» Bihar News

Suspension of railway projects a setback for state: Expert

thejamal — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 05:40:41 +0000

The decision of railway ministry to suspend two major projects in Bihar for the time being has evoked mixed reaction from technical experts of the railways. They feel this move would cause a setback to railway efforts to develop Bihar as an ancillary zone on the pattern of Bangalore by 2012-2015.

Bihar has the potential to be developed as an ancillary zone of the railways as most of the railway components will be manufactured here in the future barring coach manufacturing factory. The railways has already pooled about Rs 55,000 crore for developing railway network in Bihar, they said.

According to these experts, Bangalore has become a hub of IT centre as it has been developed under a planned manner as ancillary zone. The city has all the required infrastructure like electricity, roads and communication system etc to set up new factories there. Besides, the law and order is also better there for any industry to flourish, they said, adding Bihar has now an ideal atmosphere for making investments in any big plant or project .

The decision of the ministry of railways to set up new factories in north Bihar, including wheel factory, diesel locomotive and electric locomotive factories, and goods wagons and passenger wagons maintenance workshops would improve the socio-economic condition in Bihar, the experts said, adding suspension of these two major projects at this stage would hamper railway development work in the state.

The railways has major factories at Jamalpur, Chitranjan and Varanasi. Barring Varanasi , these other two factories have no ancillary support. That could be the reason the railways decided to develop the entire north Bihar as ancillary zone. At present, the railways has been paying sales and other taxes in crores to other states by way of purchasing rail components and other machineries. Development of Bihar as an ancillary zone will augment the state government s revenue, admitted an ECR official.

According to former railway chief engineer G N Sahay, the wheel and locomotive factories being set up in Bihar will require materials like nuts, bolts and screws in bulks. Besides, these factories will need electrical components too. The railways could fulfil these demands only when several ancillary factories are developed to support the main industries, he said.

Besides, these projects will provide employment to the local people. The railway colonies will come up providing indirect economic support to a large number of people who could earn their livelihood, the experts said.

The railways’ projects in Bihar include wheel factory at Chhapra (Rs 1,417.23crore ), diesel locomotive manufacturing factory at Marhaura in Sararn district (Rs 2,025 crore), coach maintenance workshop at Harnaut (Rs 225 crore), goods wagon repair workshop at Sonepur (Rs 90 crore), DEMU maintenance depot at Sonepur (Rs 15 crore), wagon repair workshop at Samastipur (Rs 33 crore), electric locomotive manufacturing factory at Madhepura (Rs 1,400 crore ) and concrete sleeper factories at Madhepura, Sitamarhi and Chaksikandar ( Rs 15 crore).

Meanwhile, deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi urged railway minister Mamata Banerjee not to suspend the two major projects. Instead the railways must provide funds in the ensuing railway budget for these projects, he said.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Suspension-of-railway-projects-a-setback-for-state-Expert/articleshow/7414547.cms

Ex-IITian starts world-class school in Bihar village

thejamal — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:20:11 +0000

In a remote corner of the state, at Chamanpura village of Gopalganj district, a story is unfolding of unique enterprise and innovative methods in school education.

Situated about 30 km from Gopalganj, this school, known as Chaitanya Gurukul Public School, was founded in 2009 by an ex-IITian, Chandrakant Singh, now based in Bangalore.

Bereft of electricity till date, about 450 children, both boys and girls, are imparted lessons in physics, chemistry, mathematics and computer through Skype, video conferencing and Internet. Eight of Singh’s associates, sitting in various corners of the world, have joined hands to teach children right from Class I to Class VII, through video-conferencing. Apart from distance learning, 16 teachers, who reside on the campus, are helping the students in their studies. Here, teachers mark their attendance using a biometric finger-printer and students too log their attendance in computers.

The computers run on gensets owned by the school. Once computers were in place, the teaching did not have to wait. Pankaj Kumar of NTPC, a technocrat, teaches physics from Singrauli. Working with HAL, Sanjay Rai, an alumnus from BITS, Pilani, teaches chemistry from Korwa in UP, while M Vats, a US-based technocrat teachers math.

“With a view to providing world-class, technology-enabled education to the children of this backward village, where I was born and where I had my primary schooling, I set up this institution,” said Singh.

The push came when the Mahartashtra Navnirman Sena was attacking Bihari migrants in Mumbai. Singh then decided to do something immediately for his home town. “I was greatly disturbed, and wanted to arrest the migration of students from Bihar in my small way,” he said.

He then sought the advice of Surya Narayan, dean of IIT, Bombay, who was his teacher also. Narayan suggested him to make a plan for revenue-generating, self-sustaining model instead of taking the charity route. Singh then prepared a blueprint and e-mailed it to 3,000 friends, eight of whom agreed to fund it.

After the state government approved the proposal, the friends, who formed a trust, met the villagers and convinced them about the school. Within three months, they had 13 acres of land — from 100 villagers, who sold plots from 3 decimals to an acre in the area. Soon a big building started coming up, a part of which is still under construction.

With quality class rooms and campus, tuition fee starts from Rs 300 for Class I and is increased annually by Rs 100 as a child goes to a higher class. However, the school is run on self-sustaining basis, and not for profit. Chandrakant himself is doing his job, but takes classes through video-conferencing. Every year, one more class is sought to be opened at the school.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Ex-IITian-starts-world-class-school-in-Bihar-village/articleshow/7419365.cms

Bihar kidnappings shock, scare NRIs

thejamal — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 10:08:54 +0000

Non-Resident Indians from Bihar are shocked and worried over the rising incidents of kidnapping in the state as the fear of abductions once again returns to haunt the people.

Many NRIs expressed their anguish four days after Neelesh Kumar Seth, a businessman, was abducted in Bihar’s Banka district last week. His brother Sanjeev Kumar, based in California, appealed to the abductors to free him after police failed to make any breakthrough.

“I appeal to the abductors to release my brother,” Sanjeev Kumar said in an e-mail to mediapersons here.

He said he has also approached top police officials and the media via telephone for his brother’s safe recovery.

Neelesh Kumar Seth, who runs a jewellery business, was kidnapped at gunpoint by unidentified men in Banka Wednesday evening while he was on his way to Deogarh in neighbouring Jharkhand, an official said.

Police suspect that he was abducted for ransom. But the family has not yet received any ransom call, the official added.

Piyush Behari Lal, another NRI from Bihar, also expressed his anguish.

“It’s pathetic to see crimes and abductions rising in Bihar again. I am worried because I too am planning to return from the United States and start my research lab in Bihar, which will help underprivileged talented students,” he said in an e-mail to reporters here.

“But these criminal acts force me to think again. I now wonder if it would be wise to return to a place of criminals, even though it is my home. Will I too be abducted,” Lal asked.

Sharad, another US-based Indian, said it was shocking to read about the increasing incidents of kidnapping in Bihar.

“I am with Sanjeev and many like him who are facing this moment of crisis. I sincerely urge local media to put pressure on the Bihar government to come out of its election victory hangover and start working towards the safety of its people,” Sharad said in an e-mail.

Ejaz Ahmad, who is based in Dubai, also joined the chorus of shock and anger from overseas.

“It looks as if chief minister Nitish Kumar acted on abduction cases only for a few months before his election. Now that he won the election in a big way he has no time to look into all this lawlessness and abductions. It again proves that Bihar is not going to improve, no matter who comes into power. At the end of the day, all politicians are same,” Ahmad said in his message.

Another NRI based in the US, Rajesh K. Illango, said that the situation is very unfortunate. “The worst for those of us on the other side of the globe is the helplessness. I hope Neeraj returns without a scratch. His safe release will definitely improve the image of Bihar and the administration of Nitish Kumar,” he said via e-mail.

During the last one month, more than a dozen cases of kidnapping have been reported across the state.

The fresh abduction spree is giving sleepless nights to parents, teachers and school authorities as several abducted schoolboys were killed during the last four years.

The news of the killing of schoolboy Amarjeet Kumar and other abducted people, including Rajiv Singh in the last few weeks has created panic. Nearly two weeks after his abduction, police last week recovered the body of Rajiv Singh, husband of Khushbu Devi of Dumra block under Sitamarhi district.

Rajiv was abducted Dec 17 and two days later the kidnappers rang up his wife to inform that, unlike in the case of her son, she would not be able to see even the body of her husband.

In January 2009, Rajiv’s son Amandeep was kidnapped and later killed.

Additional Director General of Police P K Thakur admitted that the police was worried over a sudden spurt in cases of kidnapping in the state.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar had claimed during the poll campaign that kidnappings had come down drastically during his rule.

How Nitish plans to make Bihar an economic power

thejamal — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 06:00:50 +0000

After sweeping the Bihar elections, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar tells Business Standard that the main task before him is to tackle corruption and ensure fast economic growth. Excerpts from an interview:

During the election campaign, you promised to keep tabs on corruption. How are you going to do this?

Well, our target is to eliminate corruption from the state. For this, we have been doing a lot of work. During our previous stint, we passed an anti-corruption Act.

Under the Act, properties of corrupt officials can be seized by the state government and turned into schools. This time also, we are actively involved in making special laws and putting in place special provisions to control corruption.

We are in the process of drafting a Right to Service Bill. To curb corruption in local bodies, a Lokpal will be appointed. The important thing is that today there is a structure and willingness within the state government to curb corruption. Other things will fall in line.

What is this right to service?

It is going to be the biggest administrative reform in Bihar. During my Vishwas Yatras, I saw that people had to make numerous rounds of government offices for the simplest of jobs.

That is why we took this innovative step. According to the provisions of this Bill, simple works like issuing caste certificates, character certificates, medical certificates, birth or death certificates and passports will have to done in set time.

If the work is not done within the deadline, the official concerned will be fined. One of the most important provisions is that the fine will be deducted from the official’s salary. These are small steps but will create a huge impact.

We are also planning to take the help of information technology later. We feel that people should not have to visit government offices for these simple things.

The government is establishing common service centres, known as Vasudha Kendras, in every panchayat. These will be equipped with computers and internet connections. People will be able to drop their applications at these centres.

They will be able to view the status of their applications on the internet. This can be implemented at a later stage. But right now, we want to ensure that the common man gets the services of civil servants.

Our main aim is to ensure that the common man has minimum possible interaction with government officials for getting his work done.

What is the status of the Bill?

The initial draft is ready. I am actively involved with preparing it. This week also, I had a meeting with senior officials on this. You can expect it in the next session of the Assembly.

It will apply to all public servants. We are very clear about it. Both the Centre and the state government are spending money for development and this must reflect on the ground.

There are many complaints about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in the state. What do you have to say about that?

There are indeed many constraints here. The biggest problem is the limited flow of money from New Delhi. We came to power in November 2005 and found that the previous government had not provided utilisation certificates for many projects.

The Centre is demanding these for sending the money. How can one justify that? However, we are providing them the certificates, but still the central government is not giving us the money.

On the other hand, there’s a shortage of technical staff and rozgaar sewaks. One important thing is the number of days of employment.

NERGS does promise 100 days employment a year, but the money allocated to us can provide employment for just 30-35 days.

Besides, there is a lack of awareness about the provisions of NREGS. Just having a job card does not provide you a job. One has to apply.

I personally chaired a meeting on this during the last days of my previous tenure. It was a very long and detailed meeting, in which noted social economist Jean Dreze participated.

That meeting was attended by the chief secretary, the principal secretary of the rural development department and many other senior officials of the state government.

We took many notable decisions to curb leakages in the system. But inadequacy of funds remains a big problem. The central government must provide us the money.

However, we have taken many innovative steps for NREGS. Now, local officials can approve larger projects.

We will recruit technical staff and rozgaar sewaks. We are also trying to increase the involvement of locals in the projects. To put a stop on corrupt practices, we have launched ‘E-Shakti’ biometric cards.

A pilot project for this is going on in Patna district. It will be extended to the whole state. Keep an eye on this project as one day it will be a model for whole country.

What about the public distribution system (PDS)? What are you plans for that?

The work we have done for PDS has never been done by any government. We revamped the whole process. All dealers were against me at one point of time. It shows the improvement that we have done.

However, there is still more to do and we will be doing it.

What did you tell your council of ministers? They look quite enthusiastic.

Nothing much. I just asked them to first understand their departments and be available to the people. No one should be turned away from the minister’s office or residence.

Ministers should attend to the needs of the visitors and be humble to them. Besides, I asked them to give a patient ear to the elected representatives.

Their suggestions on matters of public interest should be accepted and if any recommendation is not considerable, they should be told the reasons politely.

Will you be visiting New Delhi and asking for help from the central government?

Certainly. I have plans to go to New Delhi after the session (of Assembly) and meet the prime minister. I will ask for his assistance in developing Bihar.

Source: http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-how-nitish-plans-to-put-bihar-on-fast-growth-path/20101207.htm

BSEB releases exam results

thejamal — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 05:48:53 +0000

Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) on Thursday declared the results of supplementary secondary examination 2010. “The overall pass percentage in the SSE is 61.5%,” said BSEB chairman A K P Yadav. The pass percentage of girls and boys is 60.3% and 62.6%, respectively.

“SSE results will be uploaded on the BSEB website within two days and provisional certificates, mark-sheets and other certificates will be sent to all schools within a week,” Yadav told reporters.

The highest pass percentage of 77.5% has been recorded in Munger district, followed by Saran with 68.4%.

A total of 79,785 students had appeared in the examination. It was conducted from October 7 to October 11, 2010 at 106 centres across the state.

Yadav also announced that BSEB had decided to felicitate 15 highest scorers of the 2010 Bihar board examination to mark the birth anniversary of Dr Rajendra Prasad on Friday. “We will also felicitate the state toppers of all three streams of the intermediate examination 2010,” he said.

HRD minister Prashant Kumar Shahi will inaugurate the function.

Bihar police stations to be GPS equipped soon

thejamal — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 05:46:10 +0000

Soon the police stations in Bihar, particularly located in Naxal affected districts will be connected with Global Positioning System (GPS). The state police headquarters has already submitted a proposal to the state government in this regard.

Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Neelmani said that the state police would soon purchase 2500-3000 GPS sets. “A proposal has already been submitted to the state government. It is under the consideration of the state government. We hope the proposal will be approved in the next meeting of the cabinet,” he added.

The GPS system would help the police contain crime. The DGP said police headquarters has also proposed purchasing of 100 mortars of 81MM and 200 mortars of 51MM.

For the first time, the headquarters has felt the need of buying about 2000 deep search metal detectors (DSMD) and 100 thermal imagers (TI). Thermal imagers would be provided to the police stations located in Naxal hit areas to keep a watch on the movement of the Maoists at night.

“With the help of the thermal imagers, the security men can trace the movement of the Naxalites in a radius of 1.5 KM. The state police is bereft of such a device,” Neel Mani said, adding that about 200-300 other night vision devices.

The police required 90 more bullet protected gypsies for better policing in Naxal affected areas. The state has at present more than 60 bullet protected vehicles. Besides, there is a proposal to purchase 150 bullet protected troupe carriers. The headquarters has also proposed strengthening bomb disposal squads.

The DGP said that two more bomb disposal squads would be stationed in districts. While one of them is proposed to be set up at Barauni (Begusrai), the location of another unit is yet to be finalised. At present two bomb disposal squads are stationed in Patna, and two each in Gaya, Dehri (Rohtas), Muzaffarpur and Jamalpur (Munger).

Patna Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) B S Meena said that in the first phase, police patrol cars of important police stations would be equipped with GPS facility. It has been learnt in the recent times that the police patrol cars remained conspicuously absent from the site of crime and could only be located when the criminals left the place of occurrence (PO).

The arrangement has already been done that at least one police patrol should touch one particular place within 10-15 minutes. But due to absence of any device, the police parties on the patrol cars could easily lie about their locations at the time of commitment of crimes.

Now with the installation of GPS, this problem can be checked and no police patrol can lie about its location, the SSP said adding that any senior police official could know the exact location of the particular police parties at given times.

Source: http://www.igovernment.in/site/bihar-police-stations-be-gps-equipped-soon-38849

Notification for fourth phase poll in Bihar

thejamal — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:04:16 +0000

The Election Commission on Thursday issued notification for holding elections to 42 Assembly seats in Bihar going to poll in the fourth phase on November 1. “The commission issues the notification for the fourth phase poll this morning,” Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Kumar Anshumali said. October 14 will be the last date of making nominations while scrutiny of papers will take place the next day, he said.

October 18 would be the last date for withdrawal of candidates.

Of the 42 constituencies, polling will be held between 7 am and 3 pm in constituencies of Alauli (SC), Suryagarha, Tarapur, Jamalpur, Katoria(ST), Belhar, Sikandara (SC), Jamui, Jhajha and Chakai while voting will take place between 7 am and 5 pm in the rest of the assembly segments.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Notification-for-fourth-phase-poll-in-Bihar/Article1-609419.aspx

Super success for Patna IIT coaching centre

thejamal — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:33:16 +0000

Patna: All 30 students of Super 30, the free coaching institute set up for poor students in Patna, have cracked the entrance test for the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT).

“All the 30 students have cleared IIT-JEE,” said Anand Kumar, the institute’s director-founder, at a press conference on Wednesday.

Kumar said institute’s students are from poor families and studied for 16 hours a day. “We will try to arrange loans for the education of the poor students who qualified for IITs,” he said.

The coaching institute will try to arrange full scholarships including for its students, said Kumar, who claims he missed a chance to study at Cambridge University because he didn’t have money.

Shubham Kumar Gautam, one of the institute’s students, said his father is a poor farmer in Nalanda and earned income less than Rs 2,500 per month. Gautam said he would not have been able to qualify for IIT had Super 30 not helped him.

Source: Biharscoop.com

Bihar’s Super 30 in Time magazine best list

thejamal — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:20:37 +0000

PATNA: Super 30, Bihar’s free coaching centre which helps economically backward students crack the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE), has been selected by The Time Magazine in the list of The Best of Asia 2010.”It is a matter of great pleasure that the Time Magazine has included our school Super 30 in the list of The Best of Asia,” Anand Kumar, the institute’s director-cum-founder, told IANS.

“Time Magazine has described Super 30 as the Best Cram School in its list,” he said.

Every year, about 230,000 students take the exam for a seat in the IITs but only 5,000 grab it. “Last year, 30 of them came from one coaching centre in Patna, capital of the impoverished north Indian state of Bihar. That may not seem like many, but for the Super 30 centre it’s a pass rate of 100 percent,” the magazine said in its latest issue.

“What makes that feat even more remarkable is that these students are the poorest of the poor, who would otherwise never be able to afford full-time coaching,” it added.

For More http://biharscoop.com/story/2010/5/14/101154/157

Degree holders held for 50 robberies

thejamal — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 06:40:06 +0000

Five-member gang used to operate in Delhi and NCR

They teach you ways to snatch opportunities and business from your competitors at management institutes, but these men took that rather literally.

On Wednesday, five persons of a gang were arrested by the Delhi crime branch for their alleged involvement in more than 50 cases of robbery, snatching and vehicle theft. The gang was famous by the name of Bunty gang and the accused were identified as Manoj Kumar Kejriwal (35), Parveen Shankar (27), Rahul Anand (26), Hari Om (23) and Mahesh Kumar (35). Shankar is an MBA from Symbiosis University in Pune while Kejriwal is a History graduate from Ranchi University.
“On a tip off, the gang was arrested on March 26 from Geeta Colony in east Delhi when Manoj, Shankar and Rahul were coming from Daryaganj on two stolen motorcycles and were carrying illegal weapons with them. Three stolen motorcycles, two country-made pistols, a semi-automatic pistol and jewellery were seized,” said a police officer.

According to the police, the gang was into this business for the past two years and used to commit crimes during the day. The gang gained prominence when it robbed a reporter of Danik Jagran newspaper on March 6.
The gang again committed a robbery on March 20 in Gurgaon and looted jewellery from a woman at gunpoint. Later, they mortgaged the looted jewellery at Muthoot Finance’s Branch in Mahipalpur for Rs 69,000.

They used the money to purchase illegal weapons from Munger (Bihar) and used stolen mobile phones for their criminal activities.

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/apr/010410-Delhi-50-robberies-NCR-corridor.htm