yield results," said a secretariat officer. In the current scenario, with Delhi paying little heed to Bihar's request seeking more directly recruited IAS officers, the best way out, senior babus believe, is to promote state service officials to IAS cadre.

But then there is a cap as well. Only 33 per cent of the IAS cadre strength can be filled by promoted IAS officers.Meanwhile, Bihar's decision to recall a dozen IAS officers of state cadre from central deputation too has cut little ice, as the concerned departments in the Centre have reportedly refused to relieve these officers for parent cadre.No wonder, many IAS officers in Bihar have been tasked with additional postings.

In fact, few officers have now been tasked to look after as many as three responsibilities. Bihar government sources concede that a good number of cabinet decisions despite backed by proper budgetary allocations could not see the light of the day in the state because the delivery mechanism was inadequately manned.

This is not all. Since the state government is explicitly committed to fulfil its promises on the welfare fronts, it requires more IAS officers to oversee a number of World Bank, and the state government initiated welfare oriented projects.

The trouble is they have none.While a number of other states have negotiated similar scarcity of IAS officers by assigning the subordinate civil service personnel with additional responsibilities, Bihar does not really have that option in hand because it is woefully short on this front as well.

No wonder, the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) is currently holding recruitment tests for appointing five batches of deputy collectors in one go. Similarly, Jharkhand too doesn't have enough bureaucrats to take charge of its departments.

And those who are there are burdened with too much. About 20 officials of the Jharkhand cadre have gone on central deputation.

A few of the IAS officers are on study leave. Jharkhand personnel department officials pin the blame on the Union Public service Commission (UPSC), saying it was delaying promotions in the state services.

"The problem is basically due to the delay in promoting state civil service officials. These promotions to the IAS cadre by the UPSC are pending since 2005 due to some wrangles," said an official. At least one Jharkhand state civil service officer—Promod Sharma, whose name was recommended for the IAS cadre—has already superannuated after a long but futile wait for his elevation. Jharkhand officials also point to an "unreasonable" state government which increased number of departments without taking into consideration the number of personnel available to man them.

"When the state was carved out of Bihar, there used to be less than 20 departments here. Now Jharkhand has about 30 departments but there aren't enough IAS officers to post in each department," said a bureaucrat. In a small state like Jharkhand, where Independents have considerable power and clout, the state government tends to succumb to various demands of its allies.

The net result is that more and more departments get created to please MLAs."Not all ministers get along with all IAS officers.

They (ministers) always insist that the chief minister post an officer of their choice to their department," said a Jharkhand officer. "No wonder many upright officers have been pushed into oblivion." Some irony this for the celebrated and highly touted steel frame.

Bihar cops seeks divine help to curb crime

2009-01-12T09:56:00.000-08:00

PATNA: In the drive to make Bihar a crime-free state, the police have sought divine intervention by performing special prayers at the railway
stations to prevent any wrongdoing in trains.

Special prayers were organised by the government railway police (GRP) at the Ara railway station in Bhojpur district, about 60 km from here.

To ensure smooth and peaceful travel in trains, officer-in-charge of the GRP Vinod Kumar, the brain behind the move to seek divine intervention, performs prayers every full moon night (purnima).

"We perform prayers every month for (maintaining) law and order in the trains," Kumar said.

The last prayer was held at the GRP office Sunday and was attended by hundreds of policemen, railway staff and passengers at the station.

Similarly, a special "yagna" (fire ritual) was organised by the police near here in 2007.

Rita Kumari, an officer-in-charge of the industrial area police station in Hajipur, the district headquarters of Vaishali, about 30 km from here, organised the "yagna" to check the rising crime graph in the state.

She said the rituals were performed as per the Hindu priest's advice.

"We asked for god's blessings to change the mindset of criminals. I strongly believe it (the prayers) will help create a crime-free society," Kumari added.

Bihar, Maharashtra leaders spar over youth's killing

2008-10-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

The war of words between political parties in Maharashtra and Bihar over the killing of a pistol-wielding youth in Mumbai escalated on Tuesday with Shiv Sena warning politicians from the eastern state "not to add fuel to the fire" and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar denouncing Sena's description of the youth as a "mafia".

Uddhav asked Railway Minister Lalu Prasad "not to meddle in Maharashtra's affair" and said Bihar leaders should not "add fuel to the fire" by making statements on the plight of north Indians in Mumbai.

Reacting to Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's demand that Sena should be banned, Uddhav said, "real culprits of Bihari people are their own leaders."

"Bihari leaders should ask themselves why people from their state have to migrate to Mumbai to make a living," Uddhav said.

"I would advise Lalu Prasad not to meddle in Maharashtra's affair...Bihari leaders should be sensible. Don't add fuel to the fire," he said.

"Three of them-Lalu Prasad, Ramvilas Pawan and Nitish Kumar-came together on Monday. I urge them to stay united. It will help Bihar's cause," he added.

Referring to yesterday's shoot-out in suburban Kurla in which Bihari youth Rahul Raj was killed, Uddhav said "he had a pistol in his hand, he could have killed somebody. Police were under pressure. What were they expected to do?"

On the other hand, Kumar told reporters in Patna that why a young man carrying a country-made pistol, who could have been easily overpowered, was shot dead by the police and said a CBI probe will bring out the truth.

Referring to an article published in Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Samna' in which Rahul Raj was described as a 'Bihari mafia", Kumar said "no no words are adequate to denounce it. A young man, who had recently completed a diploma in radiology and wanted to pursue a decent career cannot be described as mafia."

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil said the issue should not be politicised.

"I think this is being politicised. There will be an inquiry (into the incident) soon. After the inquiry, we will know the real reason. I do not approve of politicising such issues", Patil said.

Kumar criticised Patil's justification of the police action against Rahul Raj and said "people in top public office should not talk like this. Instead of applying balm on the wounds, they are inflaming matters", he said adding Patil should not have made the remarks.

Mumbai shootout: Bihar Government seeks CBI probe

2008-10-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, 28 October , 2008
Patna: Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today demanded a CBI inquiry into the killing of Rahul Raj in Mumbai in a police encounter on Monday.

Kumar visited Rahul's residence today in Bihar’s Patna. He was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and Bihar National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convenor and Health Minister Nandkishore Yadav.

Mumbai shootout: Bihari youth's autopsy completed

While talking to reporters at the slain youth's residence in Patna, Kumar said, "The Bihar Government and the people of the state share the view that a CBI inquiry is necessary to bring out the truth. After all, why a young man carrying a country made pistol, who could have been easily overpowered, was shot dead by the police? The people of the state have every right to know the truth."

Kumar also advised the people of Bihar, particularly the youth to exercise restraint and not allow divisive elements like Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Raj Thackeray to succeed in their evil designs.

Images: Day of the angry young man from Patna

Answering to a question on an article published in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Samna, in which Rahul was reportedly described as a ''Bihari mafia", Kumar said "no words are adequate to denounce it. A young man, who had recently completed a diploma in radiology and wanted to pursue a decent career, cannot be described as mafia."

On Monday, Rahul, who allegedly tried to take passengers hostage in a state transport bus in Mumbai’s suburban Kurla, was killed by police in a shoot-out. News, national, Gujarat, Police, Delhi blasts, Ahmedabad, remand, serial bombings,

Archaeologists baffled by tantric varsity

2008-10-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

PATNA: The recent discovery of forgotten ancient tantric university - Oddantapuri Mahavihara near Biharsharif, district headquarters of Nalanda, has baffled archaeologists here. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) claims to have discovered the location of this forgotten university which was set up in 730 AD somewhere near Biharsharif hill.

"I have made frequent visits to the site which is located on Biharsharif hill to locate the exact location of the ancient tantric university," said superintending archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) , Patna circle, P K Mishra. "On the basis of various ancient texts I found a settlement on the top of Biharsharif hillock," he said.

Mishra told TOI: "At least a dozen-member ASI technical team, including archaeologists, would visit the site on Friday to authenticate existence of the university.
On the basis of various ancient texts and records I have come to the conclusion that the univeristy is located somewhere around this site."

A large number of seals, sealings and images of Buddhist and Hindu cult, were found at Biharsharif during 1910, Mishra said. They are preserved in the Indian Museum, Kolkata.
During research, Mishra procured a model of Oddantapuri from Tibet. The model must have been imported from the original Oddantapuri, Mishra said.

Interestingly, in 775 AD, the king of Tibet had established a `Sarmaya Vihara' on the model of Oddantapuri at Lhasa. It is also mentioned in the Rahul Sankritayana collection which is preserved in Patna Museum. The Tibet model of Oddantapuri is still alive, Mishra said.

Ancient texts say that the tantric university was destroyed in 1199 AD when Turk Afghan Mohd Bakhtiar Khilji invaded it. Quoting various ancient texts, Mishra said that Gopala, the first king of Pala dynasty, founded a great monastery at Oddantapuri. Laksmana Sena was then the king of Bengal.

"The discovery of Tantric university at Biharsharif as a major seat of learning would add a new dimension to the field of ancient Indian history. Already we have two ancient universities - Nalanda and Vikramshila in Bihar. Now a third university in Bihar would be a new dimension to the study of tantricism," Mishra said.

Different role: IPS officers 'expose' false threat of evil spirits

2008-10-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

PATNA: How would you relate an IPS officer with exorcism? Surprised! You may be. But not the two Bihar cadre IPS officers who virtually acted like e xorcists to ward off old belief doing rounds in police circles of Bihar's Muzaffarpur and Munger districts regarding presence of evil spirits.

One among them is 1996 batch IPS officer Sudhanshu Kumar, currently holding the post of Muzaffarpur SP and the other one is Shalin, a 2001 batch officer, who at present is Munger SP.

In case of the former, the challenge was to open a room of Meenapur police station which remained locked for over 62 years on the pretext that the ghost of a British police officer, M L Warler, was there.Warler was burnt alive by freedom fighter Jubba Sahni and his supporters inside his chamber way back in 1946 after he ordered firing on a procession in which one local, Bangar Sahni, was killed.

Since then the chamber has been kept locked and officials posted there worked from a different room. The belief about presence of Warler's spirit got strengthened as officers who tried to open the room in the past, got transferred for one reason or the other. "I wanted to weed out this false belief as Meenapur police station is located in Naxalite-affected area and we could not afford to keep officials posted there to live under false threat of an evil spirit," Kumar told TOI.

He said that he assured the station house officer (SHO) of Meenapur police station Mohammed Islam that he would not be transferred at any cost and this gave the officer courage not only to open the room, but also use it as his chamber.The SP's assurance appears to have done wonders to the confidence of the present SHO as he is doing quite well even after two months of opening this so called ill-fated chamber.

"I have not faced any problems," Islam said. Some predecessors, however, are keeping their fingers crossed. "It is too early to comment and the SHO would feel the heat of Warler's spirit sooner than later," said one of them.

In Muzaffarpur, the problem was related to a particular police station, whereas in Munger, the place in question was the official residence of the SP itself. And those vouching for it are past incumbents. Patna rail SP D N Gupta, who was posted as Munger SP in 1999 is one among them.
Gupta said that he got one of the locked rooms of his official residence opened after which he saw a woman ghost who used to attack him and his kin. "I used to become unconscious for 48 hours after every encounter with the ghost," Gupta added. Shalin, who has been Munger SP for the last 15 months denies such things.

"It may be a figment of someone's imagination as I never came across any such thing even though I got that locked room opened," he said and added that his act would help curb false beliefs like presence of evil spirit in the residence.

Kanti plant resumes power generation

2008-10-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

PATNA: There is some respite from the ongoing power crisis in Bihar following the resumption of power generation from Kanti thermal power plant in Muzaffarpur after a lapse of nearly a year. At present, Kanti power plant is generating nearly 85 MW of power.

In view of the ensuing famous Chhath festival, if need be the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) is prepared to purchase additional power at higher rates under the exchange of power.

Although National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) plant at Farakka (unit-5) has developed snag in its turbine, it is likely to generate power soon. Bihar's allocation from Farakka plant is nearly 100 MW, said BSEB spokesman S K Ghosh.

Kanti thermal power plant is a now joint venture company of the NTPC. It has also been renamed as Kanti Vidyut Utpadan Nigam. Bihar's another thermal power plant at Barauni is not operational since long. It is not likely to generate power by November, Ghosh said. With the onset of winter, the demand has decreased considerably during night.

"We have made all the necessary arrangements for the forthcoming Diwali and Chhath festival. If the situation arises we will purchase power at higher rates during the festival to meet the demand," said Ghosh.

During the period from January to October 16, 2008, the BSEB has drawn extra power at a cost of Rs 32.64 crore under exchange of power. In 2007, too, the BSEB had to buy extra power at higher rates to the tune of Rs 48.48 crore to meet the demand during festival. In addition to this, power worth Rs 15.64 crore was purchased from Kerala at much higher rate to meet demands during festivals last year, said the BSEB spokesman.

But this time, BSEB had to buy extra power with a caution. Otherwise it will have to incur huge fine.

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has already warned the state power boards not to indulge in grid indiscipline. The commission, in its order dated October 16, has directed the regional load dispatch centres (RLDC) to report within a period of three days the cases of overdrawls from the grid by the state power boards when the frequency is less than 49.0

It has also directed the RLDCs to report within three days every case of non-compliance of the directions of these centres. The commission has felt the necessity of these measures for taking appropriate legal action against the defaulters, with the objective of saving the grid from any untoward happening.

Under the provisions of the Electricity Act, a penalty of up to Rs 15 lakh can be imposed for non-compliance of the directions of the RLDCs, said secretary Alok Kumar.

Book Raj for murder, demand RJD, LJP, BJP

2008-10-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

Slamming the Congress Government in Maharashtra for ‘failing’ to protect north Indians from attacks by MNS men, UPA constituents RJD and LJP and Opposition BJP on Wednesday demanded booking Raj Thackeray for murder after the death of a youth in violence.

LJP chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Maharashtra government has booked MNS chief Thackeray under bailable sections of the IPC.

"You release him tomorrow and he will indulge in same activities...he should be booked under section 302 (murder) of the IPC as a candidate (for the railway board exam) injured in Maharashtra violence has died," Paswan told reporters before Lok Sabha met for the day.

He also demanded job in Railways on compassionate grounds for the kin of the victim. "The LJP will provide Rs one lakh to the family of the deceased," said Paswan.

BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain dubbed Raj as a ‘murderer’ and demanded that he be booked under Section 302 of IPC.

Describing Raj as a ‘danger for national unity’, Hussain said the treatment meted out to north Indians in Maharashtra is something done ‘not even in Pakistan’.

Taking potshots at RJD over the violence in Maharashtra, the BJP leader said the RJD should withdraw support to the UPA government at the Centre.

After the Lok Sabha was adjourned following an uproar over the issue, RJD member Ram Kripal Yadav told reporters that violence was continuing in Maharashtra.

"Taxi drivers, shop-keepers of north Indian origin are being targeted...Raj Thackeray be booked under section 302 of IPC or we continue with our agitation," he said.

He claimed the Centre and Maharashtra governments failed to take action which helped Raj become a ‘hero’.

"The Centre should use provisions under Article 355 or 356 to curb violence and instil a sense of confidence in people," he added.

LJP member Ramchandra Paswan claimed the Bihar government also maintained a silence when north Indians were being targeted and said it too should be dismissed.

Hang Raj Thackeray: Bihar MPs in Lok Sabha

2008-10-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

New Delhi: Lok Sabha member Suraj Bhan, convicted in a murder case, was among MPs from Bihar who on Wednesday frequently trooped into the well of the lower house to demand capital punishment for Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray for allegedly fomenting violence against non Maharashtrians in Mumbai

"Hang Raj Thackeray" was the slogan Bhan and his fellow members from Bihar raised in the House while rushing to the well, the most sanctified area from where key staffers of the house assist the chair in conducting the proceedings.

Bhan, currently out on bail, belongs to the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Steel, Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Other MPs who joined the protest were from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a key ally of the Congress-led ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

A youth from Bihar was killed on Sunday when MNS supporters disrupted a railway recruitment examination as part of their protest against the presence of non Maharashtrians in Mumbai.

On Wednesday, protesters in various parts of Bihar Wednesday set ablaze a train and disrupted rail traffic in protest against the MNS assaults.

The police said the protesters targeted Patna, Jehanabad, Barh, Khusrupur, Sasaram, Purnia and Bhagalpur railway stations.

Rail traffic on the Delhi-Howrah line was the worst hit. The police opened fire and cane charged a mob in Sasaram where a track was blocked that led to disruption of railway traffic on the Delhi-Howrah grand chord, according to the police.

Two AC and four general coaches of Durg-Danapur express were set ablaze at the Barh railway station. The protesting students also damaged ticket counters and vandalised platforms there.

The protests against the MNS, as also the verbal din raised by Left MPs against the reduction of Kerala's quota of foodgrains distributed under the public distribution system, forced four adjournments of the Lok Sabha, the final one for the day.

Murder cry at Raj men, Patil under fire Bihar boy dies, cops say accident

2008-10-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

Patna: A railway job seeker from Bihar was beaten to death by Raj Thackeray's party activists in Mumbai on Sunday, his family has alleged, adding that Mumbai police tried to hush it up.
Pawan Mahto, 25, the only son of a poor farmer, was thrashed at Andheri station on his way to his railway recruitment exam centre, relatives and fellow candidates travelling with him have told his family in Nalanda district.

They said Pawan, seriously injured in the head and legs, was thrown on the tracks by the stone and stick-wielding mob and died soon after.

This is a totally false claim. The boy died in a train accident, Mumbai railway police commissioner A.K. Sharma said this evening.

He was trying to catch a running train to Bhayander, where I believe he was to appear for a railway recruitment exam. He failed to judge the train's take-off speed, fell down and died.

Earlier, officers at Andheri railway police station, too, had said it was an accident, but claimed it happened while Pawan was getting off his train. An officer, quoting a certain Shailendra whom he described as Pawan's brother, said: Pawan suffered an accident while getting off the train. We found his body on the tracks and took him to Cooper Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

However, those accompanying Pawan denied that anyone called Shailendra was with them.
I don't know any Shailendra. Pawan was my only son; he had no brother, sobbed his father Jagdish Prasad Mahto, who grows vegetables on his half-bigha plot in Bara Khurd village, 115km from Patna.

He said Mumbai police did not inform the family about the death, and that he had learnt of it when relatives called up from Mumbai. He then got in touch with local MLA Shravan Kumar, who arranged for Pawan's body to be brought from Mumbai.

Mere parivar ka diya bujh gaya; hamara eklauta sahara chhin gaya (my family's lamp has gone out; our only solace has been snatched from us), Jagdish wept as he watched the body being carried out of a plane at Patna airport around 1.30 this afternoon.

Activists of Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had attacked hundreds of north Indian candidates at railway exam centres across Mumbai on Sunday.

Pawan, a graduate from Bihar Sharief College near his home, reached Trombay on Saturday and put up with relatives and acquaintances from his village who worked as labourers in Maharashtra. On Sunday, he caught a train from Dadar and reached Andheri around 8am.
I could give him only Rs 200 besides the train tickets, said Jagdish, who has three daughters. The MLA, who accompanied him to the airport, arranged a vehicle and money for the body to be taken home.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, also from Nalanda, announced Rs 1.5 lakh for the family and promised action against the attackers.

Patna rampage
Railway exam candidates returning from Mumbai and other students went on the rampage at Patna Junction station in protest against Pawan's death. They stoned the ticket counters and trains and smashed windowpanes.

Hundreds of youths shouted slogans saying Raj should be hanged. They lodged a complaint against Raj and the MNS with the railway police, urging a murder case be registered.

Students staged demonstrations in Darbhanga, Gaya, Nalanda and other parts of the state too, erupting in stray violence at some places.

Bihar's principal secretary (home), Afzal Amanullah, warned that any violence would be punished. He added: We are in constant touch with Maharashtra police. We are trying to ascertain the facts. Action will be taken against the killers (of Pawan).

Six shortlisted firms pull out of Bihar road projects

2008-10-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

New Delhi: The National Highways Authority of India, or NHAI, has invited fresh bids for two road projects in Bihar after six of the seven shortlisted companies pulled out citing a mix of commercial and regulatory reasons.
While one NHAI official said the companies withdrew from the projects due to a bid regulation that capped the number of initial bids, another official with the highways regulator said it could also be due to lack of commercial viability. Both officials requested anonymity.
“In the two projects, we only got nine bids, of which seven were shortlisted,” said the first NHAI official. “Out of these seven, six declined, so we had to issue fresh bids two days back,” he said on Monday.
“Where the viability of projects is in question, why will anybody bid?” said the second official. “Some of these projects are non-viable to the extent of 65%.”
Ankineedu Maganti, director of Hyderabad-based infrastructure developer Soma Enterprise Ltd, a shortlisted bidder that withdrew from both the highway projects, said: “With whatever details we had, we had to select eight projects. We selected the eight that we are comfortable with.”
According to a Union government regulation, no company can place initial bids for more than eight highway projects within a two-month period. Besides, companies that are selected as winning bidders for four or more projects are not eligible to make initial bids for other projects during the period. The companies are given one week to decide which projects they want to place price bids on.
This clause was introduced to counter possible cartelization, following the government’s decision to enforce bid guidelines that shortlisted companies based on their prior experience over five years. The shortlisting guidelines were withdrawn following hectic lobbying and several legal challenges by bidders and a highway builders’ body.
These criteria are only applicable for the 53 highway projects for which initial bids were issued before the government withdrew the contentious clause that shortlisted bidders based on prior experience over a five-year period.

Madhucon Projects Ltd, which also pulled out of the projects, cited viability concerns. “We withdrew because we were not sure about how viable the projects were,” said S. V. Patwardhan, executive director, Madhucon Projects.

“In the current economic scenario, even the most viable projects are not getting closed. The reason could be funding crunch, loss of appetite. It could be a variety of reasons,” said Parvesh Minocha, managing director, engineering and project management, Feedback Ventures Pvt. Ltd, a project management consultant.

Meanwhile, the second official said NHAI was forced to increase the amount it charged for requests for qualification documents from Rs10,000 to Rs10 lakh in order to counter frivolous bids, where companies would put in initial bids for all projects and then decide which ones to continue bidding for.

“We paid Rs10 lakh to a consultant to carry out evaluations. The consultant spent a month for the evaluation, and then this happens,” the official said.

Lalu censures Cong CM while lashing at MNS hooligans

2008-10-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: In an embarrassment for the Congress, RJD on Monday asked the Centre to issue a directive under Article 355 to the Maharashtra government to ensure safety of north Indians. RJD members, who created a ruckus in the Lok Sabha over the Maharashtra government’s reluctance to rein in Raj Thackeray and his chauvinist mob, also demanded immediate arrest of the MNC chief.
This is the fifth time that north Indians are being attacked in Maharashtra by goons of MNS. This is a threat to the country’s unity. Maharashtra CM is quiet. The Centre should intervene immediately, said RJD parliamentary group leader D P Yadav.
With MNS making re-assertion of the Marathi identity, his party’s political plank, the Congress-NCP government has been ducking the demand for firm action against Raj Thackeray. The ruling alliance’s critics say that it is not acting against MNS because it wants to undercut the influence on the Shiv Sena by using Raj Thackeray.
But the issue appears to be causing a huge image deficit for the Congress as the UPA components themselves have been questioning the approach of the Maharashtra government.
While strongly condemning attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra, railway minister Lalu Prasad said the Sunday incident in Mumbai represented a failure of the state government. I strongly condemn the violence and ‘awaragardi’ (hooliganism) by MNS cadres against north Indians and students in the state.

Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh was more direct in his attack of those controlling levers of power in Mumbai. “The chief minister and the deputy chief minister of the state have proved to be powerless. They just cannot tackle the attacks against north Indians, Mr Singh said.
But all these do not seem to be spurring the Congress to get its state government to act against MNS. The law will take its course against those indulging in violence. The MNS’ politics is unacceptable, the Congress spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Mumbai police on Monday received a non-bailable warrant issued by a Jamshedpur court against Raj Thackeray for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Biharis and said it will be executed this week.The non-bailable warrant issued by a court in Jamshedpur was received by us today but we will execute it during the course of this week, deputy commissioner of police (Zone V) Milind Bharambe said.

MNS row: Tata employee's house ransacked in Jamshedpur

2008-10-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

JAMSHEDPUR: The residence of a Marathi official of Tata Motors in Jamshedpur was on Tuesday ransacked allegedly by activists of Bharatiya Bhojpuri Sa ngh (BBS) in protest against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's (MNS) assault on Biharis in Mumbai.

Dozens of activists gathered in front of S B Borwankar's house and started brick-batting, ransacked flower-pots and damaged the glasspanes of the bungalow, company sources said.
However, no harm was caused to the family members who were inside the house. Borwankar was away at a meeting at the Circuit House here.

Borwankar is a resident of Maharashtra. A police team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mahdusudan Bari went to the spot but the activists escaped.
Police have launched a hunt to apprehend the persons involved. Two persons were detained for interrogation in this regard, sources said.

The president of BBS, Anand Bihar Dubey, who is also the Jamshedpur town committee president of JMM, denied Sangh activists were involved in the incident.
Meanwhile, the steel city today witnessed a series of effigy burning of MNS chief Raj Thackeray in protest against the assault on Biharis.

The East Singhbhum district administration has tightened security in and around Maharashtra Hitkari Sangh building here in Bistupur following the recent incidents in Maharashtra.

MNS attack: Bihar boy dies, CM announces ex-gratia

2008-10-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

Patna, October 21: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday expressed grief and shock at the killing of a Bihari examinee, who died in the violence unleashed allegedly by MNS activists on North Indian candidates, and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1.5 lakh for his family.

Pavan, a resident of Bara Khurd in Noorsarai police station limits of Nalanda district, was brutally assaulted by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists, leading to his death when he had gone to Mumbai to appear in a railway recruitment examination.

"I am deeply pained and shocked at the killing of Pavan. May God give his family the strength to bear the huge loss. May his soul rest in peace," Kumar, who also hails from Nalanda, said in a condolence message.

Kumar said while the state government would give Rs 1 lakh to the family of the deceased, the rest 50,000 would be given from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

Can't beat them in exams, so beat them up: MNS

2008-10-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: Raj Thackeray-led MNS activists on Sunday went on a rampage and attacked 13 railway board examination centres in suburban Mumbai to protest against “inadequate representation” to locals and chased away candidates from north India.

At least 10 MNS activists of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) were arrested from Dombivali and Kalyan for disrupting the exam and preventing candidates from appearing, police said.

THE attack prompted the two leading UPA players—the RJD and the LJP—to demand strict action against Mr Raj Thackeray and his outfit.

With elections to the Lok Sabha to be held soon, the attack invited a quick reaction from RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his cabinet colleague Ram Vilas Paswan, who too hails from Bihar. Chief minister Nitish Kumar, on the other hand, spoke to his Maharashtra counterpart Vilasrao Deshmukh and urged him to provide protection to the migrants from Bihar.

Hoping to capitalise on the issue by projecting themselves as the real champions of the Bihari cause, the two UPA partners, however, tried to outdo each other in seeking strict against the MNS. The railway minister demanded a ban on the MNS, and described its chief Raj Thackeray as a “mental case”.

“I strongly condemn the incident. There should be strong action against that party...MNS should be banned. Thackeray family has become a chronic problem for Maharashtra and Raj Thackeray, in particular, has become a mental case,” Mr Lalu Prasad said.

I strongly condemn the incident. There should be strong action against that party...MNS should be banned. Thackeray family has become a chronic problem for Maharashtra and Raj Thackeray, in particular, has become a mental case,” Mr Lalu Prasad said.

In an attempt to shore up his flagging electoral fortunes and to set his party apart from the Congress, Mr Prasad publicly acknowledged that the coalition government in Maharashtra has been soft on the MNS. He said, “as far the government’s action till date is concerned, it has been soft on them.

It should take action as too much has already happened there.” Of course, the RJD leader did not miss the chance to take a potshot at the Sangh parivar. “They are not workers. They are looters. Organisations like MNS, Bajrang Dal, VHP and RSS should be banned.” Not to be left behind, steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan said he will raise the issue in the next Cabinet meeting. Interestingly, the LJP chief has made an oblique reference to the lack of action against the MNS, despite repeated transgressions.

The flurry of statements also includes one from the minister for food processing industries and Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahay. This time round, Mr Sahay has demanded the Congress-NCP coalition government in the state should treat those responsible for the attacks as criminals.

Bihar to get four e-malls in 3 months

2008-10-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

PATNA, INDIA: In a bid to extend its presence and tap the prominent regions in Bihar, Astric Computers has decided to come up with four IT malls, spanning across Bihar in a span of three months.

Overwhelmed by the success of the first IT mall in Patna, PK Sinha, Director, Astric Computers said, "We are thinking of expanding our reach across all major IT destinations in the state and will shortly introduce four new IT malls in the chief upcountry markets of Bhagalpur, Gaya, Muzzafarpur and Saharsa."

Sinha intends to tap upcountry markets, taking the IT retail segment to a new height. "The e-mall in Patna has already fetched a turnover of Rs 7 crore last year, as Bihar is heading towards a more aggressive stance in IT retail segment," he elaborated.

"Each store would be of around 1,000sq ft with housing PCs, telecom products, peripherals, external storage devices, aftermarket supplies and accessories, home networking products and digital lifestyle products like digicams, media players and office automation products," he further added.

Planning to introduce a LAN set-up in the e-mall, the company will soon introduce DSL cable network interlinking all the e-malls across Bihar. The IT retail sector is witnessing a boom across the state, especially after the introduction of Dell Inspiron and Studio series there.

Bihar has already witnessed a halt in IT supplies in upcountry markets with the logistics going out of track after the devastating floods this year. Major markets like Muzzafarpur and Saharsa have been hit hard due to a shortfall in supplies backed by a steep rise in hardware prices. However, overcoming all odds, Sinha is planning to introduce a steady supply chain to feed its e-malls even in times of calamity.

Though in a nascent stage, Astric Computers has developed a well-knit supply management chain, especially with HP and D-Link ensuring that Patna never runs out these stocks. Now, Astric is on the way to extend its supply chain support to the four upcountry markets and aims to double its revenue.

Strong in the local distribution business, Astric Computers has crossed over Rs 12 crore revenue mark, keeping its loyalty with HP and D-Link.

Cops take steps against misuse of beacon lights

2008-10-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

BHAGALPUR: The district police have initiated steps against unauthorized use of red VIP lights in the district in a stern step against misuse of beacon lights on vehicles. Notices have been served by the district police to many so-called VIPs who are taking advantage of leniency in enforcement of statutory provisions of Motor Vehicles Act.

Sources said the notice clearly mentions the stopping of use of beacon lights on their vehicles with immediate effect, failing which legal action would be taken against offenders as per the Motor Vehicles Act.

This step by the district police has been lauded by the people, while at the same time, it has caused unease among habitual proscribed users. ‘Memsahibs' (wives of so-called VIPs), who use such vehicles for shopping, are most likely to feel the pinch of police action against unauthorized users of beacon lights.

Some important persons who have been issued notices are vice chancellor of Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University (TMBU), Bhagalpur mayor, deputy mayor, besides other persons including a former mayor and political leaders. Several politicians, TMBU officials, some judicial and government officials besides others who are not authorized and permitted by any statutory provisions, are using beacon (VIP) lights. According to sources, some people who are not entitled, but use beacon lights in order to create `impression' and throwing their ‘weight' on the society. Several incidents in the past, in which riders of vehicle with beacon light entering into altercation with traffic police and common public, have also compelled the district police to take such action, said an official.

It is also being used unauthorizedly to take their vehicles through "no entry and restricted roads" besides illegal parking at no parking zone, said official sources adding that most of the times, vehicles with unauthorized beacon lights are used by ‘memsahibs' (wife of so-called VIPs) for shopping in the no entry zones.

Bhagalpur SP Kundan Krishnan said on Thursday that notices have been issued to streamline the usage of beacon lights as per statutory provisions and directions. "Legal action would be taken against all those who flout the statutory provisions, government rules and regulations," he said.

The government under the provisions of Central Motor Vehicles Rule, 1989, has authorized only a handful of persons to use beacon light on their vehicles. As per statutory provisions, authorized persons at divisional level are divisional commissioner, RIG, DIG, DM, SP, income tax commissioner, district judge, ADJ, ADM, CJM, Civil SDO and DSP.

Besides, at the district level, persons like governor, CM, Speaker and deputy speaker (state assembly and council), chief justice and other justices (high court), attorney general, lokayukta, cabinet and other ministers, leaders of ruling and opposition parties, chairman (public service commission), state election commissioner, chief secretary, DGP, secretaries of several departments besides other designated persons can use these vehicles. Hailing the measures, a businessman of Sujaganj locality said that it is welcome step as it would restrict parking of ‘lalbatti' (unauthorized beacon-fitted) vehicles in front of their shops causing blockade

Six arrested in three districts for bribery

2008-10-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

BEGUSARAI/ CHHAPRA/ MUZAFFARPUR: A team of the state vigilance bureau led by its DSP, Maharaja Kanishka Kumar, on Friday caught red-handed the head clerk of Begusarai circle office, Suman Kumar Yadav, while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000.

The vigilance team had earlier laid the trap on the information provided by one, Chandan Kumar Yadav, and arrested the head clerk from his Pokharia residence.

Chandan had informed the vigilance bureau about the head clerk demanding the said amount for settling a land deed measuring about nine katthas in his name.

Meanwhile, vigilance sleuths on Friday arrested four persons in Saran district for accepting bribe.

The team of vigilance bureau arrested Surendra Kumar, SI, posted as officer in-charge of Doriganj police station on Friday morning for accepting a bribe of Rs 1,000 for forwarding an application for passport, said Mithilesh Kumar, DSP (HQ). While going to Chhapra, the district headquarters, the sleuths conducted raid in the treasury office and arrested three persons including head clerk Baij Nath Prasad, assistant Abrar Ahmed and a peon for accepting bribe for the payment of pension to retired teachers.

Confirming the incident, Saran DM Prabhat Kumar Sah said that further action would be taken after receipt of the report. In the meantime, several persons who have applied for passport have complained of harassment at the police stations concerned where they went for police verification.

Meanwhile, in Muzaffarpur, an employee working in the revenue wing of Marwan block, Devendra Chaudhary, was arrested by vigilance bureau sleuths led by local vigilance inspector, Ambrish Kumar on Friday. Chaudhary was arrested while taking a bribe of Rs 2,100 from one, Munna for mutation of his land (seven katthas). Chaudhary had demanded the said amount at the rate of Rs 300 per kattha. The complainant informed the vigilance bureau about the demand and the vigilance sleuths laid a trap to catch Chaudhary while taking the bribe.

After LA, Bihar’s Super 30 reaches New York film fest

2008-10-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

Patna, October 17 : For the numerous batches of Super 30 that have passed out of the Ramanujam School of Mathematics and got into the prestigious IITs across the country, October 23 will be yet another tribute to the long hours of struggle and hard work they have put in.

A 60-minute film on these IIT aspirants will be screened at the South Asian Film Festival (SAFF) in New York on that day. The film called “Super 30” is directed by Christopher Mitchell and produced by Veronica Hall. The film shows how students struggle to make their way to the chosen batch of Super 30 and crack IIT-JEE tests. It also depicts “the real power of education to remake lives and communities”. The British film director and his team spent several days shooting the film at Kumhrar. The film had been screened at the Los Angeles film festival in California this April.

When Super 30 mathematician Anand Kumar along with additional director general of police Abhyanand had started the batch six years ago, they did not even remotely fathom the kind of accolades they would receive or the kind of impact they would make.
“My students make it amidst odds. We provide them tiny rooms to stay for eight months. We keep the fire burning in them till they make it big. It is a befitting tribute to the rich mines of talents in Bihar,” says Kumar.

Nano is welcome in Bihar if it has problems in Sanand: Lalu

2008-10-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

Ahmedabad, October 17 : Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has said if Tata Motors’ Nano project is facing trouble in Gujarat similar to that in Singur then it is welcome to Bihar, as the state has lots of wasteland.

“The Government here has given agriculture land to the Tatas for the setting up of Nano car project. Farmers are agitating against the move,” Lalu told reporters during his visit to Somnath on Thursday. “If the state government is not able to handle the Nano project here, the Tatas are welcome to Bihar,” he added.

“There is a lot of barren land around Dwarka (in Jamnagar). If they had given land near Dwarka, the area, which has not seen much development so far, would have been developed. People there don't get water to drink,” he said.
The Gujarat government has given 1,100 acres of Anand Agriculture University land to the Tatas for relocation of the Nano project from Singur in West Bengal to Sanand.

Lalu puts sasural on railmap

2008-06-26T23:24:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Railway minister Lalu Prasad on Thursday commissioned a new railway line that links his sasural (in-law's place) at Phulwaria in Gopalganj district.

Expressing happiness after commissioning the new railway line, Lalu said: "Rabri and my brothers-in-law are too happy about the new railway line. It's a matter of pride for me as well."

He, however, rued that the new line linking Phulwaria with Seralkala would have been commissioned much earlier had the railways been given land in time. The work for laying the said line had started in 2006.

Earlier in the day, Lalu inaugurated the Hatua-Bhatni New Railway Project. Apart from inaugurating the extension of passenger amenities at Hatua railway station, he also opened a new railway line from Hatua to Phulwaria. More stations will be inaugurated within a short span of time and passenger amenities will also be increased, the railway minister said.

"Indian Railways has a very fascinating story and as long as I am the railway minister, I will continue to make to make the story more interesting," he added.

US gives three million dollars in aid as flood relief in Bihar

2008-06-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

PATNA: The United States has extended an aid of three million dollars for the flood-affected areas of Bihar.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) would route this aid through 'CARE', an international NGO providing emergency relief and rehabilitation.

"We would be targeting 53,000 community members. In terms of the specificities of it, I think that is left with CARE-India to see where needs fit," said Gerald Smith, the Science Attache of the AUS Department of Agriculture.

"The focus is on helping people who have been affected by floods.In some cases that would be done through providing small grants and, it might be providing agriculture and practical farming assistance.

It might involve helping men collectivize work together and develop new livelihoods producing something which would help them to sell and to create the markets," said Elizabeth Sime, country director for CARE.

Bihar govt cycles its way into religious controversy

2008-06-25T21:31:00.000-07:00

Patna: For a few little girls in Patna, all the excitement about riding to school on their own bicycles has been washed away. Three months back, the Bihar government had launched the much-hyped Mukhamantri Cycle Yojna.

Under the scheme girls studying till Class 9 in government schools were to be gifted free bicycles. But the state Human Resource Development Ministry poured cold water over their dreams. It gave an order denying free cycles to minority schools.
A student, Rubiya, says, "Mera ek sawal hai jaab sabhi dharma ki ladkiyo ko cycle mill rahi hai to hamare sath ye bhed bhad kyu?" ("When girls of all religions are getting a cycle, then why this discrimination against us?")

A trip to school and back home on a bicycle gifted by the state government is Nitish Kumar government's way of empowering school going girls. But as the majority of the girls enjoy this free ride, those studying in minority institutions are being denied this pleasure.
The fortnight old order has disheartened many.

Another student, Minaz Pravin says, "Jaab Sarkar kahti hai ki sare dharm ek hai, sare bachche ek hai, to alpasankhyak aur bahusankhyaak ko alag kyu kaaar diya?" ("When the government says that all religions are one and are children are one, then why have the minorities been separated from the majority?")

The Principal of a minority school, Mohammad Naqui adds, "Hame bahut bharosa tha. Par niche ke afsar kya kaar rahe hai kuch pata nahi". ("We trusted the government, but we don't know what lower officials are up to.")

Sensing that it might have shot itself in the foot with this order, the HRD Ministry is now considering a hasty rollback.

Bihar HRD Minister, Harinarayan Singh was heard scolding his junior officials on the phone saying, "Ye to mudda ban gaya ki alpasankhyak vidyalaya ko kyun nahi di gayi." ("This has become a huge issue as to why minority schools were not given cycles.")

Such a discriminatory order targeting school children was the last thing expected from a government which is otherwise willing to go that extra mile to please the minority community.

Bihar MP, cohorts get life

2008-06-25T21:29:00.000-07:00

Statesman News ServicePATNA, June 25: The controversial LJP MP Surajbhan Singh, along with two of his associates, was today sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court in Bihar in a 16-year-old murder case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each on all of the convicted. Singh, who represents Balia seat from Bihar in Parliament is among a dozen Bihar politicians punished by the court in the last year for their criminal past. Yesterday, all of them had been convicted for murder and were subsequently sent to jail. The court had fixed today to pronounce judgement in the murder case pending in the court for the last 16 years. The much-needed judgement brought smiles to the face of the victim family who had been fighting the lone court battle against the MP. “We came across severe odds during the course of the trial. We were threatened with dire consequences for pursuing the case and were also offered money… It’s a victory of justice today. We are delighted,” the victim’s wife Shakuntal told reporters outside the court. The judgement came 16 years after the killing of local villager Rami Singh in Begusarai district. The MP was found guilty under section 302, 149 of the IPC and Arms Act by a fast track court headed by Justice Mr RP Dubey. The Patna High Court had recently asked the fast track court to complete the trial and pronounce the judgement by 30 June. The MP, according to the FIR, had attacked the house of the villager with two of his associates at Mathurapur village during the morning of 16 January, 1992, and then shot him dead since he refused to pay extortion to the accused people. Mr Singh is an accused in more than six other cases of murder, extortion, kidnapping and loot trial of which are in different stages of progress. Beginning his political career as an Independent legislator, Mr Singh shot to the limelight after he with a bunch of legislators with criminal backgrounds lent his support to the chief minister Mr Nitish Kumar in forming a government in Bihar after 2000 Assembly elections although his government lasted for only a week.

CBI nabs officials while accepting bribe

2008-06-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

PATNA: CBI sleuths trapped two Central government officials while they were accepting bribe at two different places in Bihar on Wednesday.

In the first case, the central agency officials arrested IIFCO (Patna) deputy manager Gajendra Prasad Singh when he was accepting a bribe of Rs 2,000 from one Awadhesh Kumar Singh.

The IIFCO official was seeking the graft for releasing DAP fertiliser allotted to the state. In the second case, clerk in Central School, IOC, Barauni, R P Rai was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 3,000 from one Rakesh Kumar.

Rai had asked for the graft for getting Kumar's ward admitted to the Kendriya Vidyalaya, CBI sources said. The court of CBI special judge Radheshyam Prasad on Wednesday forwarded Gajendra to judicial remand up to June 9.

The man behind Bihar's turnaround

2008-06-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

The man behind Bihar's turnaround

Once considered a basket case, Bihar is doing the impossible: it’s getting better. Varghese K. George finds out what the people of Bihar feel about their CM Nitish Kumar's tenure so far.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=bd629892-b274-4a93-9221-3b7618c809ea&&Headline=The+man+behind+Bihar's+turnaround

An HT-C fore Survey: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/specials/popup/bihar_break.html

Bihar court absolves Deputy CM of model code violation

2008-06-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

19 Jun 2008

BHAGALPUR: A local court in Bhagalpur on Thursday absolved senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi of violating the model code of conduct for elections. First Class Judicial Magistrate Manoj Kumar, after hearing both the sides, absolved Modi of the charges of violating model code of conduct.

An FIR against Modi was registered with Shahkund police station on April 4, 2004 for violating the model code of conduct by him as a BJP candidate for the Bhagalpur Lok Sabha seat. Modi was charged with setting up arches and banners in Shakund locality ignoring the Election Commission's orders and causing damage to public property.

Bihar propelling India's telecom growth, survey shows

2008-06-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

New Delhi, June 10: India, the second largest telecom market in the world, derives its growth in subscriber base from the otherwise underdeveloped states of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, a survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) suggests.

According to an Assocham state-wise analysis of mobile subscription released Tuesday, Bihar registered the maximum increase in annual telecom subscribers, marking a growth of 88.2 percent in the fiscal 2007-08 as compared to the 51.1 percent in 2006-07.

The total number of mobile phones in Bihar increased from 57,73,370 in 2006-07 to 108,69,459 in 2007-08.

Bihar was followed by Madhya Pradesh, which saw mobile phone users increase from 66,82,326 in 2005-06 to 124,91,306 in 2007-08. West Bengal registered an increase of 86.1 percent in the subscriber volumes from 84.4 percent in 2006-07. In volume terms, it increased from 5040111 in FY 2006-07 to 9381095 in the previous fiscal.

“While the metropolitan cities have reached their saturation point, the next phase of telecom growth in India is being driven by sub-urban places of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa,” Assocham president Sajjan Jindal said.

According to the Assocham analysis, keeping aside Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, smaller centres have registered an upsurge, thanks to the major players entering into the unexplored markets, growing middle class, low tariffs and economic mobile handsets.

Cop quits Super-30, says experiment is over

2008-06-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Senior IPS officer Abhayanand has decided to dissociate himself with the 'Super-30', which he founded along with maths wizard Anand Kumar, to coach 30 economically backward students crack IITJEE every year.

The decision of Abhayanand, who taught physics to the aspirants, comes only days after JEE results were announced this year and all the Super-30 aspirants made it.

"It is a conscious decision,” the IPS officer told TOI . Asked about the reason, he said Super-30, started in 2003, was never an institution for him.

It was like an experiment where we showed path to 30 students coming from deprived sections of the society every year," he said and added having achieved the desired cent per cent results in the sixth year, the experiment phase is over.

"Any further association with Super-30 would belittle my perspective of doing something for the deprived sections on a larger level," he said.

He said he would be available for IIT aspirants seeking his help. "It would be like taking the experiment from the lab to the society," he said and added he is open to use his expertise, whatsoever it is, in other fields as well.

Abhayanand said Anand is a professional teacher while he is professional cop and teaching is his passion.

"I would continue to pursue this passion whenever I can take time off my other commitments," he said.

Anand sounded upset. "Abhayanand's decision has left me shocked," he said, adding, however, that Super-30 classes would continue.

Prakash Jha's film on Bihar's politics strikes chord in Greece

2008-06-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

Mumbai, June 6 (IANS) Filmmaker Prakash Jha was pleasantly surprised when his film on the kidnapping and murky politics of Bihar - 'Apaharan' - struck an instant note with an audience in Greece.

Jha was in Greece to receive the Kostas Kyriazias award for contribution to human values. The award is named after the owner and founder of Greece's oldest newspaper Ethnos.
'I was asked to bring along one of my works to receive the award. I was thinking of taking along one of my earlier films. But the director of the Los Angeles film festival, who's a Greek, suggested 'Apaharan'.

'Why 'Apaharan', I wondered. But to my surprise I found the Greek audience warming up to and connecting with the political scenario in Bihar even without Greek subtitles. The Q&A (question and answer) session lasted for nearly two hours. The Greeks could identify with bullies infiltrating into politics,' Jha told IANS.

Jha aims for the same kind of universality in his next film 'Rajneeti'. 'I want to use Ranbir's (Kapoor) character to show the close connection between Hindu mythology, Indian politics and power-play in every country and culture.'

Daler Mehndi, the popular Punjabi singer from Bihar!

2008-06-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

Born and brought up in Bihar's Patna city, Punjabi singer Daler Mehndi was barely six-year-old when his parents first introduced him to classical Ragas and Shabad from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikhs' religious book.

With passage of time, Daler got inclined towards pop music. The basic training in classical Ragas proved a great help to add distinction to his singing style. No wonder his first pop music video album "Bolo Tara Ra Ra" was a hit and created sales record for a Punjabi album.

Today, leading an illustrious career as a composer-cum-playback singer for many Bollywood films, Daler Mehndi's success is an inspiration for everyone.

Daler Mehndi says: "At the age of 11, I performed before an audience of about 35,000 people in Jaunpur city. It was a remarkable for a boy of my age and boosted my confidence tremendously. I never looked back.

""I and my elder brother Amarjeet Singh worked really hard to compose this song (Dardi Rab Rab kardi). At one stretch of eight hours we composed this music. Initially, I was a Ghazal singer, but people egged me on to do something extraordinary," said Daler.

"Though my parents belong to Punjab I was born and brought up in Patna. To sing authentic Punjabi was initially difficult for me, but by the grace of God I started singing Punjabi," he added.

Daler was trained under Ustad Rahat Ali Khan who comes from Uttar Pradesh.

He says: "Once I was practicing before noted musician Naushad Ji, Rahat Ali Khan blessed me and advised me that to gain success I should continue wearing the turban.

In those days, there was a trend among Sikh artists to cut their hair to be successful in the world of glamour. My mother and noted actor Amjad Khan also insisted that I not remove the turban." Daler has sung many devotional songs. But his favourite remains "300 Saal Guru de Naal". He says: "There may be many hits in the future but the success of this song will be written in golden words. I am very grateful to the Almighty by whose grace I produced such a lovely album."

IIT entrance topper flees Bihar

2008-06-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

MUMBAI: For the painfully shy Shitikanth, topping the fiercely competitive IIT entrance exam has been akin to wearing a crown of thorns.

Ever since the results were declared, the bespectacled 18-year-old's life has been turned upside down. So much so that he fled his house in Patna and arrived here on Monday a little past midnight to escape the line of politicians, touts, coaching class tutors and other opportunists who have given him no rest since the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) declared him the topper on May 30.

Unable to deal with the badgering and cajoling — "please endorse our class", "please appear in this ad", please be the chief guest" — the reticent teenager did the only thing he could think of to retain his sanity. He cut and ran.

Sitting in a faculty room on the TIFR campus in Mankhurd, Shitikanth refused to lift his eyes from the book in front of him.

"My house is no longer the normal place I lived in all these years," he said helplessly.

After landing in the city, Shitikanth, who is preparing for the International Physics Olympiad in Vietnam, phoned his mentor Professor Vijay Singh, and asked if he could arrange some accommodation for him. Like the other four students who are representing India in the Olympiad, Shitikanth was scheduled to arrive in Mumbai only in the first week of July.

He put his "unscheduled" arrival in the city down to "too many disturbances" back home. "He's keen on bringing back the gold medal for the country this year," said Singh.

Shitikanth's father told Prof Singh, the national co-ordinator for the Science Olympiad, that politicians had given them no peace, phoning and landing up at their house on Exhibition Road in Patna.

"A political party wants to give him an award, some other local politician wants to felicitate him," his father told Singh, who taught at IIT-Kanpur before joining the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research's Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mankhurd.

Shitikanth said that representatives from two or three coaching classes even landed up on his doorstep. "They wanted me to allow them to use my name for their advertisements," said the soft-spoken topper who has chosen to study at IIT-Kanpur. His endorsement was made even more desirable by the fact that he had topped all the exams conducted in the run-up to the IIT-JEE. Even before the results, several coaching classes had their eye on the boy, said a coaching class owner from Mumbai.

Bihar IT fair concludes

2008-06-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

PATNA, INDIA: The first IT fair ever held in Bihar concluded recently in Patna.

Inaugurated by Anil Kumar Singh, IT minister of Bihar, the event was organized by BITA with an objective of spreading IT awareness across the state.

"I whole-heartedly support the cause the IT fair is propagating. This is the first ever IT fair being held in Bihar and I am looking forward to developing the IT sector across the state in the near future," said Kumar."

Bihar so far has been lagging behind other states in IT. The level of awareness is also low in the state. Through this fair we are aiming to bring about consciousness in the state. We are looking at the fair more as a promotional event rather than a selling point," said SN Prasad, President, BITA.

Registering a total participation from 22 enterprises across the state, major players included Microsoft, Dell, HCL, Numeric Power Systems and others.

"The initiative taken by BITA and the IT minister is commendable. Such fairs will help the masses change their perception regarding IT and we would like to participate in such events in the future as well," said Amanullah Khan, senior manager, Numeric Power Systems.

The event witnessed a huge crowd gathering in the later half of the day as nearly 5,000 people visited the fair.

"This has been a huge success on our part. The event has successfully attracted the masses, particularly the youngsters here," said PK Sinha, Spokesperson, BITA.

In the fair, latest gadgets were displayed, including mini-laptops, high-resolution web cameras, high range WAN systems, long-range microphone and chipsets.

"The equipments we have put up for the show are trendy and selected in accordance with the taste of the youth. Here, we are more concentrating on the laptops and multimedia equipment as the youth prefers these more to any other things," said Sinha.

"This is the fruit of the initiative we have taken up after long years of patience and hard work and we are looking forward to cooperating with the IT industry in Jharkhand to expand the boundary of BITA," Prasad added.

©CyberMedia News

CBSE syllabi for Classes 11 and 12 under Bihar board

2008-06-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

By Prashant K. NandaNew Delhi, June 4 (IANS) Thousands of schools under the Bihar education board will follow the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum in Classes 11 and 12 from the new academic session as a step to improve education standards in the state. The Bihar education department has already signed an agreement with the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) that is responsible for developing the CBSE courses.

“The state education department and NCERT have reached a written agreement. We have already handed them the soft copies of the syllabi,” NCERT spokesman B.C. Patra told IANS. The new academic session begins in July.

“They have taken the syllabi only for Class 11 and Class 12. This will help the state board schools adopt the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) devised by the human resource development ministry,” he said.

The NCF 2005 was prepared after months of deliberation among experts from the state education departments, NCERT, the human resource development (HRD) ministry and many independent educational luminaries.

The framework aims at improving school education and making it more interactive and student friendly. It works as a vision document for the school course curriculum that can reform and enrich studies at the school level.

Both NCERT and CBSE officials said that in view of the resource crunch, in terms of both skilled manpower and final resources, the decision seemed more practical.

“The senior secondary level is very important in the life of a student. Unless the education standard is high, it generally becomes difficult to compete with other students in colleges and universities,” said a senior CBSE official.

“I am sure, adopting the CBSE syllabi will prove beneficial for students but the state government needs to focus on teachers’ training,” the official said, clarifying that this development will not bring the state board schools under the CBSE board.

Patra said that though the state education department had adopted the CBSE syllabi, it was free to change some portion of the curricula.

“They can change parts of literature, language and social science, but not arbitrarily. They have to submit the original transcript to NCERT, which will review it before accepting or rejecting it,” he said.

NCERT authorities said a resource crunch and lack of enough qualified manpower to devise a standard school curriculum had already forced several other states - Haryana, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Goa - to adopt the CBSE course at the school level.

Separate wells for lower caste villagers in Bihar

2008-06-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

Sahibabad Kulhadd (Vaishali) Bihar, June 5 (ANI): Many villagers in the Vaishali region of north Bihar are compelled to drink contaminated water due to the prevailing caste system here.

In Sahibabad Kulhadd Village, wells have been demarcated for people divided into upper caste and lower caste. They are forbidden to collect water from each other’s well.

The ostensible reason behind the separate arrangement of water is state to avoid caste-clashes.

But the one used by the upper caste people is well maintained whereas the well used by the poor families of the lower caste is in bad condition and requires maintenance.

The lower caste people at this village have to manage with the contaminated water of the well.

Anyone undermining the local code over water has to face the other caste’s fury.

"We have water problem here. The water is very dirty. We first have to boil the water and we drink. Children fall ill due to the condition of the water. There is a place where we collect water from," said Gyanpatya Devi, a resident of Sahibabad Kulhadd.

Adding to their problems, people belonging to the upper casters own most of the land and anyone not belonging to their community is not allowed to apss through tit. As a result, the lower caste people have to take a de-tour to go from one place to another.

"People think we are downtrodden. They block the road and do not let us walk through it. These days we take water by some other way to survive," grieved Badri Paswan, another villager of Sahibabad Kulhadd.

Nearly 200 families, belonging to the lower castes, hardly get water to cook or wash.

There are 150 to 200 families in this village. We don't use the well water, as it is dirty. The problem, here is that when we go to collect water from theirs (wells of the Muslims), disputes arise and they stop us from taking water. Here the people believe in untouchability. It is sad that they are encouraging untouchability as they belong to the higher caste and they are landlords," he added.

Villagers’ water problem has been brought to the attention of Bihar Chief Minister.

"We will look into the problem. The District Magistrate and superintendant of Police will be asked to sort out the matter," assured Nitish Kumar, the Bihar’s Chief Minister.

The discriminated villagers of Sahibabad Kulhadd hope that the Chief Minister's directives will be complied with the concerned authorities. (ANI)

JSPL inks MoU with Bihar for thermal power plant

2008-06-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

The Telegraph reported that Jindal Power Limited has signed a MoU with the Bihar government for setting up a 2,640 MW coal based power plant. Mr Sushil Maroo director of Jindal Power and Mr Aditya Swaroop energy secretary of Bihar have signed the MoU.

The final site of the project would depend on the availability of coal blocks and water.

JPL commissioned 500 MW of 1,000 MW project in the year 2007-08. The third and fourth units of 250 MW each were likely to be commissioned in June and July 2008 respectively.

It is also in process of setting up 2 power plants in the Dumka and Godda areas of Santhal Pargana where the company had been allotted coal blocks

Sub-inspector caught taking bribe

2008-06-02T11:23:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Vigilance Investigation Bureau sleuths met with resistance on Saturday night when they caught red-handed sub-inspector (SI) and officer-in-charge of Bardaha police station in Araria district Murari Prasad Choudhary and his two constables taking Rs 23,000 as bribe from the complainant Rajendra Kumar Choudhary alias Raju Choudhary at the latter's residence.

The SI attacked the sleuths with his revolver. The vigilance officials managed to grab the revolver from him by twisting his arm and making the revolver fall from his hand.

But, in the process, the revolver went off and the bullet hit the right knee of Murari and injured him. The vigilance officials claimed that he also tried to swallow the notes recovered from him and when he was prevented by the vigilance team he tried to destroy the evidence by tearing off the notes. Several notes got torn in the process. An assistant police inspector and another constable were injured in this scuffle, said bureau ADG Neelmani.

Bureau sources said Raju had lodged a written complaint alleging that the SI had threatened to make him the main accused in a case lodged with Sikti police station related to kidnapping for marriage if he failed to pay Rs 25,000 to him (SI). The complainant said he was not related to the case and the girl, who had eloped, had not mentioned his name (Raju) in her statement.

Bihar scripts name in golden letters in IIT

2008-06-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

The mines of brain-Bihar always be on top either for bad or good news. The state again showed that it can be poor economically, but are well-off in brain resources. This time the ancient state of political significance broke the headlines of the newspaper and clinched the attention of the news channels by scripting its name in golden letters notching first rank of the country's toughest and highly prestigious-Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE)-2008.

A cool, calm, and cogitator Shitikanth-the top ranker belongs to an upper middle-class family. He said he was sure to be figured out in top 10, but never thought of achieving first position. “It was all of the blessings of his parents, elders, friends and most of all his teachers and his restless hard work,” he said.

A brilliant student has always been fond of Physics and Mathematics as well and can spend all the time with studying physics. “I never get bore of studying physics,” he said. The same is with maths, he added.

A student of class 10 from St. Michael School in Patna joined Bansal classes in Kota in Rajasthan to prepare well to crack IIT entrance examination.

Shitikanth was awarded with “Proud of Bihar” by the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar along with cash reward of Rs 1,00,000 for getting top ranking.

Apart from snatching first position in IIT, Bihar also earned the jubilance by one of its Institute named 'SUPER 30' took all of its 30 candidates to the name list of successful candidates in the IIT entrance examination.

As the name of the institute denotes, it enrols every year only 30 aspirants from poor families through conducting tests and provides them with free coaching, lodging, and fooding. This was the first time when all of its 30 candidates passed the highly competitive IIT exam.

SUPER 30, a nascent institute established just five years ago in 2003 is run under the directorship of Anand Kumar with the help and support of few educationists in Patna, capital of Bihar. The number of successful candidates gradually rose from 18 in the very first year to 22 in 2004, to 26 in 2005 and broke all the records in this year by listing all 30 in the IIT entrance examination.

Today IITs accommodate 6,872 seats are present in Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Chennai, and Roorkee besides the six new IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Orissa, Punjab and Rajasthan will begin its very first academic session during 2008-09.

With government's sincere initiative it seems that prospects of engineering enthusiastic and hungry aspirants are extremely bright in our country.

Lalu retreats in Chhath war, into the ocean

2008-06-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Mumbai, May 31: It isn’t often that Lalu Prasad shrinks from the ring, bellicose after his own fashion, smacking his loins at the prospect of a good fight. But then, it isn’t often that his own hold him back.

The workmanlike “bhaiyyas” — Mumbai’s derogatory label on the thousands of cabbies and milkmen and liftmen and watchmen from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh that keep this metropolis going — have had a good and recent feel of Raj Thackeray’s stick-end; they want no more of it.

Their message to Lalu Prasad on the eve of his arrival here two days ago was laconic: sit Shah Rukh’s test but leave us to face our own, don’t litter Mumbai with a flaming statement that will leave us singed all over again. Lalu Prasad appears to have got it loud and clear.

So while New Delhi may have been a safe enough stage for the railway minister to bluster on about performing Chhath puja in Mumbai, in Mumbai itself that resolve lay diminished under the demands of his own constituency.

Lalu Prasad arrived here on the blazoned hype of a duel with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief; he returned tamely pronouncing Raj Thackeray not worth battling with.

“Who is he, this Raj Thackeray?” he asked, emerging from the Paanchvi Pass shoot in Filmcity the other day. The truth is his men had told him he is a big deal, in Mumbai and around anyhow. Don’t mess with him. If he says no Chhath for you in Mumbai, there’s going to be no Chhath for you in Mumbai.

No wonder he couldn’t carry off that rhetorically dismissive tone on Thackeray for too long. In perhaps an unguarded admission of his real sense of the rebel Thackeray scion’s clout, Lalu Prasad said: “Well, if he has objections to me performing Chhath in his Shivaji Park neighbourhood, I won’t do it there, I’ll do it in the middle of the ocean.”

That’s how far the Sena-wary bhaiyyas of Mumbai have made Lalu Prasad retreat with his dare — into the Arabian Sea.

The odds are he’ll be waved even farther away by the white flag Mumbai’s bhaiyyas have raised. He’s already indicated as much. Bite-hungry microphones were snatching at his lips for a feed as he came out post-shoot, but he was in no mood to boost TRPs at the cost of busting his brethren. What message are you sending to Raj Thackeray, Laluji? When are you coming for Chhath? Where are you going to do it, Laluji?

The battery of cameras was all laced and dripping with fuel. But the railway minister, uncharacteristically restrained, wasn’t offering fire. “What’s this fuss about? Don’t try to drag me into this, I never even said I have to do Chhath in Mumbai, I merely said India is a free country and nobody can prevent me from performing it in Mumbai or anywhere else, that is all there is to it, off now.”

No gloves on show, only his long kurta sleeve, raised and blurring the lenses. No bout today, my hands are tied and my lips are sealed.

“It is not as if we don’t respect Laluji, don’t get us wrong,” said a member of his own puny party, “but he can’t be exhorting us into a battle he isn’t going to lead. We have to make a life here, he doesn’t. Paani mein rehkar magarmachh se bair lena kahan ki samajhdaari hai (If you must live in the water, how wise is it to be picking a quarrel with crocodiles)?”

One look at the bench strength of the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Mumbai and you’d understand where this man is coming from. They are better provided when it comes to the entire bhaiyya population, but then not all of them are prepared to do and die in Lalu Prasad’s wake.

As cabbie Badri Pande from Gorakhpur put it: “Mumbai mein Lalu-waalu kaahe naak maarta hai? Usko chaar vote bhi nahin milega aur humko milega dus lappad. Kahe ko (Why do the likes of Lalu want to poke their noses into Mumbai, they won’t get four votes and we’ll end up getting 10 slaps. What for)?”

Bhojpuri music, films to carry message to Raj

2008-06-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

Patna: ‘Mumbai na chori UP-Bihar ki jodi’.

That is a line from a song from leading Bhojpuri crooner Chotu Chaila's latest album.

The shooting for the album, titled Chakka Jam is on in Patna, and the singer is oozing with confidence.

It is the controversial theme of the album that he is banking on – the Maratha versus North Indian issue.

“Music is one medium anyone can understand any thing and (through which) many things can be stated. I have used my songs to make Raj Thackeray understand,” said Chotu Chaila.

The songs persuade people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to stand up against the violence.

In fact, the entire Bhojpuri entertainment industry is busy milking the issue – apart from music albums, shooting for Bhojpuri films portraying the plight of migrant workers will begin soon.

“We want to tell Raj Thackeray that we are all one in this country. It’s not the way it is in Mumbai – that Mumbai only belongs to them (Maharashtrians) and everyone from other states (are outsiders). The message is that we are one and we shall remain as one,” said director Ravindra.

“The director and the singer, for the first time, are featuring UP-Bihar together and this is being projected to the Mumbaikar,” said choreographer Mannish.

Whether this message reaches out to Raj Thakeray or not, one thing seems certain – it will surely set the cash registers ringing.

Reliance, HPCL renew interest in Bihar sugar mills

2008-06-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

Notwithstanding the Centre's directive prohibiting production of ethanol from sugarcane juice, Reliance Industries Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd have renewed their interest in taking over three state-controlled sick sugar factories in Bihar.

Both RIL and HPCL deposited 10 per cent of the bid amount for the three sick sugar factories, official sources confirmed.

While the RIL deposited Rs 5.70 crore with the state government for the take-over of the Motipur unit in Muzaffarpur district, the HPCL paid Rs 4.5 crore and Rs 5 crore for Lauriya and Sugauli sugar mills respectively.

RIL has emerged as the highest bidder at Rs 57 crore for the take-over of the Motipur unit. Similarly, the HPCL emerged the highest bidder at Rs 45 crore for Lauriya unit and Rs 50 crore for Sugauli sugar mills in East Champaran district, sources said.

The Centre's no to production of ethanol from sugarcane juice had earlier dealt a severe blow to Bihar government's plan to develop the state as an ethanol hub losing five investment proposals worth around Rs 14,000 crore for setting up new sugarcane juice-to-ethanol manufacturing units.

The Centre's directive had led to the state losing five major investment proposals through which 15 new sugarcane juice-to-ethanol manufacturing facilities were to be set up in Bihar, the sources said.

The Bihar State Industrial Promotion Board had approved all these projects and cabinet sanction for all but three had also been obtained, they said.

State minister for sugarcane industries Gautam Singh said that deposit of 10 per cent of the bid amount for the three units by big players like RIL and HPCL was 'a positive development' and it would help others to overcome their inhibition and take a relook at the prospects offered by the state.

"We are expecting some more proposals for developing the sugar industry in Bihar," he said.

The second round of bidding process for sick units, including Siwan (Hathua distillery, New Siwan, Samastipur, Sikri, Banmankhi, Goraul, Warsaliganj, Bihta and Gurari, is expected to be initiated next month.

SBI Caps is preparing a fresh document for request for qualification (RFQ) so that the advertisement for re-bid process may be taken up sometime in June.

UNICEF to train state officers

2008-05-31T22:16:00.000-07:00

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar releases a calendar at BIPARD office in Patna on Friday.

Patna, May 27: The Bihar Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development (BIPARD) and UNICEF have signed two Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs).

The first is on training of state government officers on the the social sector programmes-particularly in the sectors of nutrition, health, water and sanitation, child protection and education, among others, BIPARD Director-General A K Choudhary and UNICEF state representative Bijaya Rajbhandari signed the MOUs in Patna today.

''This is for the first time that BIPARD is signing such an MoU with an organisation,'' said Mr Choudhary.

The second MoU is in the field of disaster preparedness management. UNICEF will support the BIPARD in training government officers on disaster preparedness, particularly in building in the disaster component in their working.

The MoUs formalises the partnership between UNICEF and BIPARD.

The objective is to train IAS/PCS officers on ''management of social sector programmes''.

Under the MoU, social sector programming will become an inherent part of the training courses BIPARD organises for IAS and BAS officers.

Internet changing life in Bihar, Orissa villages

2008-05-31T12:54:00.000-07:00

Saurath (Bihar): A five-hour drive from Patna is one of the India's first BPOs being run out of a village, by the village, and for a large part, for the village.

The people who live in Saurath village in Bihar had never heard of a computer, let alone use one just a few years ago.

But now, they are busily tapping away on their keyboards and an entire area, cut off from urban centres, is connected.

Just a year ago, Saurath was like any other village that had come to terms with it's geography - that they could never easily get what they wanted - be it a top-up card for their mobile phones or a life insurance policy.

It was a two to three hour drive to the nearest district town.

That's when a tech company stepped in and offered them the chance to help themselves.

And Saurath agreed. At the cost of Rs 7,000 per head for six months to learn how to use computers that they had earlier seen only in Hindi films.

"Earlier I would feel scared. Now I feel proud that being a village boy, I can work on the computer," Bauajee Paswan, a BPO worker, says.

Today the people of Saurath, who put in their hard earned money, are part of a revolution. The confidence levels are so palpable that one can almost see the kind of respect they have earned for themselves.

Thirty-eight year old Asha Jha was just a housewife who spent the entire day in the kitchen with her pallu (part of saree) draped over her head looking after her family.

But when she found out about the training course that empowered people like her, she didn't have to work too hard convincing her in-laws to lend her the money for her classes.

Now Asha earns about Rs 17 an hour, which come to a little more than Rs 4,000 a month. That has brought smiles on the faces of her in-laws.

And like any other woman balancing the work place with a family life - Asha seems to be pulling it off brilliantly.

"Even I wanted to do some thing. Now I manage my house and office," says Asha.

The process is simple. If a man, for example, wants to buy a mobile phone in the next village, he goes to a kiosk in his village, chooses the phone he wants and places an order.

The kiosk owner then calls up the BPO and tells the person on the other side about the order.

They, in turn inform the tech company that runs the BPO who then send over the product, which is then delivered to the man who placed the order.

"Earlier we had to travel really far away to order for the things we needed. Now it has become so much simpler for us," Ram Sewak Pandit, a customer, says.

People in Bihar tie the knot in the name of Lalu

2008-05-31T08:51:00.000-07:00

Bhojpur: In certain pockets of the state of Bihar, many people are getting married without waiting for an auspicious day or the lagan mahurat (the auspicious time for a wedding ceremony to begin) as per the Hindu calender.

These people are ardent followers and fans of the former chief minister of the state and Union Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, and have invented their own lagan. They are calling it Lalu lagan.

One such family which is having a wedding without the auspicious timings are the Singhs.

The groom's father, Ram Naresh Singh says, Jaha ja rahe hai, waha ho raha hai Lalu lagan main." ("Wherever we go, everyone is getting married with Lalu lagan.")

A local RJD MLA, Bijendra Yadav adds, "Even Muslims have their weddings on any day they like and so we have also started having our weddings on any day. We have just started calling these days Lalu lagan, so that they become auspicious to us."

The Railway Minister's followers in central Bihar believe that Lalu's blessings are good enough to get people married off. And these out of season weddings are fast catching up, benefiting everyone in the loop.

A priest, Ajay Kumar Mridul, says, "Lalu ji ke naam se lagan chalta hai to hamare amdani ke saath samaj ka kalyan bhi hota hai. Ladka, ladki, dono party ka faida hai." (These weddings are conducted in the name of Lalu ji and are good for us moneywise and for the society as well.").

It seems as if Lalu magic is setting many a wedding bell tolling in Bihar.

Rampaging 'Osama' gets death warrant

2008-05-31T08:48:00.000-07:00

RANCHI: Osama Bin Laden, the name given to a rampaging tusker, has killed 10 people in the last nine days in the villages of Jharkhand, and an exasperated administration has now issued a "death warrant" against this terror.

The tusker was christened 'Laden' by villagers soon after it crossed over from Purulia, West Bengal, on May 21 after trampling five persons there. Since the day it entered Jharkhand from Bokaro via Beldih bordering Bengal, it has sent to death 10 and injured 22 people.

On Friday, when it was trapped in the forests of Bokaro in the midst of hundreds of vindictive villagers pelting stones, the angry elephant again smashed one of his tormenters.

Left without option, Jharkhand chief wildlife warden A K Singh on Friday declared the elephant "rogue", paving the way for its execution which has been the demand of foresters both in Bengal and Jharkhand.

"West Bengal government has now declared the elephant 'rogue' and its hunters are out to kill it but since the tusker is now in Jharkhand, I have declared it a rogue too and the DFO, Bokaro, will now decide how to work out its execution," said Singh.

Villagers of Bokaro had written a letter to the DFO urging him to have the elephant killed to prevent further destruction. The right to declare an elephant "rogue" vests with the chief wildlife warden.

Bihar students make it to IITs with help from maths wizard

2008-05-31T08:44:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Famous as maths wizard Anand Kumar who once sold 'papad' on the streets to eke out a living is a happy man today with all the 30 aspirants of IIT-JEE from his coaching institute, Super 30, making it to premier IITs.

Kumar, who runs the coaching institute with Additional Director General of Police Abhayanand, set it up in 2003 for providing free coaching and boarding to students from economically weak backgrounds.

The number of students from the institute who made it to the IIT rose from 18 in 2003 to 22 in 2004, 26 in 2005, 28 each in 2006 and 2007 to 30 aspirants this year.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar congratulated the students of Super 30 and also Sithikant, a student of St Michael's High School in Patna, who topped the All India Merit List for IIT-JEE this year.

Bihar is rising and the renaissance has begun. Sithikant and students of Super 30, will inspire future aspirants," Kumar said in his message.

Anand's house at Kathpulwa on the outskirts of the state capital wore a festive look with parents of children who cracked the IIT JEE distributed sweets to everyone in the area.

ADGP Abhayanand who teaches physics at the institute told PTI, "We shortlisted some 30 students and coached them for the All India Engineer Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and all of them made to the IIT list. We will increase the number of AIEEE students from the next batch".

FIR against BDO, banker for fund bungle

2008-05-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

PATNA: State Vigilance Investigation Bureau on Thursday lodged a case against Sanjay Kumar, BDO-cum-CO of Rahui in Nalanda district in connection with irregularities in allotment of funds under Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana and Indira Awas Yojana in the block.

Madhya Bihar Gramin Bank's branch manager Anil Kumar Choudhary and an illegal beneficiary Pinki Devi are also among the accused in the case. The bank manager has been arrested.

According to an official release, the vigilance bureau was directed by chief minister Nitish Kumar to inquire into the matter after he was apprised of these irregularities.

A team of vigilance bureau went to Nalanda and inquired into the matter. The team found one of the beneficiaries Pinki Devi, a resident of Balia Bigha, fraudulently got her name included in the BPL list by identifying herself as a scheduled caste. She had also not constructed her house under the Indira Awas Yojana despite having received funds. She actually belonged to an affluent farmer's family, the team found.

Bihar boy tops IIT exams

2008-05-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

Friday, 30 May , 2008, 15:46

Patna: A Bihar boy has topped this year's All India Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) conducted for admissions to the Indian Institutes of Technology.

Shitikanth, who hails from Patna, topped JEE conducted by IIT. "I am really happy and celebrating my success as I never expected to top," an upbeat Shitikanth said here on Friday.

Surrounded by his family, relatives and friends, Shitikanth said he was expecting that his name might figure in top ten. "It is all a result of hard work and positive surrounding, nothing else," he said.

He said that his favourite subject is Physics followed by Mathematics. "I love to study Physics all time. I have no problem in Physics, more or less the same with Maths," he said. But Chemistry, particularly Inorganic Chemistry, is a tough subject for him. "I have faced a little problem studying Chemistry," he admitted.

Shitikanth did his Class 10 from St Michael School in Patna.

He joined Bansal Classes in Kota in Rajasthan to prepare for IIT. He has become a star here after the news spread that he topped the JEE this year.

2008-05-30T06:58:00.000-07:00

PATNA: All the thirty students enrolled in Super 30, an innovative coaching institute in Bihar, have passed the highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) this year, the institute announced here Friday.

It is the first time that Super 30 achieved 100 per cent success. "It is a big day for us. We were waiting for hundred percent result for the last four years. At last we succeeded in our effort to achieve it this year," Anand Kumar, director of Super 30, said.

He said, "We are really in celebration mood after making it."

Every year, Super 30 selects a group of 30 IIT aspirants from poor families and provides them with free coaching, food and accommodation.

Bihar's Additional Director-General of Police Abhyanand, who teaches physics at the institute, said this year Super 30 successful students include students from a minority community for the first time.

Till last year students from backward castes, extreme backward castes and Dalits cracked IIT-JEE through Super 30. "But this year some students of minority community succeeded in IIT-JEE," said Abhyanand.

He said the success of Super 30 lies in hard work and proper guidance for achieving excellent result. He said that in 2007, 28 of the students made it through ITT-JEE and two others were selected for preparatory. In 2006 too, 28 students of the Super 30 had made it to the IITs.

"We were sure of positive results as we teach them to eat, sleep, walk and talk only IIT," reiterated Anand.

Anand, who also runs the Ramanujam School of Mathematics, said Super 30 is supported by the income generated from the mathematics school, which has students who can afford to pay fees.

Super 30 took shape five years ago. Eighteen of its students cracked the IIT-JEE that first year, 2003. The number rose to 22 in 2004 and 26 in 2005.

Last year, Norika Fujiwara, a former Japanese beauty queen and actress, made a documentary film on Super 30 for its innovative and successful attempt to send poor children to India's top engineering colleges.

'Desi chikitsa' gets recognition

2008-05-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Health minister Nand Kishore Yadav on Wednesday said “deshi chikitsa” or indigenous system of medicines-cadre employees would now be treated on a par with their allopathic medicine-cadre colleagues. They would have now the same service conditions as applicable to allopathic medicine-cadre staff.

Addressing a press conference, the minister said the retirement age of the “deshi chikitsa”-cadre staff would be increased from 60 to 62 years. PG students of the “deshi chikitsa” faculties would be given the same stipend of Rs 13,000 as that given to junior PG students of allopathic system of medicines while a sum of Rs 15,000 would be given to senior PG students of “deshi chikitsa” faculties.

Yadav also said “deshi chikitsa” doctors would be appointed along with allopathic doctors at government hospitals, right from primary health centres to sadar hospitals. Patients would have a choice to opt for either of the two systems of treatment.

He also said the department has decided to fill up 1,500 vacancies of “deshi chikitsa” doctors in the state. The “deshi chikitsa” directorate has been asked to identify the medicines of indigenous system for free distribution among patients at the government health centres and hospitals. To revive Government Ayurvedic Medical Colleges, a meeting of the principals of all the five colleges has been convened next month. The meet will chalk out ways for the betterment of these colleges, said Yadav.

The government would set up two research centres __ one for the Ayurvedic and the other for the Unani medicines. The Ayurvedic research centre would be set up on the campus of Government Ayurvedic College, Kadamkuan.

The location of Unani Medicine Research Centre has not yet been finalised, said Yadav.

Bihar sets up a rural BPO to stop migration

2008-05-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

MADUBANI (BIHAR): In an attempt to provide employment opportunities to the locals and to stop them from migrating to other states, Bihar has set up a Business Process Outsourcing Unit (BPO) in a remote village of the State's Madhubani District.

The BPO at Saurath Village has empowered locals. The employees are mostly Hindi speaking, but they admit that they are learning to speak English also.

It is indeed fascinating to see homemakers and labourers working efficiently at the call centers. "We need to engage them to stop this problem of brain drain and migration. I feel if we are able to do this, then these problems will stop to a great extent. I believe this is the first of its kind, the first rural BPO in India," said Kamlesh Kumar, the manager of Drishti Business Process Outsourcing.

Locals feel that now their children need not be humiliated by the recent migrants' row in the country that targeted North Indians directly.

"We want to learn things in life so that it helps us ahead in life. We are from backward area. This training in computers and BPO will really help us," said Alok Kumar Thakur, a trainee.

There are around 35 literate boys and girls from the village who are undergoing a three-month training course.

The employees feel that it is a true blessing as they are getting trained and being paid for it also.

The information and technology sector employs 700,000 people. It is expected to provide direct employment to about two million by 2012. But this venture is one of its kinds and the first one.

Bihar allocates land for NIFT branch in Patna

2008-05-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

Patna, May 28 (IANS) The Bihar cabinet Wednesday approved free-of-cost transfer of 10 acres of land from the agriculture department to the industries department for establishing a branch of the prestigious National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) here, a top official here said.

The government has alraedy begun the process of setting up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the Chandragupta Institute of Management in Patna (CIMP) on the lines of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

Bihar Chief Secretary R.J.M. Pillai said the cabinet has approved the allocation of land for the NIFT branch in Patna, which will be the ninth in the country.

The NIFT has branches in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkatta and Rai Bareilly.

Sources said classes at the NIFT will begin from the next academic session. It will initially have a small batch of students and function from a temporary building, which is being renovated.
'Till the time its own building comes up, the NIFT will temorarily function from the Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority building,' an official said.

Reliance, HPCL renew interest in Bihar sugar mills

2008-05-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Notwithstanding the Centre's directive prohibiting production of ethanol from sugarcane juice, Reliance Industries Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd have renewed their interest in taking over three state-controlled sick sugar factories in Bihar.

Both RIL and HPCL deposited 10 per cen of the bid amount for the three sick sugar factories, official sources confirmed.

The Centre's opinion was made known through insertion of explanation (3) in clause 3 (sub-clause) in the Sugarcane (Control) Amendment Order, 2007 of the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution that came into effect from December 28 had prevented Bihar from going ahead with the ethanol project, the sources said.

Smart card for driving license

2008-05-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Bihar on Tuesday became the first state in the country to use latest techniques for issuing driving license and registration of vehicles by implementing smart card system.

CM Nitish Kumar inaugurated smart card driving license scheme at the office of Patna district transport officer located at Biscomaun Bhavan and also distributed smart cards to five persons on the occasion.

Nitish expressed pleasure over maximum use of information technology by different departments of the state government. He also expressed his happiness over implementation of smart card scheme in the state by the transport department.

Bihar engineer does Swades act

2008-05-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

It could well be the script of Shah Rukh Khan's Swades. A local lad chucks a high-paying job in the states to bring light to his remote, off-the-grid village in Bihar's west Champaran district.

Villagers found light when local lad Gyanesh Pandey came home from Los Angeles, chucking a promising career in engineering to spark this revolution with his friend Ratnesh. His undergraduate mates, Manoj Sinha and Charles 'Chip' Ransler, from the University of Virginia, raised funds and soon the village was empowered.

His two other expat Bihari friends and an American mate, helping him script this bright turnaround story.

After living in the dark ages for decades, a forgotten village in Bihar's west Champaran district, has found the power to light up its future. It comes from this plant that runs on rice husk, a forgotten technology.

''I can see why we lack innovation and everything, like to me. It all comes down to dignity and self-respect, unless you have that, you can't let your imagination fly. It is the very core of your living and that's something we lack here the most,'' said Gyanesh Pandey.

''This is enabling my own people, distant relatives you can say, or my own extended family. This is most inspiring,'' he added.

''The word 'enabling' is the key here. This is to help people help themselves,'' said Charles Ransler, Gyanesh friend.

Two villages have been electrified so far. Others are clamouring to join Gyanesh's light brigade, which also promises to reverse migration from the area.

''A powerhouse like this will remove the trouble of kerosene, it will bring happiness, children will study at home. We'll be able to watch TV,'' said Bala Gupta, Villager.

From darkness to light, it has been a terribly long wait for the villagers in Dhanaha, a dream that they could not even imagine to dream has finally seen light here.

Thanks to Gyanesh and his friends, who preferred and succeeded in chasing a mirage instead of the American dream, which was theirs for the asking.

Difficult landing for IIT in Bihar

2008-05-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

DELHI, MAY 22: Barely two months before the three new Indian Institutes of Technology-in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan-are expected to begin classes, the one proposed in Bihar still doesn’t have a permanent campus. After months of confusion, the site proposed by the Bihar Government at Bihta, about 40 kms from Patna, has been rejected after experts from IIT-Roorkee found the site had “poor hydrological conditions”.

And to add to the state government’s discomfort, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has neither suggested an alternative site nor has it approved the temporary facilities, where classes for the new batch are expected to be held before the permanent campus comes up.

The state’s Science and Technology Department had identified the Polytechnic in Patna for the makeshift IIT campus. The Polytechnic has two hostels and a new building, which can accommodate around 200 students.

“Initially, there were problems with the original site, but we have suggested another one along with the site we have identified as a makeshift campus. Proposals have been sent in this regard. We are yet to hear from the MHRD on these,” Alok Bardhan Chaturvedi, principal secretary, Science and Technology, said.

According to Chaturvedi, the alternative site, as proposed by the state Government, has the full approval of experts from IIT-Roorkee. The proposed 500-acre site was earlier earmarked for a knowledge park, and the state Government has offered another 300 acres of land to the MHRD for the new IIT.

But despite the state Government’s efforts, sources claim the delay from the MHRD on the proposed site is a result of political wrangles between Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who is keen on placing the IIT closer to the state capital and Railway Minister Lalu Yadav who has expressed his desire to shift it to his constituency Chhapra.

“There are two other centres of political power. They want the proposed IIT to shift to either Chapra or Gopalganj,” government sources said. Officials, however, maintain that Patna would be the ideal location for an IIT as it is well connected by train and air.

E-Mall launches slew of IT products in Bihar

2008-05-26T11:39:00.000-07:00

PATNA, BIHAR: Bihar's multi-brand IT super store, E-Mall launched an extensive series of new IT products in Bihar on the eve of its anniversary week.

Inaugurated by Dr Anil Kumar Singh, IT Minister, Bihar, E-Mall features the latest IT products and provides total IT solutions based on the latest digital, imaging, networking, multimedia, and software coupled with value-added services.

PK Sinha, advisor and promoter, E-Mall said, "Bihar needs a complete IT-based solution based on global needs and parameters. As this industry is growing at a considerable pace as compared to other industries, it is the need of the hour to offer such a services in Bihar .

"Sponsored by Epson, the event focused on providing effective solutions for the increasing demand for point of sales (POS), projectors, photo printers, all in one (AIO) and inkjets. Speaking on the occasion, Ganesh, Regional Manager, Kolkata, Epson, said, "E-Mall aims to interface the distance in IT with video conference, broadband, and ISDN link facilities from remote locations will help in our efforts to take Epson to the village. Epson is geared to take the challenge with the increasing needs of IT products in the new emerging Bihar and is ready to develop a chain of stores across Bihar to deliver quality products and services at doorsteps,"

He added that with the growth and demand of projectors, POS and printers steadily increasing across India, they would plan special events to take Epson to new heights through E-Mall in Bihar.

Managed by a group of women entrepreneur, E-Mall sets an example of women empowerment in Bihar.

Speaking on the occasion, Rimjhim Singh, IT professional said, "Our mission is to offer a single window solution backed by effective customer services."Speaking about the potential in the market, Rajeev Ranjan, Partner and Promoter, E-Mall said, "There is huge demand for IT and telecom products in Bihar but at the same time, an acute shortage of such solution-based service centers out here. In Bihar we are a bit behind the rest of the country, but we will soon be a preferred IT destination.

"During the product launch a lucky draw was organized in which the prizes included TVS Motorcycle as the bumper prize coupled with air conditioner, refrigerator, television, microwave ovens, DVD player and iPods.

Raj trains guns at N Indian students in Pune

2008-05-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

After attacking migrants from UP and Bihar, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray has now trained his guns at a growing number of North Indian students coming to Pune for higher education.

"Pune, with its large number of reputed universities and institutions imparting higher education is attracting students from these states who are being given admissions on massive donations leaving in the lurch the deserving Marathi aspirants," he said at a party rally held in Pune late Sunday night, defying police ban.

"We will be watching these institutions as the new academic year is approaching. We know that these affluent students from UP and Bihar also indulge in eve teasing and arrogant behaviour. If they persist with this they will be taught a lesson," the MNS leader added.

Thackeray said he would not like to equate those coming from UP and Bihar with the people from other North Indian states. Even states like Punjab and Delhi harbour anti- UP-Bihari sentiments, he claimed.

Twenty eight MNS activists including party general secretary Deepak Paigude were arrested by police for organizing the rally, defying the ban orders imposed to ensure smooth flow of traffic through the city.

On Chhat Pooja, Thackeray said if Railway Minister Lalu Prasad continued to challenge and provoke MNS, he would not be allowed to come out of Mumbai airport to perform it.

"We are not against the pooja but any attempt to turn it into a strength show on part of UP and Bihari migrants will not be tolerated," he added.

Lalu's brother derails railway project in Bihar

2008-05-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

Gopalganj (Bihar): First his in-laws were caught travelling without tickets, and then his brother forcibly got the platform of a train changed. And now, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s elder brother has been reported to have forcefully stopped the construction of a new line.

This new railway line, which is touted as Lalu’s pet project, will connect Hathua to Dewaria in Uttar Pradesh, and will pass through Lalu's ancestral village Phulwaria and wife Rabri Devi's village Selarkala.

But Lalu's elder brother Gulab Yadav, has thrown a spanner in the works. He has allegedly stopped work on the line claiming he hasn't been paid compensation for land acquired for it.
Railway officials claim he even assaulted them.

“He asked me if I was Phulwari Mishra. When I answered, he slapped me and ordered me to stop all construction work during the night," railway engineer Phulwari Mishra says.
Earlier, CNN-IBN had reported how railway rules were bent to connect these high-profile villages.

While the compensation for most of the land acquired has been paid, Gulab Yadav claims he is yet to get the compensation for 6000 sq ft land acquired from him.

"Gulab Yadav has stopped all construction work because of delayed payment. He’s Lalu’s brother after all. He says he hasn’t been given the compensation for his land,” Subodh Kumar.
Despite all criticism and scrutiny, Lalu kept the pace of work going on this rail connecting his ancestral village to that of Rabri Devi but none other than his own brother has derailed his pace.
When CNN-IBN contacted him, Gulab Yadav refused to comment.

Meanwhile, district authorities say the land in question is government property, which had been illegally acquired by Gulab Yadav when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the state Chief Minister.

DAV boy scores 94.4% in Plus 2

2008-05-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Cramming the complex chemical equations and dancing to the tunes of Michael Jackson may be a tough combination for many. But for Aakash of DAV BSEB, one compliments the other perfectly.

On Friday, Aakash broke into an instant jig on learning that he had secured 94.4% in the CBSE Plus II examination. That is the highest that a city student has scored. The science stream student is keen to become an engineer while continuing to pursue dance as a passion.

Dancing is a passion, a hobby. But studies come first,"Aakash said. Son of an additional district judge, he even has a taste for Bollywood beaus. "Yes, I would like to go on a date with Diya Mirza,"he said.

Aakash also a message for his juniors. "Labour hard and believe in your self,"he says.

Ankita Sinha of Notre Dame Academy, who topped the list of successful candidates of the school by securing 93% marks, thinks likewise. Having opted commerce, Ankita wants to do her graduation from Delhi University.

A cricket buff who also has a taste for painting, Ankita has fixed her goal after doing the graduation. "I want to do a management course from XLRI, Jamshedpur,"she said.

This studious girl, however, has no time for going on a date. "Where is time for such things?"she retorted. Amar Sinha is pround of his daughter, "I am so glad she is this sensible."

Palak Agrawal, who topped the list in science stream of the same school, wants to take her parents out to dinner. A natural dancer, she even wants her parents to shake a leg with her to savor this moment of success. "Nothing better than having a gala time with parents,"she said.

The young lady does not want to follow anyone else's foot steps. "I want to achieve a position where people follow me,"she said with confidence beyond her tender age.

Rahul Dwivedi of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bailey road, who secured 94.2% with cent per cent marks in Chemistry, chose to celebrate the success with his close friends. A proud mother Rambha said he had laboured hard and deserved the break. Rahul wants to pursue a career in engineering.

2008-05-25T13:04:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Panchayati raj is said to be the harbinger of democracy at the grass-roots level. However, for many villagers in the state this decentralisation has added to yet another set of rules which they find difficult to deal with. In some cases even office-bearers of panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) have been unable to understand the rules which they are supposed to follow.

The state government appears to be on way to overcoming this problem in a very innovative way. It has decided to set up a helpline for removing doubts of PRI office-bearers and the common man for which they otherwise have to take the help of government officials.

The panchayati raj department has written a letter to the Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation (Beltron) for setting up the helpline.

The helpline would work like a call centre from where the caller would be able to obtain all kinds of information related to the functioning of PRIs, Beltron official P C Choudhary told TOI.

He said that a database would be created first in which the information related to the Panchayati Raj Act, rules governing PRIs, scope of functioning of local bodies would be fed. "Operators manning the helpline would be made conversant with these facts through a special training programme," Choudhary added.

Incidentally, Beltron has earlier set up the "Jaankari" helpline, which has helped the common man use the weapon of the Right to Information (RTI) Act for seeking information from government agencies. The agency is planning to adopt the same set of norms while setting up the helpline for PRIs.

Initially we would design a call centre having six operators for taking calls. After assessing the number of calls received, the number of operators would be revised," Choudhary said and added that subject to the approval of the government, the helpline would become functional in a month.

The state government would use Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) provided by the Centre for setting up this helpline which would have a toll free number.

FIR against Jabir in illegal appointment case

2008-05-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

PATNA: In a major development, Patna police on Saturday lodged an FIR against Rajya Sabha MP and former chairman of the Bihar Legislative Council Jabir Hussain and then secretary of the council Kapildeo Prasad in connection with a complaint case related to illegal appointments in different grades during Hussain's tenure as the council chief.

Sachivalaya police lodged the FIR against them under various Sections of IPC, including 166 (public servant disobeying law with intent to cause injury to any person), 167 (forging document with intent to cause injury), 409 (breach of trust) and under Sections 7 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

According to police sources, complainant Raj Kumar Singh filed a 60-page complaint with Sachivalaya police alleging that Jabir in connivance with his secretary appointed 78 persons illegally in Class IV, III and even higher grades.

Sources said that the complaint was lodged following a directive of the Patna High Court. While hearing the petition of Raj Kumar Singh, the high court had directed the present acting chairman of the legislative council, Arun Kumar, and the council's secretary to inquire into the allegations of the illegal appointments. Both the acting chairman and secretary found the allegations true in an inquiry, said the sources.

The court had also directed the chairman of the council to lodge a complaint with the police if the allegations against Jabir and other were found true. The high court had also said that the petitioner Raj Kumar Singh could lodge an FIR

Retd class IV staff's daughter cracks civil services exams

2008-05-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

PATNA: It is the case of a small town and family hitting big. Traditionally, famous as an important foodgrain market and populated mainly by the insular people of business community, the house of retired fourth grade employee Shyam Sunder Sah has, of late, become a talking point in the little bazaar of Kasba. Sah has not been bestowed with any windfall, though.

On the contrary, the Sah family has got a new pride in the person of Lalita Kumari alias Lali, who has succeeded to find a place in the recently published merit list of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) civil services examinations. She is the daughter of Sah, and stands 367 in the merit list.

It is not clear if she would get the IAS or allied services slot. But that is not important at the moment. "I am here in Patna, but I am getting the news that people of our small town are visiting my family there at Kasba,"said Lali's jubilant cousin Dhruv here on Friday, adding: "You can understand the pride of her father. He pushed and prodded and also supported her to pursue the studies. None had imagined that our Lali could go that far."

As he said, the phones of anyone familiar with the Sah family have been ringing day and night for the last few days. The Kasba town is around 18 km from the district and divisional headquarters of Purnia. It is located on the four-lane national highway that passes through Araria, near the Indo-Nepal border. Lali is likely to visit Kasba on May 27 and the locals have planned a roadshow for her there.

The Kasba Bazaar, otherwise, has been famous for the Purandevi Mandir close to it, and also the Raani Sati Mandir that a few families of the Marwari business community who came to settle had built it. Yet, the entire zone, lying close to the foothills of the Himalayas and plagued by marshes, malarial fever, tigers and pythons, once used to be the hunting ground for the elephant riding colonial masters and famous zamindars.

In the altered circumstances, one could say that Sah inspired his daughter to go hunting for the big of a different kind, since he saw it coming early. Lali got selected for Standard VI in Navodaya Vidyalaya. Then, she secured 82 per cent marks in the CBSE. She followed it by completing graduation course in veterinary science from Madras Veterinary College (Tamil Nadu), and also got Master degree from Hissar in Haryana.

Her career zoomed up, when Bal Bhawan Society India, Delhi, selected her for 20-day Saarc telescopic training. She was the Bihari girl representing the country among the Saarc nations.

"Her father helped her in pursuing her dream in whatever form it came. Now she has given the moment of pride to our family,"Dhruv said.

Judge's son found drugged in train

2008-05-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Sourav Kumar, 20, son of Siwan district family court judge Satnarain Prasad Singh, was found drugged in the general bogie of Howarh-Danapur Express on Friday morning.

He was admitted to Danapur Railway Hospital where his condition is stated to be normal now.

According to Danapur railway police, Sourav was coming from Howarh on Thursday night after appearing at an examination there.

Since he could not get confirmed ticket, he preferred to board the train in the general bogie at Howrah station.

He took `Janata meal' from a railway vendor at Asonsol station. Soon after consuming meal, he fell unconscious and the cheats robbed him of Rs 5,000 cash and other valuables including costly clothes, the police said. Family members of the victim have been informed about the incident.

Investigation is going on, police said.

Rs 1.55 crore seized from Bihar official's son's locker

2008-05-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

PATNA: The Special Vigilance Wing (SVW) of Bihar has recovered Rs 1.55 crore from a bank locker of the son of state Rajbhasha director D N Choudhary, against whom a disproportionate asset case had been registered last month.

"We opened the locker at Saraiyaganj branch of the Central Bank of India in Muzaffarpur in the presence of Choudhary's family member and found Rs 1,54,99,000 yesterday", Inspector General (SVU) A K Upadhyay said.

Sixteen fake currency notes in the denomination of Rs 500 were also seized from the locker, the IG said.

"We have asked the Muzaffarpur police to conduct an inquiry into the recovery of counterfeit currency notes from the bank locker", he added.

Upadhyay said the locker was allotted to Choudhary's son Dipanshi alias Deepak and his wife Annu Kumari.

The SVW had raided the residential premises of Choudhary at Muzaffarpur and Patna and seized papers relating to his properties worth over Rs one crore on April 27 last.

The operation followed registration of a disproportionate asset case against the Rajbhasha Director charging him with accumulating wealth over Rs 55 lakh disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The sleuths had seized registration deeds of four plots in the town, besides papers relating to his having a three acre plot at Bochaha in Muzaffarpur district.

Choudhary's flat in posh Boring Road locality in Patna was also searched and it was discovered that his family had two bank lockers, the keys of which were later traced, official sources said.

Bihar plans vote booths for weaker sections

2008-05-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Patna: Hundreds of separate polling booths will be set up for socially marginalised and weaker sections of society in Bihar to enable them to vote without fear, an official said on In a bid to check rigging and use of muscle power in all polls in the future, the election commission has directed the state government to set up separate booths for marginalised and weaker sections, mostly dalits or the oppressed class of society.

"We have been directed to set up separate booths for marginalised and weaker sections of society to stop use of muscle power against them during elections," said State Chief Electoral Officer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh.

He has asked all the district magistrates - who are also the electoral officers - to identify such voters and prepare their list so that separate booths can be set up.