Month: August 2019

Five BJP backbones who departed in last one year

Source: afternoonvoice.com

The ruling BJP won landslide victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and returned to power for second consecutive term at the Centre. But the party lost five tall leaders in past one year which is irreparable loss.  These five great leaders were Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Manohar Parrikar, Ananth Kumar, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley. The BJP and the entire country will always remember their contributions to the nation.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born on December 25, 1924, in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. He died on August 16, 2018, in New Delhi. He served as the prime minister of India thrice.

Vajpayee was first elected to parliament in 1957 as a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) which was forerunner of the BJP. In 1977 the BJS joined three other parties to form the Janata Party which led a government that lasted until July 1979. As foreign minister in the Janata government, Vajpayee earned a reputation for improving relations with Pakistan and China. In 1980, following a split in the Janata Party, Vajpayee helped the BJS to reorganise itself as the BJP. In 1992 he was one of the few Hindu leaders to speak out against the destruction of the historic mosque at Ayodhya.

Vajpayee was sworn in as prime minister in May 1996 but was in office only 13 days, after failing to attract support from other parties. In early 1998 he again became prime minister, in elections in which the BJP won a record number of seats, but he was forced to make a shaky alliance with regional parties. In 1999 the BJP increased its seats in parliament and came back to power.

Manohar Parrikar

Former Defence Minister and the four times Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar passed away on March 17, 2019, at the age of 63. He was born on December 13, 1955. He was the Chief Minister of Goa since 14 March 2017. Parrikar was battling prolonged illness. He was diagnosed with a pancreatic cancer. A graduate in metallurgical engineering from IIT-Bombay in 1978, he was the first IITian to serve as the legislator of a state.

Parrikar proposed the name of Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate before 2013 BJP parliamentary elections convention in Goa. He served in the National Democratic Alliance government under Prime MinisterNarendra Modi as Defence Minister of India from 2014 to 2017. He was a former member of Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. Parrikar was the Defence Minister in 2016 when India conducted a surgical strike on terror launch pads across the LoC, days after the terror attack in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir.

Ananth Kumar

Ananth Kumar was Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers. He was born in 1959 in Bangalore. Ananth Kumar was influenced by the RSS from his childhood and joined the ABVP, the BJP’s student wing. During the Emergency, he was imprisoned. He was later elected ABVP’s State Secretary and then its National Secretary in 1985. He joined the BJP and was nominated state president of the BJP Yuva Morcha. He was then made BJP National Secretary in 1996.

In 1996, he was elected from Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency and has been elected from the same seat six consecutive times. In 1998 he was inducted into the Union Cabinet headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Minister for Civil Aviation. In 1999, he became a Cabinet minister in the NDA government. He handled various ministries like Tourism, Sports & Youth Affairs, Culture, Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation.

He became the President of the Karnataka state unit of BJP in 2003 and led the BJP to become the single largest party in the Legislative Assembly and won the highest number of the Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in 2004. In 2004, he was appointed as the National General Secretary of the BJP.

Sushma Swaraj

Sushma Swaraj, a veteran leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former Minister of External Affairs in the Narendra Modi government in its first term, died on August 6, 2019, following a heart attack. She was 67. She breathed her last in New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

She was also the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs from May 26, 2014, to January 7, 2016. She represented Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha constituency in the 16th Lok Sabha. She had joined the BJS after the Emergency of 1975. Swaraj had won her first election at the age of 25 in 1977 from the Ambala Cantonment Assembly constituency. In July 1977, she had become a Cabinet Minister in the Janata Party Government under Chief Minister Devi Lal. She taken got the position of the state president of Janata Party (Haryana) in 1979. Swaraj was also the Education Minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party–Lok Dal coalition government in Haryana during 1987-1990.

A Cabinet minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Swaraj had held the portfolios of Health and Family Welfare, Information and Broadcasting at different junctures. She was the Chief Minister of Delhi from October 13, 1998 to December 3, 1998. In November 2018, Sushma Swaraj had announced that she would not contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 due to health reasons.

Arun Jaitley

Arun Jaitley was born on 28 December 1952 in Delhi. Until 2014, Jaitley had never contested any direct elections. That year, he was BJP candidate in Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency, but lost to Amarinder Singh of Congress. Jaitley was selected by newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be Minister of Finance, Minister for Corporate Affairs and Minister of Defence in his cabinet. With Jaitley as FM, the Modi government was able to take several key economic decisions like demonetisation and GST. In Jaitley’s stewardship, the Modi government merged the railway budget with the general Budget. Moreover, the decision to advance the date of the general budget to February 1 was also taken with Jaitley as FM. GST went under several tax-slab revisions and Jaitley maneuvered them efficiently. He also introduced Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to resolve the issues with companies that were turning insolvent.

Sweat and fret for 48 hours in Jharkhand

Source: telegraphindia.com

After downpour days, here come muggy moments, thanks to high humidity.

Sultry weather, which has upped the discomfort index, looks likely to continue for another 48 hours before Jharkhand can hope for some rain relief, weathermen said on Thursday.

The average discomfort index, measured on the basis of temperature, humidity and wind patterns, was as high as 64 degrees, 9 degrees above normal, in Jharkhand on Thursday.

S.D. Kotal, director of IMD’s Ranchi Meteorological Centre, said the weather would continue to be unpleasantly warm and humid for the next two days.

The rain earlier this week triggered by a low-pressure had left a lot of moisture in the air, resulting in the rise in humidity levels across the state, he said. Furthermore, there was little likelihood of rain in the next two days.

“The western-end of the monsoon trough at mean sea level has moved towards the foothills of the Himalayas and the eastern end is passing through Hardoi (Uttar Pradesh) and north-eastern Madhya Pradesh stretching till the east-central Bay of Bengal today (Thursday),” Kotal said.

Also, southwest monsoon has been weak over Jharkhand for the past couple of days, resulting in the dry spell.

On Thursday, the discomfort index in Jamshedpur touched 65 degrees, 10 notches above normal. In capital Ranchi, it was 62 degrees, seven degrees above normal.

In places such as Daltonganj, Bokaro and Dhanbad, the discomfort index ranged between 65 and 66 degrees, higher than normal.

The Met office director said no warning had been issued for Jharkhand till August 25, as they had found no significant changes in the weather condition.

The sky would be cloudy in most districts during the next 48 hours. At very few isolated places, light showers accompanied by thunder and lightning were likely.

Statistics revealed that so far Jharkhand had received a cumulative rainfall of 537.9mm against a normal of 745.3mm, a deficit of 28 per cent.

Pipe gas and CNG push in Ranchi

Source: telegraphindia.com

Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Arjun Munda and chief minister Raghubar Das will launch the piped natural gas supply and compressed natural gas-run vehicles at Prabhat Tara Maidan here on Friday.

Two CNG supply stations and a de-compression unit at Shyamali colony from where PNG will be supplied will also be made operational simultaneously, said K.B. Singh, executive director (eastern region) of GAIL India.

“While PNG will be supplied to 3,000 houses initially, we have a plan to increase the number by 7,000 more within a year,” Singh said.

PNG, he said, will be 10 to 15 per cent cheaper compared to using LPG for cooking.

“In Jharkhand, 551km of natural gas pipelines are being laid at an estimated cost of Rs 4,366 crore that aim at supplying PNG to 10.46 lakh households in 12 districts when completed,” Singh said.

Of the two CNG supply stations that will start on Friday, Khukri petrol pump is near Rajendra Chowk in Doranda within the city while the other is at Madhuban near Ormanjhi, about 25km outside the city limits, he added. “GAIL plans to commission 11 CNG stations in Ranchi within a year that will supply CNG to over 75,000 vehicles,” he said.

“Three auto manufacturers, Piaggio, Bajaj and TVS, have agreed to supply CNG-run autos,” Singh said.

He said they were also conducting awareness programmes for auto-rickshaw owners and drivers for smooth transition to CNG.

He said they would also organise meetings with bankers, vehicle suppliers and operators so that a conversion scheme (of existing vehicles) can be introduced.

‘Mentally unstable’ woman beaten to death in Bihar over suspicion of child-lifting

Source: timesnownews.com

Patna: An angry mob thrashed a woman to death in Vaishali district of Bihar over suspicion of her being a child-lifter. It is being alleged that the woman is mentally unstable. The mob allegedly tied the woman to a pole in Sehdai Buzurg block of Vaishali and mercilessly thrashed her until she died, the police said on Friday. 

The woman was beaten up with sticks by locals after being tied to a pole. While angry locals beat up the woman, others played mute spectators as they watched the woman being thrashed. 

The police are suspecting that the woman lost her mental balance after her child went missing or after it died. The woman was caught by the locals when she entered one of the houses in the district while looking for her own child. 

Locals alleged that they had seen the woman in the nearby areas a few days ago. At that time, the woman was seen attending to a pile of clothes as if it were a child. According to a report, the woman does not have any recollection of how she reached Vaishali.

On the night of the incident, the woman entered one of the houses. She was telling the people residing in the house that her child had gone missing. The people living in the house allegedly presumed her to be a child-lifter and started thrashing her. Within minutes, the family’s neighbours joined and the woman was tied to a pole and beaten. 

After the woman died, the locals threw her body away from the spot. The police reached the area and recovered the body. The body has been sent for a post-mortem and efforts are being made to arrest the accused. 

This is not the first instance where people have taken the law into their hands and have lynched an innocent due to suspicion. Similar incidents have surfaced where people have thrashed women and men ruthlessly as they suspected them of being child-lifters or thieves. While these incidents are on a rise, no concrete step has been taken by the government to help these people. 

Woman thrashed by mob in MP over suspicion of child-lifting 

In July this year, another incident of mob violence came to light from Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar when a woman was beaten over suspicion of being a child-lifter. It was later alleged that the woman was mentally disturbed. The incident took place in the Cantonment area of Sagar. 

On being interrogated, the woman said that she was from Ratlam and that she did not know how she had reached Sagar. The police registered a case of assault in relation to the incident but none of the accused was arrested.

Bihar MLA on the run for AK-47, grenades at home surrenders in Delhi court

Source: hindustantimes.com

Anant Singh, the Bihar lawmaker who has been missing ever since the police discovered an AK-47 assault rifle and two hand grenades from his house turned up in a Delhi court on Friday afternoon.

Bihar Police had filed a case against the independent lawmaker under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act after a police team seized an AK-47 rifle, a magazine, live cartridges and two hand grenades from his

his ancestral house at Ladma village last Friday.

He has been missing ever since but has put out video messages to accuse the authorities of framing him.

In his last one released Thursday night, the gangster-turned-politician had declared that he would surrender before a court, because he didn’t trust the police. From this morning, the police had laid deployed personnel around the courts in Patna and elsewhere.

Anant Singh showed up 1,000 km away in a south Delhi court.

Anant Singh, popularly known as ’Chhote Sarkar’, has a long criminal record and was recently summoned to the police headquarters in Patna to record his voice sample in connection with an attack on a Mokama-based contractor.

He was earlier known to have shared a close relationship with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar but dumped the JD(U) ahead of the 2015 assembly elections over some differences. He contested the assembly election as an Independent and retained his seat.

His anticipatory bail petition in a case of murder conspiracy was rejected earlier this week and arrest warrant issued against him for recovery of the firearms.

In his video messages, the lawmaker also accused Janata Dal(United) MP from Munger Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, Bihar minister Neeraj Kumar and Barh’s assistant superintendent of police Lipi Singh of conspiring against him.

Anant Singh alleged the weapons were placed in his house at the behest of the JD(U) MP, against whom his wife Neelam Devi contested in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. “Lalan has been planning to install a weapon on me so that he could get another set of charges framed against me,” he said in the latest video.

A special investigation team set up by the state police to trace him has carried out searches at more than 25 locations in Bihar, Jharkhand and the National Capital Region.

In his earlier video messages, the lawmaker had claimed he wasn’t on the run but just visiting an ailing friend. “I have not visited my paternal house in last 14 years. So there is no question of hiding AK-47 there,” he said.

Jharkhand Reissues 2 MW Solar Canal-Top Tender Amid Lukewarm Response

Source: mercomindia.com

The Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA) has reissued its tender for 2 MW of grid-connected canal-top solar power projects at Sikidiri Canal in Ranchi.

The last date for the submission of bids is September 11, 2019. Earlier, the bid-submission deadline was February 11, 2019.

“The tender received a very low response due to which it has been reissued,” said an official from JREDA.

The general scope of work for the 2 MW canal-top solar PV power project involves the design, engineering, procurement, supply, and construction (EPC) of the grid-connected canal-top solar project, along with the testing, commissioning, and evacuation of a 33 kV solar power substation.  The bidder should be aware that the capacity utilization factor (CUF) should be considered with an AC capacity of 2 MW, and the power should be evacuated at 33 kV voltage level. A metering point should also be included at the solar power substation.

The work also involves the development of a 33 kV switchyard capacity for a minimum of 2 MW of solar evacuation at the generation substation. However, the transmission line from solar project switchyard to the pooling substation will be developed by the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL).

The successful bidder will also be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the project for ten years.

The estimated cost of the project is ₹150.7 million (~$2.1 million), and the work needs to be completed within six months. The date for the technical bid is scheduled for September 13, 2019.

Interested bidders need to pay a sum of ₹3.14 million (~$42,126) as the earnest money deposit (EMD).

Interested bidders should have prior experience in the design, supply, installation, and commissioning of solar photovoltaic-based grid-connected power projects of a cumulative installed capacity of 10 MW or above in or outside India.

The bidders should be able to submit the list of projects commissioned along with their work order, the commissioning certificates, and the certificate stating the project’s operation timeline.

According to the JREDA, the financial criteria for the bidders state that their average annual turnover for the last three financial years should be at least ₹50 million (~$698,839).

The canal bank and canal top solar project programs were launched in the financial year 2014-15. Under this program, solar projects have been commissioned in different states including Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

In a bid to promote these installations, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is also providing a subsidy of ₹30 million (~$0.45 million)/MW of installed capacity for canal bank projects and a subsidy of ₹1.5 million (~$0.22 million)/MW of installed capacity for canal top projects.

In July, Mercom reported that Shivamogga Smart City Limited in Karnataka also issued a Request for Proposal for the construction of 25 MW of solar power projects. The SSCL will develop the solar power project on top of the Tunga canal that passes through Shivamogga city.

Earlier this year, Haryana Power Generation Corporation had invited an expression of interest to set up 16 MW of canal top solar projects at WYC Hydel Power Station at Bhudkalan, in Yamuna Nagar.

Krishna Janmashtami 2019: How Banke Bihari Temple in Vrindavan Celebrates Lord Krishna’s Birthday

Source: news18.com

Krishna Janmashtami 2019 | At the Banke Bihari temple in Vridavan, Krishna Janmashtami celebrations will be held on Friday. Festivity has gripped Vrindavan, a town where Lord Krishna is believed to have spent his childhood. Preparations are on in full-swing and a large number of devotees have thronged the temple.

Celebrations will begin at mid-night with Maha Abhishek where the idol of Lord Krishna at the Banke Bihari temple will be given a ceremonial bath with milk, curd, flowers, rose water, honey, ghee, and water. The celebration will continue with Mangal Aarti which will start at 1:55 am. This Mangal Aarti is done only once a year on Krishna Janmashtami.

After the Mangal Aarti, the Bankey Bihari temple will be opened for devotees to offer prayers from 2 am to 5:30 am.

In the Jagmohan, the elevated hall just outside sanctum sanctorum, a special throne made of gold and silver is placed.

Nandotsav, which celebrates the Lord Krishna’s birth, will be celebrated from 7:45 am to 12 noon. During the Nandotsav celebrations, the doors of the temple will remain open for devotees and they will be offered with toys, fruits, dry fruits, sweets prepared from musk melon seeds, coconut and others to celebrate the joy. They will also be given Makhaan (home-made butter) and Mishri (rock sugar), which is believed to be Lord Krishna’s favourite. The Panchamrit Prasad (Prasad of maha abhishek, a mix of milk, curd, honey, ghee and water) is distributed among the devotees.

The Banke Bihari temple is decorated with flowers, lights and other decorative items. Not just the temple, but the entire city wears a festive look and people are immersed in joy as they celebrate Lord Krishna’s birthday. People from various parts of the country visit Vrindavan to offer prayers at Banke Bihari temple on the occasion of Krishna Janmashtami.

A Shri Madbhagvatam discourse session, based on Shri Krisnna Janma katha (tenth Skandha) is also organised outside the Banki Bihari temple.

Devotional songs and classical dances are also organised in various places on the occasion of Krishna Janmashtami. At many places Raslila (an act) is performed to recreate the incidents from the life of Lord Krishna and to describe his true love for Radha. Devotees sing a famous line on Krishna Janmashtami, “Nand Ghar Anand Bhaye jai kanhaiya lal ki, hathi dine ghoda dine aur dini palki.”

Lord Krishna, the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu, was born to Devki and Vasudeo in Mathura and was raised by Yashoda and Nandbaba.

Theft accused kills himself in Ranchi’s Ratu police station, family cries foul

Source: hindustantimes.com

In yet another custodial death in Jharkhand this month, a 24-year-old man, arrested in a theft case, allegedly died by killing himself on Thursday night in Ranchi’s Ratu police station.

According to the police, the deceased Naisar Ansari was kept in the police station’s lock-up along with another accused Amar Naik. He went to the bathroom attached with the lock-up late at night with a piece of blanket and hanged himself from the rod fixed in the ventilator. The other accused in the cell, who was then sleeping, raised the alarm around 4 am when he noticed the incident, police said.

Ansari’s family members, however, cried foul play. “We got information that Naisar was arrested on Tuesday. When we reached the police station the next day, we were not allowed by the policemen to meet him. On Friday, we saw his body. This is not a case of suicide,” said, Guljaan Bibi, mother of the deceased, alleging that his son has been murdered.

Ansari originally hailed from Lawalong area of Simaria’s sub-division in Chatra district. A daily wage earner, he had been residing with his in-laws at Ratu’s Alkamar colony for the last six months.

Ansari, along with three others, were wanted by the police in connection with a theft case. It was alleged that the four accused had stolen Rs 70,000 in cash and a mobile phone from the house of one Nazir Ansari of the same Alkamar colony on August 20.

The police, however, said Asnari was arrested on Thursday and not Tuesday as being alleged by the family. “Naisar was arrested on August 22 (Thursday) evening in the theft case, in which his father-in-law too was an accused. He was then put up in the police lock-up where he killed himself. His body has been sent for autopsy and an inquiry has been set up,” said Ranchi superintendent of police (rural) Ashutosh Shekhar.

“As per the information gathered from family members, the deceased was under stress due to several problems on family front. He was currently residing at his in-laws house due to this.”

Later in the day, hundreds of residents of Alkamar colony assembled at Ratu police station, demanding a fair probe into the matter.

Earlier in the month, a 30-year-old man Ashish Tudu, arrested for planning to execute a robbery, had allegedly killed himself on August 5 at a vacant flat of a three-storey police quarters under Sikaripara police station in Dumka district. Tudu had, reportedly, hanged himself from the ceiling of the kitchen in the night.

The incident, however, had exposed the functioning of the police, which kept the accused in a police quarter instead of a lock up.

Taking serious note of the matter, the Dumka SP had transferred Sikaripara police station officer-in-charge Satyendra Narayan Singh to police lines as a punishment posting.

Ganga overtops red mark in Patna, low-lying areas face submergence

Source: hindustantimes.com

Fresh threat of flooding has come to haunt Bihar again with river Ganga rising menacingly at various places across the state—from Buxar to Bhagalpur. It has overtopped the danger levels at Patna, inundating low-lying areas across along its way, which led to exodus of families with cattle heads from diaras.

In Patna, Bind Toli, one of the most populous helmets inhabited by fishermen located inside the Patna flood protection wall, has been completely submerged under the water, while floodwaters have begun engulfing houses built on upland in diara between Patna and Saran district.

Sitab Diara, the native village of socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan, situated on the bank of Ganga has been swamped by the flood water and the villager are being relocated to safer places. Many villages settled on the river’s bank in Naugachhiya and Bhagalpur are being devoured by the gushing current of the river. Various villages of Mahnar block of Vaishali have also been submerged due to rise in water level of Ganga.

This is the second spell of the flood the state is undergoing. Earlier, as many as 13 north Bihar districts were inundated by the swollen rivers originating from Nepal and are still grappling with the post-flood tribulations. The floodwaters had swamped more than 1,300 panchayats, affecting more than 88 lakh people due to the spate that started in the last week of June. More than 130 persons had lost their lives in the north Bihar districts due to the floods.

Prompted by the rising trend of Ganga and other rivers in the last 24 hours, the administrative machineries of the districts along the river have been put on high alert to meet the eventualities. Personnel of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed in sensitive areas of the rivers to keep constant vigil and rush help to the people in need.

Officials of the water resources department (WRD) said that safety embankments of Ganga and other tributaries of rivers of Central Bihar region are being fortified and monitoring heightened in view of the moderate to heavy rains predicted in their catchment areas in the next one week.

They feared that the flood situation may deteriorate in the catchment areas of Ganga as other tributaries like Kosi, Gandak, Sone and Burhi Gandak threaten to cross the red mark at different localities along the way. “Currently, Ganga has crossed the danger level at Gandhi Ghat and Hathidan in Patna, while Burhi Gandak has overtopped the red mark at Khagaria. Sone has begun to swell after a brief reprieve in the morning. Situation is, however, not that alarming as of now,” said an executive engineer of the WRD.

A youth is reported to have drowned near LCT Ghat, opposite Mahavir Vatsalya hospital, after he accidentally fell into the turbulent water of Ganga. A team of SDRF personnel carried out an extended operation to fish out the body, which remained elusive till late evening on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the state government has sought financial assistance of Rs 3,000 crore from the Centre to compensate for the losses in Bihar and its people had to incur during the first phase of flood devastation.

Gaya school headmaster honoured

Source: hindustantimes.com

Virendra Kumar, headmaster of Pawra Middle School in Gaya’s Gurua block, has been honoured by the union ministry of human resources for his efforts towards educating children in an area hit by Maoist violence.

Union minister Ramesh Pokhrial gave away the award to Kumar at a function in New Delhi on August 18.

Earlier, Kumar was honoured by Sri Aurobindo Society, which had earlier sought innovative ideas from teachers across the country with regard to teaching in schools. Three lakh teachers submitted their ideas, of which 66 teachers, including two from Bihar, were selected for the honour. The two teachers who got the award were Kumar and Mukesh Kumar of Begusarai.

Kumar, himself son of a teacher, was promoted as headmaster of the Pawra school in 2017. He was surprised to see low number of students and teachers in the school. “The next morning, I travelled around the village and realised villagers were reluctant to send their children to school. After much persuasion, some agreed to send their wards to the school,” said Kumar.

Gradually, children started coming to the school and the attendance of students shot up to 95 per cent from 20-30 per cent.

“’We now have 341 students enroled. I first tipped two kids from each class and made them the mohalla leaders. I also gave whistles to every mohalla leader and asked them to blow the whistle while leaving home for school, to gather other fellows. The kids’ team moves around the village half-an-hour before school starts. And thus, all children reach here on time,’’ Kumar said.