August 21, 2019 - meraapnabihar

CM Yogi to reshuffle his cabinet today

Source: dailypioneer.com

Five ministers of the UP Cabinet, including Finance minister Rajesh Agarwal, resigned on Tuesday on eve of the first cabinet expansion in the state.

Also putting in their papers on Tuesday were cabinet minister for cooperative societies Mukut Bihari Verma, sports minister Chetan Chauhan, minister of state (independent charge) for basic education charge Anuradha Jaisawal and minister of state for agriculture marketing Swati Singh.

Mukut Bihari Verma had unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha elections from Ambedkarnagar.

All five ministers have submitted their resignation to the chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

The outgoing finance minister resigned citing health reasons while the other four ministers have quit as they anticipated their dismissal from the council of ministers.

“Following the policy of my organisation, I have tendered my resignation from the state cabinet as I am 75 years of age. Now it is up to the party to accept it. I’ll carry out whatever responsibility will be given to me,” Rajesh Agarwal later said.

Speculations are rife that one more deputy chief minister from the Dalit community is likely to be inducted, thus taking the number of deputy CMs to three.

The maximum strength of the council of ministers can be 61, including the Chief Minister, since the Uttar Pradesh Assembly has 403 seats.

“The oath-taking ceremony will be held on Wednesday at the Raj Bhavan at 11 am,” an official said.

However, the official declined to state the number of ministers who may take oath on Wednesday.

The much-awaited cabinet reshuffle of the Yogi Adityanath government is to fill slots that have fallen vacant, especially after some ministers were elected to the Lok Sabha.

Yogi Adityanath took over the reins of the state in March 2017, and this will be the first expansion of his ministry.

Three UP ministers were elected to the Lok Sabha in the recent polls, while disgruntled minister and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) leader O P Rajbhar was sacked by the chief minister for his repeated outbursts against the party.

The reshuffle was initially scheduled for Monday (August 19) but was postponed due to the deteriorating health of former Union minister Arun Jaitely in Delhi.

Earlier on Sunday, the authorities had suddenly stopped the distribution of invitation cards after officials confirmed the postponement of the swearing-in ceremony.

Preparations had begun for the swearing-in ceremony, while legislators, who were slated to be sworn in, were asked to reach Lucknow.

The Yogi government has a total of 43 ministers, including the Chief Minister. There are 18 Cabinet ministers, nine Ministers of State with Independent charge and 13 Ministers of State, including two Deputy Chief Ministers — Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma.

Mob attacks scientists in Bihar suspecting them to be child kidnappers

Source: gulfnews.com

Patna: Two scientists were beaten up by an angry mob of villagers in Bihar on the suspicion of being child kidnappers.

As per media reports, around 20 incidents of mob attacks or lynchings have been reported in the past month in Bihar.

Reports quoting police officials said that two geologists were conducting a survey at Chafla village in Kaimur district on Monday when it started raining. They took shelter under a tree to avoid being drenched.

In the meanwhile, some children from the area also came there, after which the scientists offered them fruits. The children fled the scene and informed the villagers.

Instantly, a mob rushed to the spot and began assaulting them suspecting them to be kidnappers. The geologists managed to flee the scene and informed the local police, which registered a case against 100 unidentified people.

“We have registered a case and action was being taken against the attackers,” the local police station in-charge Kripa Shankar Sah told the media on Tuesday.

Police officials said the geologists were conducting a survey of the area about the presence of mineral resources but the villagers mistook them as kidnappers.

Incidents of mob attacks and lynchings have seen an alarming rise in Bihar and in the past one month alone, around 20 such attacks were reported in which at least four people were killed, media reports said.

The majority of incidents have been reported from Patna, the capital of Bihar, with the main reason behind the attacks being rumours of child kidnapping.

The police have regularly launched awareness campaigns while top officials, including the Bihar’s director general of police Gupteshwar Pandey, have appealed to the masses to maintain calm but this has failed to put a brake on such incidents.

As things fails to improve, the police department has now issued instructions to the heads of all police stations in the state asking them to take videos of the mob violence.

“You [police officials] are hereby instructed to make videos of mob violence so that the persons involved in the crime could be identified and action taken against them,” Bihar’s inspector general of police Sanjay Singh told the media.

According to Singh, from now on all the cases will be registered against named persons and action will also be taken against the villagers who make the video during the mob violence.

After ‘triple talaq’, Jharkhand woman accuses husband of rape, forced conversion

Source: hindustantimes.com

A woman has lodged a police complaint in Ranchi alleging that she was duped into marriage by a man who allegedly coerced her into embracing Islam and eating beef, raped her for six years, administered her sedatives to get her to have sexual relations with others, video graphed the act and finally divorced her by way of triple talaq.

She has identified the accused as Sonu alias Md Abul Kaish.

Based on the woman’s complaint, the police have registered an FIR under Sections 376 (rape), 376 (2) (g) (gang rape), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and various other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

“We have started the investigation. As per our information, the accused is not in Ranchi. However, we will find out the truth and appropriate legal action will be taken,” Ranchi SP (rural) Ashutosh Shekhar said.

The accused, who is in Delhi, however, denied the allegations when contacted on phone.

According to the FIR, the woman, a resident of Ranchi, had joined an NGO as a counsellor in June 2013 where she came in contact with the accused.

“Sonu always used to put tilak on his forehead. In August, when I was ill, Sonu came to my residence and took me to see a doctor. On return, he gave me some pill after which I became unconscious,” the woman has alleged in the FIR. “Two days later, I found myself naked at Sonu’s house in Ranchi. When I tried to escape, he showed me some videos in which I was in lying naked with some other man.”

“Threatening to make these videos public, he asked me to follow his commands. One day, he asked me to wear a burqa (veil) and took me to a Qazi at Ranchi’s Doranda area. The Qazi made me to accept what he uttered. He then told me I had become a Muslim and my ‘nikah’ was solemnised with Md Abul Kaish,” the woman has said in her complaint.

“I then realised that Sonu was not a Hindu and I was converted into a Muslim. He later forced me to eat beef. After losing his job in Ranchi, he took me to Delhi in August 2016. There, I experienced worst form of torture. He used to come with some other person every night to commit gang rape,” the complaint reads.

In May this year, the accused had gone somewhere else, leaving her alone in Delhi. “I then came to my village and after some days, I went to Sonu’s ancestral house in Rajmahal. There, his family members refused to accept me saying Sonu already had a legitimate wife from the same community,” the complaint says.

The woman alleged she finally traced Sonu in Ranchi but he refused to accept her. In fact, he divorced her by way of triple talaq on July 27, 2019, she alleged.

Sonu (37) said, “I am a lawyer in Delhi. Baseless allegations have been levelled against me. When I was working with the NGO in Ranchi, the woman was introduced to me along with her brother. Her bother and I developed a good bond. When I shifted to Delhi, he once visited me seeking some job. I helped him to find a job in a cloth factory. Later, he had taken a loan of Rs 3.75 lakh from me to open a cloth shop in Ranchi. When I demanded the money back, they started threatening me with lodging a false case.”

Ranchi to get supply from Aug 23; Jamshedpur next, from Sept 8

Source: hindustantimes.com

Around 3,000 households in Ranchi’s Mecon Colony will get piped cooking gas supply from August 23 while over 2,000 households of Jamshedpur will receive the same from September 8, GAIL officials said .

The Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), which has been carrying out the infrastructure development and pipeline work from last one year, is preparing a roll-out the project in Jharkhand’s two biggest cities. It would benefit over 5,000 households in the initial phase.

“We have received the launch date for Ranchi on August 23 and September 8 for Jamshedpur. Pipeline connections have been provided to 3,000 households in Ranchi, while 2,000 in Jamshedpur,” said GAIL executive director (eastern region), KB Sinha.

“Two CNG stations, one at Khukri in Doranda and another at Madhuban (Ormanjhi), will also be inaugurated on August 23 in Ranchi. Since the CNG and PNG will be transported from Patna through cascading system, it might be little costlier in Ranchi. However, the GAIL’s Ranchi authority is yet to announce the rates of the gases,” he said. A cubic metre PNG costs around Rs 31, while as one kilogramme of CNG costs around Rs 61 in Patna. The GAIL officials said, PNG price would be more or less same in Ranchi , while CNG might cost Rs 8 to Rs 9 higher in Ranchi than Patna.

The prices, however, will drop after the Centre’s ambitious Jagdishpur-Haldia and BokaroDharma gas pipeline projects reach Ranchi.

The main gas pipeline would reach Ranchi through Chatra, Hazaribag, Bokaro and Ramgarh. It will cover 551-km in Jharkhand comprising 362 villages in 12 districts.

As per the calculation of GAIL, PNG would be 6% to 10% cheaper than LPG, and CNG would be around 40% cheaper than petrol and 25% lower than diesel.

In a meeting with Jharkhand chief minister, Raghubar Das, and union petroleum minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, in Ranchi on Tuesday, the progress of the city’s gas distribution was discussed. Pradhan said, the gas pipeline projects in two cities would be started by first week of September.

The GAIL has set the target to cover 30,000 households in Ranchi and 25,000 households in Jamshedpur in next five years.

In Jharkhand, merely 18.9% households use clean energy such as LPG and electric kitchen appliances, while 81% are still dependent on wood, coal and cow dung cakes for fuel in kitchens.

The national average for usage of clean energy in household is 43.8%, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) officials had said during a road show in Ranchi in January this year.

The CNG-run vehicles are expected to lower down the vehicular pollution in Ranchi and Jamshedpur. However, operation of such vehicles would take some time, as mere two CNG stations would not serve the purpose, experts said.

Ranchi firm dupes 20000, mastermind flees

Source: telegraphindia.com

Rround 20,000 students and homemakers of the capital have been allegedly cheated by scamsters running a fake survey agency, Smoak Multi Project Pvt Ltd, for the past six months at Sharma Lane on Main Road under Hindpiri police station.

On Tuesday, some 2,000 persons, mostly homemakers and students, held a protest in front of the closed office building and tried to ransack it despite the presence of the police.

The mastermind, identified so far by only his first name Ankit, is said to be from either Muzaffarpur or Nalanda district of Bihar, said police. Ankit also hired local youths to run the office. All are absconding.

Ranchi police have lodged an FIR against Ankit under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of IPC.

A policeman explained the scam was not a fake chit fund, but a survey with an elaborate modus operandi to give it respectability. “People were not asked to deposit their money as savings. People were lured by the promise of easy money,” he said.

Explaining the process, the policeman said: “Prime suspect Ankit convinced youths that they were conducting a national survey to prepare books for visually impaired people. Advertisements were placed in newspapers and pamphlets distributed outside schools and colleges. Interested people were asked to sign an agreement with the company with Rs 1,950 as refundable registration fee. Fake stamp papers were used for the agreement.”

Then, the surveyors were given booklets with numerical codes and words and 150 survey sheets each.

“They were told that if they completed 150 survey sheets in a week they would get Rs 3,000. If they brought in more people, they would get Rs 500 more per entrant. Homemakers and students, who wanted extra income or pocket money, fell for this in large numbers,” the policeman added.

DSP (Kotwali) Ajit Kumar Bimal said Ankit might not even be the mastermind’s real name, admitting that they had precious little to go with. “We will question the shop-owner who rented out his premises to Ankit. We have procured some documents from students and mobile numbers used by the accused. I will also probe into what action local police took when a citizen had raised an alarm last month,” he said.

The citizen concerned, Md Javed, who is the president of a watchdog outfit, non-banking agents and investors protection committee, squarely blamed the police for this present mess.

“On July 29, I gave a written complaint at Hindpiri police station. I had submitted evidence how Smoak Multi Project is committing scam and money laundering. Police did come to the office when Ankit was present. But the police did not trust me. They said action can’t be taken unless the victims lodge an FIR.” Javed said.

Victims were both dejected and furious. Kajal, a student of St Xavier’s College, said her friend trapped her into this. “I can’t face my family that I am such a big idiot. My father is a policeman. He will thrash me if he comes to know that his daughter was conned. I prepared at least 500 survey sheets,” she said.

Riya Singh, a student of St Anne’s College, said she knew something was fishy when she did not “get a paisa”. “We’ve been fooled.” Anukriti, from St Xavier’s College, lamented that she not only lost money but also wasted her valuable time.

“My family members did not even know. I thought I’d earn some pocket money and surprise them. I wasted my valuable time that I could have used for my studies,” she said.

Ruqshar Perwez, a teacher at a private school, said the tuition teacher of her children told her about the scheme. “I thought, why not. And now, I’ve lost my money,” she said.

Faizal Ahmed, owner of a computer store, alleged Ankit and his team ran away with eight computers that he (Ahmed) had rented out to the company.