Month: August 2019

Here comes the heavy rain in Jharkhand

Source: telegraphindia.com

Several parts of the state, especially those in its southern, central and western regions, are expected to experience heavy to very heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours, courtesy a depression over the Bay of Bengal.

Both the Ranchi and Calcutta centres of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday issued downpour alerts in their bulletins.

“The low-pressure area that was hovering over the north Bay of Bengal has intensified into a depression and lay centred around 160km southeast of Balasore (Odisha) and about 130km south-east of Digha (Bengal). Under its influence, several parts of Jharkhand will get heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours,” said R.S. Sharma, a senior Met scientist at the IMD’s Ranchi centre.

He said the depression would intensify into a deep depression as it moved north-westwards across Odisha and Bengal coasts over the next 48 hours.

“We believe the depression will result in heavy to very heavy rainfall in several places across the state in the next 24 hours,” he added.

The monsoon trough was on Tuesday passing through Ganganagar, Hissar, Mainpuri, Mirzapur, Ranchi, Jamshedpur and northwest Bay of Bengal, extending up to 1.5km above mean sea level.

Weathermen in Calcutta also predicted heavy and widespread rainfall.

“The depression is expected to weaken only after the next 48 hours,” said a duty officer, adding that several districts of Jharkhand were expected to experience a good spell of showers.

The showers during the next two days would help in reducing the monsoon deficit, which on Tuesday was at 40 per cent. Met data show that the state has received 352.5mm of rainfall so far against an average normal of 587.5mm.

The depression build-up coupled with an active monsoon trough gifted Jamshedpur a rainy Tuesday.

Weathermen said around 50 per cent Met stations in southern and central Jharkhand reported showers on Tuesday.

At some places the rainfall was accompanied by winds at 15kmph.

The local Met observatory in Jamshedpur recorded around 20mm of rain while several places in Ranchi and its outskirts recorded rainfall of around 5mm from 8.30am on Monday to 8.30am on Tuesday. Simdega recorded 70mm while Dhanbad experienced 40mm of rain. Palamau district headquarters Daltonganj recorded 30mm of rain while Chakradharpur, Chaibasa (both in West Singhbhum), Ramgarh, Chandil (in Seraikela-Kharsawan) and Ghatshila (in East Singhbhum) witnessed 10mm of rain each.

Company cements ties with 5 villages of Angara block near Ranchi

Source: telegraphindia.com

Two anganwadi centres in Angara block of Ranchi district have received a bright makeover, and three more in the block will do so, thanks to the corporate social responsibility activity of a cement company.

ACC Cement under its CSR has taken the onus to revamp all five anganwadi centres — the mainstay of mother-and-child healthcare in rural areas — in Angara block.

Recently, chief minister Raghubar Das’s principal secretary Sunil Kumar Barnwal inaugurated two revamped centres in Soso and Nawagarh villages, appreciating the innovative work.

Under the ACC Cement project, the so far the two buildings have been completely renovated, painted and given a bright look with graphics on walls to help women and children get a feel-good experience. Walls are painted with alphabets, animals, birds and graphics on child nutrition, cleanliness and care tutorials. Bright colours have been used.

Jamshedpur based architecture firm Espacio is implementing the project.

ACC Cement CSR head (Chaibasa) Pranav Arya said their main idea was to do something for rural kids and their mothers.

“These are very important centres as they act as the first playschool for rural kids and the place where mothers get contraceptive counselling and supply, nutrition education and supplements. But they look very shabby. So we conceptualised the idea to upgrade them and give them a new look. We wanted to something for children and their mothers in rural areas, and upgrading anganwadi centres seemed to be a good idea. We have also built a Panchayat Bhavan hall in Nawagarh,” Arya said.

While the Soso and Nawagarh anganwadi centres have been revamped, those lined up for a similar makeover are the centres in Obar, Rangamati and Harabera.

Director of Espacio, Kalyan Kumar Patra, said they wanted to make the centres “happy places that mothers and kids love to visit”.

“Anganwadi centres are meant for mothers, toddlers and young children so we wanted to make the spaces warm, inviting and informative too. So after the mandatory painting, we went all creative, painting figures, alphabets, solar system and pictorial graphics on walls with bright colours,” Patra said.

A woman of Nawagarh, Surbari Sit, who is the mother of a four-year-old, said she felt happy at the new-look anganwadi. “It’s so cheerful. It feels good to see all these colours in front of you. Children love looking at colours and cry less,” she laughed.

Mukhiyas Targeted in Bihar, 2 Killed in 24 Hours

Source: newsclick.in

Patna: With two mukhiyas [elected village body heads] killed by criminals in Bihar in the last 24 hours, hundreds of mukhiyas in rural areas across the state are worried about their security, owing to the threat to their lives from gangsters, criminals and rivals.

Arun Singh (48), mukhiya of Barap panchayat, was shot dead on Monday night by motorcycle-borne criminals at his native village in Bhojpur district. In another incident, Ravinder alias Robin Das, mukhiya of Fatehpur panchayat, was allegedly kidnapped and murdered. His body was found on Tuesday morning in Sabaur in the neighbouring Bhagalpur district.

Singh, who belongs to the powerful upper caste Rajput, was killed when he was reportedly sitting along with other villagers outside a house in his native village. Angry over the killing, hundreds of local villagers on Tuesday blocked Ara-Sasaram road, demanding arrest of the criminals involved.

Das’s throat was allegedly slit after he was kidnapped and his body was thrown near an orchard. Local residents have protested and are demanding compensation for his family.

“Singh and Das were killed by criminals hired for revenge by their rivals or by those having dispute with them over some issue,” a senior police official at the police headquarters here said.

Last month, Mohammad Alishan, mukhiya of Sumera panchayat in Muzaffarpur district, was shot dead at his native village. In the past six months, half a dozen husbands of women mukhiyas have been killed across the state. After Bihar government reserved 50% seats in panchayat polls for women, hundreds of women mukhiyas have got elected, but their husbands run the show on the ground.

According to a rural activist, Mahender Yadav, most of mukhiyas were murdered over disputes with local criminals, gangsters or rivalry related to development work in their areas.

A senior officer from the Home Department, which is under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, told NewsClick that security threat is an old concern among mukhiyas in the state and time and again, they have demanded bodyguards. Akhiyar Khan, mukhiya of a panchayat in Arwal district, confirmed this: “We have demanded bodyguards repeatedly citing real threat to our lives, but we have been ignored.”

“Mukhiyas are not safe. There is a threat to our life, as we are working on the ground. But the government hardly bothers to provide security to us,” Chotu Singh, mukhiya of a panchayat under Haspura block in Aurangabad district said.

A mukhiya of a panchayat in Muzaffarpur district told NewsClick on the condition of anonymity that local criminals demand tax and threaten the mukhiyas with dire consequences if they are not paid.

In some districts like Gaya, Jehanabad, Jamui, Munger, Sitamarhi, Rohtas, Nawada, Sheohar, Aurangabad and Arwal, mukhiyas are even afraid of threats by Maoists.

In Bihar, there are 8,442 village body heads, 8,422 sarpanch, 1,15,542 panchayat members, 11,534 panchayat samiti members and 1,162 zila parishad members.

Thanks to rampant corruption in state and central government-funded development schemes in rural areas, mukhiyas have become neo-rich, which makes them easy targets of the criminals as well as their political rivals. With youths without job or work, they are hired by gangs to target mukhiyasfor money.

Now, expect fewer call drops on Delhi Metro’s Pink and Magenta lines

Source: hindustantimes.com

Commuters on Delhi Metro’s Pink Line (connecting Majlis Park and Shiv Vihar) or Magenta Line (connecting Botanical Garden and Janakpuri West) are expected to get relief from call drops, poor network and snapped internet inside trains and in stations.

Months after the two lines were thrown open for public, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has installed network boosters throughout the underground route of the Pink and the Magenta lines to ensure “uninterrupted” mobile phone services.

“We conducted successful trials throughout July and now even in the underground section of both the lines, mobile connectivity is available. We are installing mobile towers in the older lines so that the problem of call drops is solved,” said a senior DMRC official.

The 58-km Pink Line has 38 stations, of which 11 are underground, while the Magenta Line, which stretches across 38 kilometres between Noida and West Delhi, has 23 of its total 25 stations underground. Compared to the older corridors, the problem of poor mobile connectivity is particularly high on these two routes.

Officials said in the coming days, connectivity will get better.

“Services of major mobile service providers, which cater to a majority of consumers, are now available on the corridors. Work is also in progress to provide connectivity for all remaining service providers,” a DMRC spokesperson said.

In May this year, the DMRC had said that they are installing nearly 94 additional mobile towers across its network. The Metro said that the maximum number of these towers—in nearly 35 locations—will be installed on the Blue Line (Dwarka sector-21 to Vaishali and Noida Electronic City), especially between Noida Electronic City and Shadipur and Laxmi Nagar and Vaishali.

Towers will also be installed in about 18 locations on the Yellow Line (between Samaypur Badli and Huda City Centre), and 14 locations on the Violet Line (between Kashmere Gate and Ballabhgarh).

MHA confers Utkrisht Seva Padak to Jharkhand CRPF IG

Source: dailypioneer.com

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has accorded Utkrisht Seva Padak to Jharkhand CRPF IG Sanjay Anand Lathkar.  The MHA works on its CRPF officials for its two most coveted medals called by its Hindi version Ati Utkrisht Seva Padak and Utkrisht Seva Padak said Commandant of 134 battalion of CRPF, A D Sharma who said a signal to this effect that IG Lathkar is a recipient of Utkrisht Seva Padak  has reached CRPF battalions across the country from the Directorate General office of CRPF.

Lathkar has in his kitty 60 such varied recognitions and appreciations and among the 60 is one Mahatma Gandhi Shanti Samman Puraskar that was bestowed upon him by the Maharashtra Minority Commission.

Lathkar,  was a bit hesitant to share his mantra of success that brings him strings of laurels finally said that he has no ‘feudal mentality’.

He said, “I take my ground staff into confidence and gives them ears to their suggestions and opinions.  Repose trust in your personnel.

 Have faith in them and see they deliver better and  fast.  This is how you draw the best of every officials. And, when they do good recognition does not lag behind. It comes in just 10 days time.”

The 1995 batch IPS officer of Jharkhand cadre is on deputation in CRPF and has served in Bihar & Maharashtra as well.

On CRPF’s tackling of extremism here Lathkar said, “ Extremists are out for their survival. Their very existence is at peril.

 They indulge in aberrations just to remind that they are around but their teeth have gone.”

He said, “Jharkhand has seen four Lok Sabha elections but the latest one in 2019 has been the most peaceful one in terms of extremists’ violence, which has gone down quite considerably.”

“Maoists cannot fight us straight way. They torch vehicles and equipment of contractors and civilians like a few incidents of arson by them in Latehar district and they know also that time for them is running out and security forces will neutralize them,” reiterated the IG.

Northern Bihar still reeling after unprecedented downpour in July

Source: thehindubusinessline.com

Barring a light drizzle, northern Bihar has not seen much rain over the past week. But the aftermath of the unprecedented downpur in the region a fortnight ago is very visible, especially along the four-lane highway from Muzzafarpur district towards Darbhanga. Black polythene sheets flutter in the air and relief camps continue as far as the eye can see.

Up to 137 people have died and close to 90 lakh people in the 18 districts of Northern Bihar continue to be affected by the flash floods that struck after unprecedented rains lashed the region on July 13.

Thirty-year-old Rekhadevi, clutching her child Ajit, stares at her submerged hut a few metres away. Three weeks earlier, Ajit had nearly drowned as Rekha and her husband Muncchan Ram battled to save their lives and escape onto the highway. “In two hours flat, we had water up till our noses. My boy was drowning, when I suddenly noticed him and pulled him out to safety,” said Ram.

Up to 1,300 houses in Mithansarai and Madhopur villages have been completely drowned, and though the water is receding slowly by the day, only the rooftops of the grass huts are visible. Madhopur village has turned into an island of sorts.

Awaiting compensation

Muncchan Ram, his neighbour Rajinder Ram and thousands like them, who are landless labourers residing in low lying areas, are still waiting for ₹6,000, the compensation announced by the State government for each flood-affected family.

While 50-100 children are attending a makeshift school manned by 12 teachers on the highway, over 600 children have not been able to attend classes since last month, as their school lies submerged.

The district administration is running a boat service to ferry villagers to the mainland. For Sunitadevi (24), who lost her four-year-old girl Preeti to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome on June 20, the floods are another blow, just a month later. “Sunita has just gone quiet now,” says her husband Ashok. Sunita’s 30-year-old neighbour Angoori Khatun says that cases of diarrhoea in the village are now on the rise. Lack of clean drinking water during the floods has worsened the situation.

Vir Singh Jadhav, a 69-year-old farmer, was seen wading through waist-deep waters to cut fodder for his starving buffaloes. Jadhav lost all the paddy he had sown for his Kharif crop on three acres to the floods. “I have incurred a loss of close to ₹40,000, which I earn by selling rice each year. Farmers are running into losses with mounting debt and little help from the government,” he said.

Nearly 70 per cent of Northern Bihar is under water. “Up to 2,860 hectares of paddy has been washed out and 33 per cent of all standing crops have been lost. We will give farmers compensation per hectare,” said Darbhanga’s district collector Thiyagrajan SM. Thiyagrajan and his team are wondering if climate change has led to the unprecedented situation, with heavy rains in July causing flash floods a month earlier than usual.

Muzzafarpur’s Additional District Magistrate Atul Kumar Verma, who is in charge of Disaster Management, concurs. “We were expecting rainfall of 304.8 mm and in July it has rained 541.38 mm, which has created an unforeseen situation,” he says.

“Rivers have been at their highest levels since 1987. The levels of Kamla Balan, Bagmati and Aghwara have been redefined. At four places, the Kamla Balan has broken embankments and risen to 53.80 metres, above the danger mark. About 80 per cent of Darbhanga is submerged. About 211 panchayats in 17 blocks are affected,” says Thiyagrajan.

Administrative failure

The failure of the district administration in building a left embankment to the Bagmati river has compounded the trouble. “Work on the Bagmati left embankment has been stalled since 1975 due to problems of land acquisition. While the right embankment broke, the left one has never been built on a stretch of 15-20 km, leading to the flooding of Darbhanga,” said a senior official at the collectorate office.

In Darbhanga, the district administration claims that ₹6,000 has reached the bank accounts of 2.2 lakh flood affected. Yet, in Mustafapur, people in an entire village are wondering when will they receive their compensation. “Building makeshift tents itself costs over ₹5,000. We have had to buy our own polythene and bamboo. How will a compensation of ₹6,000 suffice,” asks Satyadevi. Villagers of Kako panchayat in Jhanjjharpur block of Darbhanga district protested in the block development office demanding that their names be included in the compensation list. They stormed into a block office and beat up a block development officer (BDO), Vinod Kumar. The villagers had to be kept at the bay and Kumar had to be kept locked in his office for a few hours to ensure his safety.

The school and health sub-centre in the village remain submerged. The district administration, which has all of 15 government-owned boats, is struggling to outsource boats and has none in Mustafapur.

Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey says that water purification pills, anti-snake-bite venom, anti-rabies vaccines and bleaching powder were being made available in 112 affected blocks.

Friendship Day: Ranchi college students install ‘happy fridge’ to feed poor

Source: hindustantimes.com

With an aim to not let any sleep with empty stomach, a group of college students in Ranchi on Sunday installed a ‘happy fridge’ at Swagatam Banquet Hall, Sahjanand Chowk in Harmu Road where leftover food will be kept for the needy people.

Extending helping hands towards to the poor on Friendship Day, the students, associated with an NGO called Feeding India, have decided to install such refrigerators at 10 strategic locations of the capital Ranchi so that no poor or needy person go hungry.

Priyanka Gautam, a college student, said initially they had started food drives to places like Jagannath Mandir and Ranchi railway station. Later, we decided to install refrigerators at places where poor could take out foods and satisfy their empty stomach, she said.

She said the initiative would also help eradicate the problem of hunger deaths and malnutrition due to unavailability of nutritious food.

The college students approaching restaurants, hotel and banquet hall owners and requesting them to donate their leftover foods. For proper distribution of food, the teams were also maintaining proper communication with different local NGOs and shelter homes.

IIT grads cannot be selling detergents: Pranab

Source: outlookindia.com

New Delhi, Aug 4 Former President Pranab Mukherjee has said that the country needs its graduates from premier institutions such as IITs to serve larger purposes rather than advance the sales of detergents at large multinationals.

“We require the talent of an IIT graduate for better purposes, than advancing the sale of detergents at any of the large multinationals. That job can be done by anybody. But surely the talent, knowledge and merit of an IIT graduate isn”t required for that,” Mukherjee said.

Speaking at the 10th edition of the Indian Management Conclave here on Saturday, the former President laid emphasis on the need to promote basic research in the country.

He cited the example of the first year of his Presidency when at the convocation of one IIT he asked the Director whether he knew of any student who had dedicated his life for basic research or education. “The Director fumbled and replied he is not sure.”

India has led the excellence in education for more than 1,800 years from 6th century BC to 12th century AD with universities such as Takshshila, Nalanda and Vikramshila, Mukherjee said.

“We don”t want that every year thousands of students go abroad for higher studies. Rather I want the traffic should reverse, like it used to happen for over 1,800 years. Till Nalanda and Vikramshila were destroyed, India was leading in the field of higher education.”

Mukherjee said he was proud of the country”s IIT graduates.

“India has a brand name. Beginning from the first five-year plan to the 12th five-year plan, we built huge infrastructure in higher education. More than 1,000 universities, 36,000 colleges, increase in number of IITs from eight to 16, 30 NITs, scores of IIScs and also the management institutions,” he said.

“But unfortunately in over 70 years from 1933, there has been no Nobel laureate who is doing basic research work in any Indian university. It is not the question of lack of talent, but ambience or the environment where students are encouraged for basic research. This is the most pertinent thing in education,” he added.

Citing the example of former Chief Justice of India Sudhir Ranjan Das, Mukherjee said that he used to take classes for school students.

The former President said the country needed teachers who helped students in fostering research.

He cited the example of the legendary Vashishtha Narayan Singh, a mathematician who obtained a PhD from the University of Berkeley despite being poor due to the encouragement from his teachers.

“I would urge the teachers and faculty members to build such excellence,” he said.

Mukherjee added that in general ratings globally, hardly any Indian university found a place in top 200. “It is not that Indian universities are not competent, but there are certain technicalities that are followed by others which are not followed by us.”

Mukherjee said: “The world is going to be a global village, and we all will be the residents of that global village. We need to equip ourselves for the global economy by updating our skills. We have to find out new skills, new technologies and new methods that can help in advancement of society.

“India is going to be the largest economy but I don”t want that economy to be stagnant.”

JMM holds youth rally against Govt policies

Source: dailypioneer.com

In an attempt to intensify its attack on ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its “wrong employment policy”, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) held a ‘Yuva Aakrosh Rally’ to demand jobs for local and tribal youths in all district head quarters across the State including the State Capital on Monday.

The party organised the march to catch attention of youths and students before the State Assembly Election which is scheduled in the end of this year. A large numbers of youths participated in the march.

The march led by JMM Executive president and former Chief Minister of the State, Hemant Soren and it started from Ranchi College Football Ground and crossing through Radium Road, Kutchery Chowk and finally ended at Raj Bhawan and culminated in a public meeting

Addressing the crowd at the Raj Bhawan during public meeting, Soren said that the party called ‘Yuva Aakrosh Rally’ against wrong job policies of the State Government, which resulted in employment of outsiders and forced the youths of the State to migrate to earn their living. “The State Government’s job policy is completely against the local and tribal of the State, during the tenure of present State Government the local and tribal of the State has not been given jobs in any of the State Government’s department and all the jobs were sold to outsiders,” he added.

Hitting hard on the government for its wrong job policies the former Chief Minister said that the government is playing with the future of the youths and the students to make a particular section happy. During the last five years the State Government has not been successfully completed a single recruitment through Jharkhand Public Service Commission, he added

Announcing the party’s stand if voted to power in the upcoming State Assembly Elections, Soren said that the party will constitute a special job policy for the local and tribal of the State. “The party will provide 75 per cent reservation to local and tribal to jobs of private companies which are settled in the State. The party will also make provision to give 50 per cent reservation to women in all State Government’s job,” he added.

“The party will start recruitment in mission mode in the first year of its tenure to fill all five lakhs vacant posts in the State Government’s various departments and those who are working as contractual employee of the State Government for a long time will also be regularised,” said Soren.

It has also been announced at the meeting that the local will get priority in tender of up to Rs 25 crore of all State Government’s contract.

Almost all senior leader of the party were present in the march.

Jharkhand stares at drought with 40% rainfall deficit

Source: indiatoday.in

Heavy showers, which had lashed some areas of Jharkhand a few days ago, had given local farmers hopes of more rains. But the rain clouds seem to have given a go-by to the state for the time being, pushing the farmers into distress as only 10 days of the sowing season are left.

According to the Met Department, the average rainfall in Jharkhand is so far deficit by 40 per cent. Since there is lack of rainfall in the majority of districts, agricultural work has been adversely hit. Even if it rains the next week, it is unlikely that sowing targets would be achieved.

In the last 24 hours, Ranchi and few other districts have received less than 10 mm of rainfall. Scientists at the local Met Department say that there has been lack of monsoon activity in the Bay of Bengal. On some occasions, however, low pressure did form but the system was weak and insufficient to cause rainfall. Despite the state remaining mostly under cloud cover, it never rained properly.

Weather scientist SD Kotal of the Met Department said that it has not rained in Jharkhand as per expectations. He, however, said that rains are expected in the state in the next four days as a new low pressure area is likely to develop in the Bay of Bengal.

Sahibganj district is the only exception which has received more than 14 per cent of average rainfall at 793.2 mm. In other districts like Dumka, Jamtara, Kodema, Lohardaga and Palamu rainfall has been less than 24 per cent while the situation was worse in Khunti, Godda, Chatra, Hazaribagh, Latehar, Garhwa, Pakur, Ranchi, among others.

Such has been the extent of the monsoon let down that in the two months after it hit the state, sowing of paddy could only be taken up in 26 per cent of the area.