Category: Bihar

As Heat Intensifies and Hand Pumps Dry Up, Districts in Bihar Grapple with Drinking Water Crisis

Source: news18.com

Patna: Sixty-year-old Fula Devi, a resident of Shahpur Kasim village in Vaishali district in Bihar, stares at tough days ahead.

Her eyes well up as she talks about how her crops have been destroyed due to a lack of water.

“I have lost all my cash crops spread over 10 kathas of land (17,000 sq ft) and incurred losses worth more than Rs 25,000. Our misery does not end here. We have to struggle for drinking water as well. All the hand pumps have dried up here,” she says.

Flood-prone Bihar is known for an abundance of water resources. However, several districts are facing an acute water crises this summer due to mismanagement of water bodies and a population boom. The water table has gone below 250 feet from the ground level and hand pumps and tube wells, the main sources of water for drinking and irrigation in most villages, have also dried up.

Even as locals are struggling to cope with this crisis, farmers are the worst affected. Given the non-availability of irrigation water and intense heat, their crops are fighting for survival. Their livestock does not get required quantities of drinking water either.

Shahpur Kasim is one of the many villages in Vaishali district where people are grappling with such a crisis. Villagers here before never faced such a situation until last year since tube-wells and hand pumps always had water at 55 feet.

The situation has now turned grave as the water table has dipped to 250 feet, with government hand pumps failing to pull water from the depth.

In Brahmapur village in the same district, underground water tanks have been constructed at 20-50 feet and water motors have been installed to extricate water, which is then hand-pumped for consumption.

Collecting drinking water has turned into a nightmare for villagers. Here, women flock to get a few buckets of muddy water for their daily activities.

Fewer wells are left with water due to the onslaught of tube-wells and hand pumps.

While a few parts of the district receive drinking water through tankers sent by the government, others now buy the same.

Chandan Kumar is another victim incurring heavy losses as his mango orchard and lychee plantation have completely dried up.

Kumar had planted the crops in 10 acres of land, but as there has been hardly any yield, he incurred losses worth Rs 5 lakh.

“The crisis is severe because the water level has gone down severely. No one had ever imagined that tube-wells in the village could become defunct like hand pumps as they were bored 100-200 feet below ground level,” he says.

While several villages in Lalganj block of Vaishali district face a similar crisis, the situation is the worst in Sirsa.

Besides the mango and lychee orchards, wheat sown on hectares of lands have perished due to a fall in water levels in the region.

Some of the well-off villagers have installed submersible pumps at 350 feet below the ground level to get drinking water.

Rajeshwar Singh, who has a fish pond in Sirsa village, uses a submersible pump. “We were left with no other option as our ponds were drying up and the fish had started dying. There was a drinking water crisis as well,” he says.

In the same village, Mushar Tola has been badly hit as well. Here, elderly people walk up to a kilometre to carry potable water home.

The Jal Nal Yojana (water and tap scheme) devised to provide potable water to every household in the state has failed due to improper implementation and deep-rooted corruption. The scheme has also seen wastage of water.

According to its provisions, every APL (above poverty line) family would be charged a water tax of Rs 60 a month, while BPL (below poverty line) families would have to pay Rs 30 every month.

The government had also decided to provide filtered drinking water to areas with high levels of arsenic and iron in the water.

The district public health engineering (PHE) department has devised a long-term plan towards water conservation and usage. As part of the project, the department plans to install iron containers near one-acre farms to collect water during rain.

Executive engineer (PHE) Manoj Kumar told News18, “There is a no clear policy on the part of the government regarding the installation of submersible pumps, the rampant use of which is further taking down groundwater. The department is planning to launch an awareness programme on water usage and its conservation in the district and trying to make it a part of the school curriculum.”

Vaishali usually gets 1,168mm of rain annually. But last year, it saw a deficit of 52.7% — the highest in any district in the state.

State PHE Minister Vinod Narayan Jha, who is reportedly taking stock of the prevailing situation on a daily basis, at a recent press conference said, “The department is well prepared to meet any challenge thrown by deficit rainfall in districts. We are monitoring the groundwater table reports on a daily basis.”

Jha said 25 districts in the state are drought-affected and the government has identified 37,000 non-functional hand pumps of which 15,010 have been repaired and 3,440 replaced.

Patna Durbar: How Nitish Kumar-Sushil Modi’s bond keeps BJP-JDU alliance afloat

Source: .indiatoday.in

A June 4 tweet from Union Minister Giriraj Singh, wherein he apparently taunted key ally Nitish Kumar for attending iftar events just “for a show” followed by Sushil Modi’s somewhat ambassadorial defence of Bihar chief minister has once again highlighted the case of the two cozy, but somewhat mismatched, allies in Bihar.

Sushil Modi’s BJP and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United (JDU) are clearly bound by a common vision and purpose in Bihar, yet also pushed apart by their political teammates and their temperaments.

It’s not for nothing that Giriraj Singh’s tweet has once again brought the irony behind the electoral friendship of Kumar and Sushil Modi, the tallest BJP leader in Bihar and one of the strongest supporters of Nitish-BJP alliance, to the fore. Kumar and Sushil Modi, in their contemporaneous careers, often symbolise the prisoner’s dilemma that circumstances had thrust upon them.

The two have somehow seen through the bitterness and understood that they were better off collaborating than confronting. But there are spoilers galore. Singh was clearly one of them.

Fresh from his promotion to the Union Cabinet in the new Narendra Modi government, the senior BJP leader, for whom Nitish Kumar had campaigned during the Lok Sabha elections to ensure his victory, on Tuesday morning tweeted four pictures from three different iftars, saying: “How beautiful the pictures could have been had falahaar (fruit feast) been organised with similar fervour during Navratri. We fall behind in our own rituals and religion but are ahead in showing off.”

These pictures were from iftar parties organised by the JD-U, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Opposition alliance member Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (HAMS). Since Nitish Kumar was the only leader present in all the four pictures, the man and the target behind Singh’s tweet was not lost on anyone.

Not only this, Singh’s tweet was uploaded on the eve of Eid ul-Fitr and its underlying message seemed to be confronting the inclusive outreach of Prime Minister Modi and the secular fabric of the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar.

Though there are suggestions that BJP President Amit Shah has advised Singh against making such comments, the Union minister has not withdrawn his tweet, which was still visible till the time of filing this report.

A section of JD-U leaders, however, refused to accept Giriraj’s tweet as a coincidence. They see a purpose in the tweet, as Singh’s quip has come at a time when relations with the BJP have turned frosty after Nitish Kumar refused to accept a “symbolic representation in the Union Cabinet.”

The BJP had offered a solitary Cabinet berth to Nitish Kumar’s JD-U in the Union Cabinet, describing it as a “symbolic representation.”

The Bihar chief minister, who heads a party of 16 Lok Sabha and six Rajya Sabha MPs, promptly shot down the saffron proposal on the ground that it should have been proportionate and not symbolic.

In what seemed like a return riposte, Nitish expanded his ministry on June 2 by inducting as many as eight JD-U members while offering just one berth to the BJP, which was not accepted by the latter. “Giriraj Singh is not alone to have taken potshots at the NDA alliance in Bihar.

In 2017, when JD-U rejoined NDA, our former National President Sharad Yadav had defied the decision. While JD-U quickly showed the door to our former national president, the BJP has failed to force Giriraj to make amends,” said a senior JD-U leader.

JD-U chief spokesperson Sanjay Singh has described Giriraj Singh’s tweet as a clear manifestation of the fact that BJP has no control over such leaders. “It is time for the BJP to take the comments of Giriraj seriously and take action,” he said.

They say momentous eras are appreciated only in retrospect, but in this case, where Nitish Kumar accepted BJP as an alliance partner, the two have together delivered magic.

A landmark Lok Sabha election victory in 2019 where the NDA won 39 of Bihar’s 40 seats looks both unprecedented and unrepeatable. The combined magic of BJP and JD-U made a spectacular start in 2005 when the two parties together unseated Lalu Prasad who seemed invincible then.

Since then, the two parties have prospered and gone from strength to strength, evolving a relationship that was to be the making of modern Bihar.

When the BJP and JD-U separated in 2013 and fought two elections against each other, the BJP won the 2014 Lok Sabha poll while Nitish Kumar won the 2015 assembly polls. The two once again came together in 2017 to deliver a watershed result in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Today, however, with Bihar Assembly polls scheduled in 2020, the two parties, JD-U and BJP, need to unthaw their relationship to fill up the fissures, which have come up after the BJP refused to let Nitish have more than one representation in the Union Cabinet.Giriraj Singh or his tweets can make the process a painful one for NDA in Bihar.

Seven murders within 12 hours leaves Bihar shaken

Source: hindustantimes.com

Seven murders were reported within a span of 12 hours -between 8pm on Wednesday to 6am on Thursday – across Bihar on Thursday. Reacting to the series of killings, a senior official of the Bihar Police headquarters said that district police chiefs had been directed to probe the murders and prevent the recurrence of such incidents.

Two men were shot dead and one lynched at Samastipur in separate incidents, and one person each was shot dead/stabbed to death in Madhubani, Rohtas, Saharsa, and East Champaran districts.

According to the police, three armed assailants looted a motorcycle and gunned down one Mantun Rai on National Highway 28 near Rupauli village under Ujiyarpur police station in Samstipur. The incident took place when he was returning home after attending a wedding function at Vaishali. Angry over the murder, locals blocked traffic on the national highway and staged a demonstration.

In another incident, medicine trader Ujjwal Barnwal was shot dead near Jitwarpur Bypass under Muffasil police station and his motorcycle was stolen. After the assailants fled, a few people in the area alerted the police. A team arrived and sent the body to a government hospital for autopsy.

The third killing was near Dumaria Bhagwati Asthan under Bibhutipur police station on Thursday morning. An irate mob beat an unidentified elderly man to death, after he allegedly injured a youth with a hammer. Samstipur SP Harpreet Kaur said, “We have traced the suspects and hope to nab them soon.”

In Madhubani, an LIC agent named Amit Kumar Karn was shot dead near his house in Anandpur. An FIR was registered against unidentified miscreants on the basis of the statement of Ghanshyam Karn, the victim’s father, at Jainagar police station. In his FIR, Ghanshyam stated that someone called his son, asked him to come out of the house, took him a short distance away from the house and then shot him.

In Rohtas district, armed criminals shot dead the husband of a ward councillor in Shivpur village while he was out on an evening stroll. The police said that ward councillor Sharda Devi’s husband Kameshwar Yadav was intercepted by motorcycle-riding assailants who shot him three times, killing him on the spot. The police have launched a manhunt for the criminals.

In Saharsa district, an undergraduate student identified as Rupesh Kumar, a resident of Mangrauli village under Mahishi police station, was killed by unidentified assailants late on Wednesday night. This might be an honour killing. Angry villagers blocked the Saharsa-darbhanga main road and disrupted traffic more than six hours, demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.

Rupesh’s brother Jugesh said that the incident took place when both the brothers were going home from Baluwaha Bazar. As soon as they came close to Baluwaha bridge, criminals on motorcycles intercepted them and fired upon Rupesh. Hit by four bullets, he was declared brought dead by Sadar hospital doctors. Jugesh alleged that the scene of crime was just a few metres away from the spot where local police were on Eid duty, but none of them chased the criminals.

According to Saharsa police, two years ago, Rupesh allegedly eloped with a girl and got married without her parents’ consent. The police suspect that the girl’s family could be involved in the crime.

In East Champaran, unidentified criminals barged into the house of a local trader, in Paharpur locality, and stabbed his three sons. One of them, identified as Deepanshu, succumbed to his injuries, while two brothers Navneet Kumar and Prachand Kumar were admitted to a hospital at Areraj. The house is barely a few metres from the Paharpur police station. Following the attack, locals blocked the main road for hours. Shops remained closed in protest.

SDPO Jyoti Prakash said that the incident occurred around 10pm on Wednesday, when grocery shop owner Chandrasekhar Prasad’s sons were sleeping in their rooms. Police arrested four persons, but the motive behind the incident was yet to be established. “We are investigating the matter from extortion as well as land dispute angles,” said the SDPO.

OPINION | Articles 370 & 35A, Mahadalits, Bihar Clout: Spurning Single Berth Offer, How Nitish Kumar Added Weight to His Voice

Source: news18.com

By spurning the single-berth offer in the Union council of ministers, Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has clearly indicated that he was not overawed by the larger-than-life image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that his own image and popularity has substantially contributed to the spectacular victory of the NDA in Bihar.

Nitish Kumar not only rejected the offer of symbolic representation in the ministry but gave a tit-for-tat reply to the BJP by inducting eight ministers from the JDU in his cabinet, leaving the BJP stunned and sulking. Most of the newly-inducted ministers are from the social groups that have been ignored by the BJP in the Union cabinet.

The BJP leadership, however, claimed that everything within the NDA was hunky-dory and that Nitish Kumar had offered BJP to fill party’s quota of the vacant ministerial seat but the BJP leadership decided to fill it in future.

Efforts are on from both the sides to send across a message that everything was fine within the NDA but the smooth relationship between the two allies before this episode seems to have gone for a toss. It has to be watched whether the BJP and JDU continue to remain under one umbrella till the 2020 assembly polls.

State president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), JDU’s previous ally, Ram Chandra Purve and senior party MLA Bhai Virendra appeared exultant over the development and hinted that they were ready to welcome Nitish once again into the grand alliance. “The RJD always stood for secular forces to defeat the resurgent BJP,” they said.

It may sound stubborn on part of Nitish Kumar but he has played a long-term bet by rejecting the single-berth offer in the Union cabinet. It will come in handy for Nitish and cast its impact on the upcoming state assembly elections due next year in Bihar.

One of the major reasons for Nitish toeing a separate and independent line is its reservations on certain issues like Article 370 and 35A, which the BJP is likely to rake up aggressively in days to come.

The BJP has already announced its agenda through media advertisements during campaigning. The JDU could not have opposed them by remaining part of the Union council of ministers.

The BJP and the JDU have diametrically opposite stance on certain issues like construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, uniform civil code, abrogation of Article 370 and annulment of Article 35A. While the BJP pursues these agenda vigorously, the JDU has maintained a distinct stance on them.

The Nitish Kumar-led party has always held that the vexed issue of Ram temple be solved either through a consensus among the affected parties or through a Supreme Court order. During the poll campaign, the JDU leadership had strongly opposed the demand for abrogating Article 370 amid the clamour for doing away with the special provision granting autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.

Nitish has maintained that the JDU would never support any such move that deprived Jammu and Kashmir of a provision that has been in place.

Compared to 2014, the BJP has complete majority and therefore it wouldn’t be having any problem in pursuing these issues to a logical end. In such circumstances, the JDU would be in an awkward position to oppose Article 370 or Article 35A by remaining part of the Union cabinet. But it can oppose such issues, as and when required, by remaining within the NDA and outside the government.

Despite remaining in the NDA, the JDU has been cautious regarding its secular image and kept away from controversial issues. Of the 16 seats the JDU won this time, altogether eight seats are located in the region which has substantial population of the minorities.

By maintaining its secular image, it intends to get the benefit during the 2020 state assembly elections. It will come in handy if the party switches over to other combination or alliance after deserting the NDA.

Yet another but crucial reason for Nitish Kumar’s defiant stance is that the BJP is taking the sole credit for the poll victory in Bihar. The given impression that it was Narendra Modi tsunami that swept the polls in Bihar and throughout the country is being vehemently contested by the JDU leadership.

By claiming that it was the victory of ‘people of Bihar’, Nitish Kumar indicated that the Extremely Backward Caste (EBC) and Mahadalit vote bank nurtured by him over the years voted en bloc in favour of the NDA in Bihar. “The poll outcome was due to unflinching support of base votes of all the three constituents of the NDA in Bihar,” he said.

Apparently, Nitish also fears that the BJP buoyed by its huge majority may relegate the common agenda of the NDA and pursue its own pet agenda. In this context, the Bihar chief minister has categorically said that steps to eradicate backwardness of Bihar should be taken on a priority basis. The JDU leaders too have started raising the issue of grant of special status for Bihar ever since the poll results were declared.

The non-inclusion of EBC and Mahadalit MPs from Bihar in the Union ministry was also one of the major concerns of the Bihar chief minister. The BJP has appointed four out of five ministers from the upper castes, leaving the backwards, EBCs and Mahadalits. These sections might be annoyed by the socially lop-sided selection of ministers from Bihar.

It has also become clear from the tough posture of Nitish Kumar that he was not satisfied with the arbitrary attitude of the BJP leadership. JDU leaders contended that Nitish untiringly campaigned to bring Narendra Modi back to power but as the BJP crossed the magic number, it has started acting arbitrarily and want the allies to follow their diktats.

Despite opting to remain out of the Union cabinet, Nitish has pledged that he would continue to remain in the NDA. However, it is certain now that he would be treading cautiously in future.

Nitish has silently performed the role of a true ally during campaigning to ensure return of NDA to power but after this episode, the BJP cannot expect him to remain silent on many issues like article 370 or 35A.

The Bihar chief minister has also raised his reservation on the methodology of cabinet formation. During previous NDA regime led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, the proportion, ministries and other finer details used to be finalised in the very beginning. But this time, the BJP unilaterally decided single-berth formula for the allies and conveyed it to the respective allies.

“With one cabinet berth it would have been difficult for the JDU to ward off differences among various claimants in the 22-member JDU parliamentary party,” said Bihar JDU president Bashishth Narayan Singh.

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Bihar: VVIP arrogance caught on camera! BJP leader’s brother thrashes chemist for not standing up to greet him

Source: timesnownews.com

In a shocking high-handedness captured on camera, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader’s brother was seen thrashing a shopkeeper for allegedly not standing up to welcome him. The incident took place in Bettiah city of Bihar.

On June 3, Bhartiya Janata Party national vice president Renu Devi’s brother Pinu entered a medical shop at 9:18 pm. He apparently got miffed when one of the staff remained seated and did not stand up to greet him, and started beating him.

The shocking visuals of the VVIP arrogance were captured on the CCTV installed in the shop. It is being reported that after beating the man black and blue in the shop, Pinu grabbed him and took him outside the shop.

It is also being reported that Pinu had a heated conversation with the owner of the shop, who is out of station, on the phone after the incident.

The Bihar Police have claimed to have now provided protection to the victim. Pinu is on the run and police are trying to apprehend him.

Meanwhile, Renu Devi has claimed that she has no ties with her brother and asked the Bihar Police to take appropriate action against him.

Ban private practice of Bihar government doctors, give allowance: IGIMS director

Source: dustantimes.com

With the Bihar government considering granting autonomy to some of its health facilities, director of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) has advocated banning private practice of government doctors while granting autonomy to healthcare institutions for improved patient care.

The IGIMS, which is Bihar’s only autonomous medical institution, built on the pattern of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), has achieved many milestones during the recent past. Seeing its success, the state government now wants to replicate the IGIMS model at five other healthcare institutions of Bihar.

Among the institutions being considered for grant of autonomy are the multi-specialty Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH); the Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology (IGIC), a superspecialty centre for cardiology; Rajendra Nagar Government Hospital, a superspecialty centre for eyecare; Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan Hospital, a superspecialty centre for orthopaedics; and the New Gardiner Road Hospital, a superspecialty centre for endocrinology and nephrology.

Bihar’s principal secretary, health, Sanjay Kumar, had recently said that the government was actively considering autonomy for five of its premier health facilities on the pattern of IGIMS.

Dr Nihar Ranjan Biswas, who belongs to the AIIMS-New Delhi and is on deputation to the IGIMS as its director, suggested that government doctors be given non-practising allowance (NPA) and should be available round the clock, as was the practice at AIIMS.

Dr Biswas had floated the idea of “full autonomy to medical institutions” in presence of health minister Mangal Pandey, speaker of the Bihar legislative assembly Vijay Kumar Choudhary and principal secretary, health, Sanjay Kumar, during a seminar on kidney transplant organised at the institute on May 26.

Sharing his recipe of success, Dr Biswas said, “Medical institutions should be granted full autonomy in the true sense. With autonomy, appointment of director as also selection of faculty members should be done through all-India competitions.”

Dr Biswas was also averse to the idea of extending free treatment to patients. “The government should subsidise the cost of treatment and diagnostic tests, but not make healthcare facilities available free of cost to patients,” he added.

Doctors were, however, divided on banning private practice in Bihar. While the Bihar Health Services Association (BHSA) supported giving doctors NPA and remuneration at par with the Centre, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Bihar, opposed it, saying it should be “optional”.

“Government doctors should be given the choice whether they want to avail of NPA or not take it and do private practice. The decision to ban private practice should not be thrust upon all doctors. If doctors who do not opt for NPA were to resign, many government medical colleges will risk being derecognised by the Medical Council of India (MCI) due to faculty shortage,” said Dr Sahjanand Prasad Singh, immediate past president of IMA-Bihar.

Asked if that meant that doctors wanted to have the best of both worlds, Dr Singh said, “In a way, yes… but it will also benefit the state. Giving NPA and remuneration to all state government doctors at par with the Centre will be a huge burden on the state’s exchequer.”

BHSA general secretary Dr Ranjit Kumar said, “We have already given an undertaking to the government in 2007 that we want NPA. Private practice remains banned on paper after the government withdrew NPA from March 2001. However, a majority of government doctors continue to do private practice.”

Senior doctors of the two associations, on condition of anonymity, said that many doctors of AIIMS-Patna and IGIMS, all getting NPA, were continuing with their private practice due to poor implementation of rules.

The Bihar government had banned private practice and paid NPA to its doctors for a limited period of 11 months between March 1, 2000 and February 2001 before withdrawing NPA.

Bihar to waive off 50 per cent taxes levied on e-rickshawas

Source: newindianexpress.com

PATNA: Alarmed at growing rate of  pollution, the state government’s seven departments have collectively prepared an integrated action plan to tame the menace of pollution in Patna and other cities.

According to a survey report of WHO, Bihar’s three cities namely Patna, Gaya and Muzaffarpur have been found to be among the most 20 polluted cities of world.

Speaking at a world environment day function on Wednesday evening, deputy chief minister of state Sushil Kumar Modi said that all possible steps are being taken to check the pollution in cities growing at an alarming rate.

“In a move to beat air pollution,the government has decided to waive 50% of total taxes levied on the purchase and running of battery-propelled e-rickshawas”, he said.

He further claimed that arrangements have been made to check the pollution emission from vehicles at over 500 fuel refilling centres in addition to run eco-friendly electric buses.

“On 45 fuel-refiling centres in Patna alone, arrangement has been made to issue online pollution check certificates in order to down the level of pollution”he said, adding that state government was committed to control the pollution through awarness among vehicle users and systems.


Musahar Family in Gaya Faces Boycott for Converting to Christianity

Source: newsclick.in

Sanjay Manjhi, a poor dalit man in his late 40s, and his family, have been facing social boycott for converting to Christianity. Manjhi is a resident of Shahpur village in Gaya district of Bihar and is facing boycott by the Musahar community to which he belongs.

Manjhi said that he and his family members were being targeted after they converted to Christianity. He alleged that the villagers who targeted them were instigated by local Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal activists from the neighbouring villages. “We patiently tolerated their attacks initially. They taunted us, harassed and even abused us for converting to Christianity. However, there were no problems until 10 days ago, as till then we had neither reacted nor protested,” he said.

Manjhi said last week he was forced to approach the police and file a complaint against the collective social boycott by villagers following a diktat from his own community panchayat. “Some people from my Musahar caste had managed to pass an order for our social boycott. Following the order, we were stopped from using the community well and the handpumps for water, and later some youths from the village disrupted our electricity supply. All of these were done on the behalf of some activists of VHP and Bajrang Dal to put pressure on us to re-convert,” he sid.

The Gaya district police was forced to rush to the village after Manjhi lodged a police complaint against over half a dozen villagers for alleged social boycott, harassment and threatening them.

Manjhi, a landless labourer like most Musahars in Shahpur village under Barachatti police station in Gaya ,told Newsclick that he and his family were singled out for converting to a different religion. “We Musahars are dalits who follow social and religious rituals similar to tribals. My family and I voluntarily converted to Christianity. What is the big deal about it, and why are some Hindutva organisations trying to threaten us? We were Hindus only by birth, we had been treated as untouchables all our lives and hardly enjoyed any respect or dignity.”

Backing him, Ranjeev Bhuiya, a local water-rights activist, said Manjhi’s family was barred from using water from the well and handpumps, adding that this was an attempt to put pressure on them at a time when the drought-hit Barachatti block in Gaya was facing its worst water scarcity.

Manjhi and Bhuiya belong to the dalit Musahar community, one of the most marginalised sections of society for centuries. They live with their families in thatched houses, built on gair-majarua (government-unclaimed) land because neither they, nor their fathers or grandfathers, owned any land. For generations, they have been earning their livelihood as landless agriculture labourers.

Manoj Kumar Singh, Station House Officer in charge of Barachatti police station, said Manjhi and his family were targeted after they refused to give donation (chanda) for a Musahar tribal puja, saying they had converted to Christianity. “This angered some villagers, who had ordered social boycott. After intervention from the police, the issue has been solved”.

Singh also denied the accusation of involvement of Bajrang Dal or VHP in the matter. “We have no information about it so far,” he added.

Kamlesh Manjhi, a local villager associated with Bajrang Dal, said the decision to boycott Sanjay Manjhi’s family was taken unanimously by the villagers. After police intervention, villagers have now decided to allow them to use the water sources but would stick to their social boycott.

Sanjay Manjhi said he had informed police officials that Bajrang Dal activists had threatened him and his family to reconvert to Hinduism if they wanted to live in the village.

A local police officer told Newsclick on the condition of anonymity that some members of Bajrang Dal, VHP, and others religious groups have been visiting the village and putting pressure on Musahar villagers to ensure that Sanjay Manjhi’s family reconverts soon. He said, “This village of Musahars has become an important focus for Hindutva outfits in recent days, thanks to Sanjay Manjhi’s conversion to Christianity”.

Gaya Senior Superintendent of Police Rajiv Mishra said he had asked local police station officials to regularly visit the village and reach out to Sanjay Manjhi. “We will not allow anyone to put pressure on him and his family to reconvert,” he added.

Teen’s death sparks tension in Bihar town; family says she was raped, killed

Source: hindustantimes.com

A 16-year-old girl’s death in Bihar’s Bhabua triggered tension in the town on Wednesday after her family alleged she was gang-raped and murdered by three men on Tuesday night.

The victim’s elder sister has accused three men of raping and killing her and filed a complaint at Bhagwanpur police station against two named and one unknown person belonging to a minority community.

Police, however, claimed that the girl has committed suicide and that the postmortem examination of her body has not confirmed rape.

“Prima facie, it seems to be a case of suicide due to a love affair. Police are investigating the case and trying to identify the people who have abetted the girl to end her life,” superintendent of police Dilnawaz Ahmad said.

The postmortem examination was conducted by a medical board at the district hospital in Bhabua and the body was sent to Varanasi for cremation under police protection on Wednesday.

The elder sister also alleged that Saish Ali, the son of Munnu Ansari from the adjacent village of Awasan, was dating the girl and often met her. She claimed her sister had revealed the names of two accused before she died. The girl had no reason to commit suicide as she had gone to the bank to withdraw money, the sister said.

The victim had gone to a bank in Bhabua on Tuesday morning. Her elder sister got a phone call in the evening from Ejaz Ansari alias Sonu, a resident of adjacent village Awasan who works as a nurse with a private hospital in Bhabua. Ansari told the sister that the girl was critical and admitted in the hospital he works for.

The elder sister rushed to the hospital but was asked to deposit Rs 4,000 towards the girl’s treatment before being allowed to meet her. She called a relative and arranged for the money. They also arranged for an ambulance to take away the girl to Varanasi but she died on the way around midnight.

“The accused had raped and poisoned my sister to destroy evidence. They admitted her in a private hospital without the knowledge of police and informed me at the eleventh hour when she was collapsing,” she alleged.

Nirmal Yadav, head of the victim’s village, said the girl’s parents work in Gujarat and left behind their two daughters at home.

Bihar seeks to redefine danger levels in its rivers

Source: hindustantimes.com

After a long time, the Bihar government is going to undertake a massive exercise to revise the danger mark level of all major rivers in the state to make flood-fighting work more effective and reduce chances of false alarm of impending floods in case of rivers in spate in flood-prone districts.

The Bihar State Disaster Management Authority has recommended the idea of redefining the danger level of all major as well as small rivers after a study done on the subject over the last one year.

Experts said the primary reason for revising the danger level of rivers in the state is siltation that has caused the river beds to rise, a reason why the current danger level of rivers measured decades back are not so accurate.

“As the river bed of all majority of rivers has risen over the past many decades due to siltation, the danger level indicators are not so accurate. It often leads to false alarm of impending floods when in reality the river is flowing much below the danger mark. So, a reassessment of the danger level of major rivers is imperative,” said Vyasji, vice-chairman of the state’s disaster management authority.

In Bihar, there are 12 major river basins, including Ganga, Mahananda, Kosi, Bagmati, Sone, Karamnasa, Kamla, Chandan and Gandak, besides a large number of small rivers and their tributaries.

Sources said the state’s disaster management authority had already directed the water resources department and written to the Central Water Commission ( CWC) to start the work, which is going to be a time-consuming exercise. Sources said the government had been given the time to complete the exercise in next couple of months so that the new system comes in place before the rivers go in spate in the state.

The gauge readings of rivers is different from one point to another.

Like in Patna district, the Ganga’s gauge reading is different at Hatihdha , Gandhi ghat and Digha, said Vyasji.

To elaborate, the highest flood level( HFL) of Ganga in Patna was 50.27 metres but was revised to 50.52 metres in 2016.

“The gauge readings are different at many points of rivers and it has to be examined based on different parameters. Besides, the siltation of the rivers will be also taken into account in assessing the danger mark,” he said.

Ganga and Kosi are the major rivers in the state facing heavy siltation and efforts have been made to reduce the sedimentation to lower the river bed.

Kosi deluge in 2008 was one of the worst disasters in the state’s flood history in recent decades. Various studies on river management have put emphasis on regular dredging to reduce the siltation and check floods.

Besides, the disaster management authority also believes the revision of danger mark level of all major rivers, including where barrages have come up, would help check instances of false alarm of floods.

Officials said the water resources department, the parent department responsible for flood management, would be able to make proper flood management plan in advance based on accurate data once the revision is done.

“Whenever a river gets swollen either due to heavy rains or heavy discharge from upstream, panic grips people residing nears the rivers and the administration also starts gearing up resources for flood fighting. But in reality, such alarms are false many a time. So a revision of danger mark of rivers is need of the hour,” said Vyasji.