Day: December 17, 2019

No NRC in Bihar? People Apprehensive Despite CM’s ‘Assurance’.

Source – newsclick.in

Patna: Two days after Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal (United) national vice-president Prashant Kishor was assured by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will not be implemented in Bihar, many including minorities, are apprehensive about this promise.

After JD-U supported Citizenship (Amendment) Bill [CAB] in both the houses of Parliament, Kishor had reportedly offered to resign from his post.

“Who will believe Nitish Kumar, who is a known paltu ram (a turncoat)? He was opposing NRC publicly till the last month and later, his party supported CAB in Parliament. He has now assured that he will not implement NRC in Bihar. Was he sleeping when the JD-U supported CAB?” questioned Afroj Alam, a retired government employee and a resident of Phulwarisharif.

Mohd Munna, a rickshaw-puller, said that Nitish Kumar no longer has people’s trust, as he says something and does something else. “We had voted for his party, but later, he joined hands with the BJP. How can we trust him now?” he asked.

Arshad Azmal, vice president of Sahulat, a mico-finance society in Patna, said “The CM is not saying anything to the people of the state; so, there is skepticism.” He added that after JD-U supported CAB in Parliament, even vocal Muslim supporters of Nitish Kumar appear hesitant to stand with him.

“How can we take his assurance seriously now because it was Nitish, who had publicly declared to work for RSS-free India and had announced ‘mitti mein mil jayenge Magar BJP se hath nahi milayenge (We’d be rather reduced to ashes than work with BJP)’,” said Mahendar Yadav, convenor of Koshi Nav Nirman Manch.

Danish Ahmad Khan, a social activist fron Gaya, said “Nitish Kumar is trying to fool the people. NRC is a central subject and no state government has the right to disobey or overruled it. He displayed his motives while voting for the Bill in Parliament.”

Danish alleged that Nitish has his reasons to support CAA, as he is embroiled in various scams: from multicrore Srijan to Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case.

Ranjeev, a green activist, told NewsClick that this is nothing but another jumla ahead of Bihar Assembly polls. “Times have changed. Earlier, JD-U was critical of controversial issues like Ram Temple, Article 370, Triple Talaq. Now, the party has supported controversial CAB despite some party leaders’ opposition,” he said.

Three senior JD-U leaders including national general secretary K C Tyagi and two Bihar ministers, Ashok Choudhary and Shayam Razak, had opposed NRC. “If NRC can’t be implemented in Assam, how can it be implemented in Bihar? We can assure [the people] that NRC will not be implemented in the state,” Choudhary said.

Protests against CAA and NRC continued in Bihar on Monday as well. The Left parties have called for a statewide bandh on December 19, while the RJD will observe a shutdown on December 21 against the controversial Act.

However, notwithstanding the protests, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh has said that NRC should be implemented across the country—including Bihar.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar writes to PM Modi for immediate ban on porn sites.

Source – thehindu.com

In the wake of rising incidents of rape and gang rape of women and minor girls across the country, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to immediately ban pornographic sites and inappropriate content.

“A large number of children and youth are watching pornographic, violent and inappropriate content. In many cases, videos of rape incidents are being circulated on social media, which severely affects the brains of children and youngsters, and such material has also been seen as a factor leading to crimes of rape,” Mr. Kumar said in his one-page letter to Mr. Modi.

Serious concerns

Earlier, on December 6, while addressing a public meeting in the course of his ongoing Jal Jeevan Hariyali Yatra on climate change in the Gopalganj district, Mr. Kumar had expressed serious reservations over the free use of porn sites by children and youth. He had also urged students and youth to stay from visiting porn sites as it eventually led to “perversion” in their minds.

“Though there is a provision for this in the Information Technology Act, 2000 [amended in 2008], it is not effective. In this regard, the honourable Supreme Court, too, has given several directions to the government,” said Mr. Kumar.

‘Unlimited availability’

He added, “In my opinion, the unlimited availability of such improper material in the name of freedom of expression and thought is not proper, and it is an urgent need to take effective steps to check this to prevent crimes of rape against women and children. There is an urgent need to give strict directions to Internet Service Providers as well, and a vigorous awareness campaign along with parents, educational institutes and NGOs too is important.”

Recent incidents of rape and gang rapes from various parts of Bihar have rocked the State government. On December 9, a 20-year-old girl student of Patna University was allegedly gang raped by four youths, and later all four accused persons in the case were arrested by the police.

Met predicts chilly nights ahead.

Source – telegraphindia.com

Cloud cover over most parts of the state will recede by Tuesday, resulting in an abrupt fall in night temperatures across Jharkhand after the next 24 hours, weathermen predicted on Monday.

“Favourable winter conditions in Jharkhand will return after 24 hours. Two climate systems — a Western Disturbance and a cyclonic circulation over Bay of Bengal — which resulted in clouds and showers for the past two days in several places, including Ranchi and Jamshedpur, will clear by tomorrow (Tuesday),” S.D. Kotal, director of Ranchi Meteorological Centre, said.

IMD’s Ranchi Met centre on Monday afternoon forecast dry weather with partly cloudy sky in some places after the next 24 hours. This will result in an abrupt fall in minimum readings by 2-4°C. The Met office has also predicted shallow to moderate fog in several districts during the next 72 hours. The fog is expected to reduce early morning visibility below 1,000 metres.

Capital Ranchi, which recorded a minimum of 14.5°C on Monday against 15.6°C on Sunday, gave a preview of what was in store.

The local observatory in steel city recorded a minimum of 18°C on Monday compared with 19°C on Sunday.

Data showed that the minimum readings dropped by a degree in Bokaro and two degrees in Koderma and Hazaribagh.

A senior weather analyst at Patna Met centre said the north wind, which had stopped due to the twin climate systems, had started to flow again.

“The north-westerly wind would continue to dominate over the state after the next 24 hours,” he said.

Blanket ban

In Ranchi, the poor on the roads were spotted burning garbage dumps and using sacks to keep the chill at bay as the RMC blamed the model code of conduct for the delay in the distribution of blankets and lighting bonfires in public places.

“Last (Sunday) night, I distributed blankets among 15 beggars near Shiv Mandir lane in my locality,” social worker Jyoti Sharma said.

The district administration had given 14,000 blankets to RMC in October for distribution across 55 awards.

On why they had not been distributed so far, municipal commissioner Manoj Kumar said: “The blankets have reached every ward, but it is not possible to distribute them without permission of the Election Commission. I don’t think it is possible to do it before December 23,” Kumar said.

Deputy development commissioner Ananya Mittal said the same.

“Till December 23, work on the distribution of blankets and burning bonfires by the district administration is not possible,” she said.

On the rationale behind blanket distribution at a later date when they were needed urgently, an Election Commission official: “In principle it has been decided that the blankets can be distributed and bonfires can be lit in those areas where polling is over. But we have been directed to ensure that the opportunity is not used by the ruling party for publicity. The directive will reach us within a day or two.”

Jharkhand Assmebly election 2019, Gandey profile: JMM’s Irfan Ahmed to contest against BJP’s Jai Prakash Verma.

Source – firstpost.com

Gandey election 2019 | Gandey Assembly constituency of the Giridih district will go to polls in the fourth phase of the Assembly elections in Jharkhand. The seat which lies in the Koderma parliamentary constituency, is currently held by BJP’s Jai Prakash Verma.

Demography: According to Census 2011, Giridih district has a population of  24,45, 474. With a sex ratio of 944, the district ranks seventh in the state. The district comprises of thirteen blocks Gawan, Tisri, Deori, Dhanwar, Jamua, Bengabad, Gandey, Giridih, Birni, Bagdar, Sariya, Dumri and Pirtand. As per Census 2011, the district has 2558 villages and 5 towns distributed in four Assembly constituencies. Census 2011 figures indicated that the percentage share of scheduled caste population to total population was 13.31 percent while that of Scheduled tribes was 9.74 percent. Based on the number of total rural households in Census 2011 and BPL Revision Survey of 2010-11 the percentage of Below Poverty Line (BPL)  households in the rural areas is 3.77 percent.

The district is well know for the availability of ruby mica and has several large coal fields which contain one of the best qualities of metallurgical coal in India. The extensive deposited of mica in this district are of importance not only to Jharkhand but to India and other countries also. It is mostly found near the Tisri and Gawan blocks.

Following is a brief description of the Assembly constituency:

Constituency number: 31

Total electors: 2,69084

Males: 1,40,764

Females: 1,28,314

Transgender: 3

Polling stations: 350

Voter turnout in last Assembly Election: 70 percent

Major parties in the fray: BJP, Congress, JVMP,, AJSU, BSP, IUML

The constituency is currently represented by Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jai Prakash Verma who defeated Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Salakhan Soren in the 2014 elections. In 2009, Soren, then the incumbent MLA, was defeated by Congress’ Sarfraz Ahmad by a margin of over 8,000 votes. In 2005, Soren had registered a victory over Ahmad.

Ahmad is contesting the 2019 election on a JMM ticket while Arjun Baitha is the AJSU candidate. Verma is also in the fray on a BJP ticket . The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) has fielded Dilip Kumar Verma whereas the other candidates are BSP’s Avadhesh Kumar Singh, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s Intekhab Ansari, IUML’s Md. Sayeed Alam and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation)’s Rajesh Kumar.

Fifteen Assembly constituencies will go to polls in the fourth phase of Assembly election on 16 December. The counting of votes for the five-phase Assembly elections will take place on 23 December.

The state is currently ruled by the BJP (37 Assembly seats) in alliance with the All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU) (5 Assembly seats). However, the BJP is seeking to come to power on its own after NDA allies, including Janata Dal-United (JDU) and AJSU decided to part ways with the saffron party.

The saffron party faces tough contest from the Opposition alliance consisting of the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and JMM. The alliance has rallied behind Hemant Soren as its chief ministerial candidate. JMM is contesting on 43 seats, the Congress on 31 and the RJD on seven seats in the 81-seat Assembly.

Out of the 81 Assembly constituencies in the state, nine are reserved for Scheduled Castes, 28 for Scheduled Tribes and 44 are of the general category. The term of the current Assembly will end on 5 January 2020.

Won’t implement CAA, NRC in Jharkhand: Hemant Soren.

Source – thehindu.com

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the Opposition here over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, Hemant Soren, the chief ministerial face of the grand alliance in Jharkhand, said if voted to power his government would review both the CAA and National Register of Citizens and not implement them if they had potential to trigger violence in the State.

“Both the CAA and NRC sound similar. They will be evaluated afresh. If we feel Jharkhand could plunge into violence, both CAA and NRC will not be put into practice,” Mr. Soren told The Hindu here on Monday.

When his attention was drawn to the BJP’s concern over illegal immigration of Bangladeshis into Jharkhand through West Bengal and the porous international border, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) executive president said, “The BJP came to power in many northeastern States highlighting the issue of infiltration of Bangladeshis. Now, the northeastern States are burning. They have backstabbed people there by bringing in CAA”

“This BJP-led government does not have any work to do. It has been raising divisive issues strategically and from time to time. The issues which can flare up people’s emotions are carefully chosen. Those are intended at dividing people on caste and religion lines leading to violence,” alleged Mr. Soren.

He observed, “They will not talk on unemployment, crumbling economy, losses being incurred by major public sector units, poverty and violence against women. The focus of the present government is only on dividing society as Hindu-Muslim and tribal and non-tribals.”

Alleging that that BJP always tries to reap political dividends through non-issues, Mr. Soren said, “In 2014, they came to power giving the wrong impression on the economy and law and order. When they miserably failed to find a solution to the issues they had highlighted, they came up with the revenge attack for the Pulwama terror strike. They stirred up people on India-Pakistan sentiments just before the 2019 elections.”

“Now, the BJP is preparing for the 2024 elections with these legal instruments. They have constructed a huge statue of Sardar Valabhbhai Patel although they do not have anything to do with the ideology of this great leader. They are now talking about construction of a grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya. They know how to hoodwink people without delivering on genuine problems,” he charged.

Addressing an election rally at Dumka, where the JMM chief is contesting, Mr. Modi on Sunday had said violence over CAA was being stoked by the Congress and its allies and it was wrong as the Bill was cleared by Parliament.

The JMM, Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal have stitched up a pre-poll alliance in Jharkhand where polling will come to end on December 20 and results will be declared on December 23.

India’s first national dolphin research centre to come up in Patna.

Source – newindianexpress.com

PATNA: India’s and Asia’s first National Dolphin Research Centre (NDRC) will come up on the bank of the Ganges in the premises of Patna University.  

Proposed in 2011 the project to set up the national dolphin research centre continued hanging in balance for next eight years, however, the state government has finally expedited the work 

According to deputy chief minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi, around 1,455 dolphins have been sighted during a survey conducted in 2018-19 in the river Ganga by the teams of experts.

“The state government is working hard to set up the national dolphin research centre in the premises of Patna University”, Modi said, adding that a 7 km long stretch between Sultanganj and Kahalgao in Bhagalpur district has already been declared as Vikram Sheela gangetic dolphin sanctuary.

The gangetic dolphin is India’s national aquatic animal but frequently falls prey to illegal poaching.

The presence of dolphins in the Ganga gives a sign of a healthy ecosystem because dolphins live at least in  5 ft to 8 ft deep water.

The gangetic dolphin has been declared  an endangered aquatic animal and is one of the four freshwater dolphins species in the world as another three species are said to be found in the Yangtze River, the Indus River in Pakistan and the Amazon River globally.

The proposed NDRC in Patna would play a major role in facilitating deep and wide researches on the life cycle of dolphins and their behavioural significances in context with climate change.

CAAQMS installed at three places in Patna to monitor air quality on real-time basis.

Source – newindianexpress.com

PATNA: In a much needed-move akin to the that taken in US, UK and Germany for keeping a tab on air pollution, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Monday inaugurated the three hi-tech ‘Continuous Ambient Air Monitoring System’ (CAAQMS) at different places in Patna.

Patna is India’s one of the ten most polluted cities and has recently been witnessing alarming rise in the air pollution.

Modi speaking at the inaugural occasion at Patna’s Eco Park said that the CAAQMS will help in monitoring ambient air quality on real-time basis in city.

He said: “One such system has been installed at ECO Park, second at BIT Mesra and third in the premises of SK memorial hall. This system would get expanded in other cities of state also in near future gradually.”

Elaborating the function of the CAAQMS, he said that ambient air quality would be monitored on a real-time basis on large screens installed at places through metrological sensors.

Installation of the CAAQMS was initiated in 2014 in 17 categories of highly polluting industries and common pollution treatment facilities in India.

The CAAQMS is comprised of sampling, conditioning and analytical components through software designed to provide direct real-time continuous monitoring of ambient of air quality.

Lying in hospital bed, students worry about their future.

Source – thehindu.com

‘The protests will continue,’ says one of the injured

“When I regained consciousness, the first thing I asked the doctor was the time,” muttered Rashid Khan, a first-year student of History, one of the four admitted to the Emergency ward of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College after the “bloody” clash with the police on Sunday over the police action in Jamia and the amended Citizenship Act.

He only has a faint memory of being hit by a stone hurled by a policeman on the left side of his forehead. As he had an exam of Modern History scheduled at 11 a.m, he was relieved to know that it has been postponed and that the university has shut down till January. “But the protest would continue…I will protest in my Araria [his native town in Bihar],” he said. “Nitish Kumar has said we should start collecting the documents.”

He said the protest started after news of police action in Jamia percolated to the AMU. “We are like bhai-behen. We have to stand for each other.”

Naved did his Alim course from Deoband before doing a bridge course to become eligible for graduation. “I wanted to join the Civil Services but now I have doubts about my future in India,” said Naved.

‘Possible haemorrhage’

“There is a sharp laceration that confirms that he was hit by a sharp object. There were chances of subdural haemorrhage. We considered surgery but right now he is being put on conservative medication,” said Dr. Sathark, the senior resident who is treating him.

On a bed perpendicular to him was lying Tabrez, who had slept after a long and difficult night. “He has internal injuries in the stomach. He has been hit by a blunt object,” said Dr. Sathark. The doctor said it was pretty clear that the Act was targeting a particular community but one should also respect the line drawn by the administration. “There are different ways to show solidarity. When the clash happened, we all gathered to provide relief. Around 125 students were hit. Most of them had minor injuries and were discharged after an hour. Four are serious and are being monitored,” said Dr. Sathark.

In the plastic surgery ward, Sajid is waiting for his friend Rizwan to wake up after the plastic surgery performed on his hand. “He was trying to throw away tear gas shells. One of them burst in his hand. The doctors have tried to reconstruct his hand,” said Sajid, with tears rolling down his cheeks. “Mr Modi fills me with both anger and fear. What have we done wrong? Why are we being targeted,” he asked.