Category: Jharkhand

Das for Double Engine Govt in Jharkhand again

Source: dailypioneer.com

Chief Minister Raghubar Das today held seven back to back public meetings at various locations in Santhal Pargana on day one of Johar Jan Ashirwad Yatra. The CM gave message of development to people appealing them to tread the road of development by supporting the BJP in upcoming polls. “Political parties using the name of Jharkhand consider the naive public of Santhal only as vote bank. Our government has worked for the all round development of Santhal Pargana. You have the right to know from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Congress why till 2014 only 38 lakh families out of 68 lakh families had access to electricity.

Why children in schools were forced to sit on jute sacks? Why the mother and sisters of the State could not get freedom from the life of smoke? Why could the poor not get their own houses? Why they did not build toilets in honour of women? Why there was no health insurance for the poor? Why did they not become the carrier of economic prosperity of farmers? Why did they not remove the stigma of corruption from Jharkhand? They do not have the answers to these questions because they do politics of rumor and propaganda. But, now it will not work. The days of false and deceitful promises are gone,” said the CM. Das said that now the people of Santhal want a working government, Bharatiya Janata Party government. “For 14 years JMM, RJD, Congress continued to do politics of manipulation. Their purpose was only to gain power. By filling their pockets, they have deceived the people of the State. This time you have to take them out,” he said while addressing various public meetings in Santhalpargana on Thursday.

The CM said that in the last five years, there has been an effort to bring a ray of development to the people of Jharkhand, who are waiting for development since independence. “We do not say that we have changed things completely, but have started development work. We still have a long way to go. I have come to you for giving account of the last five years of development work. I hope you get your blessings for the next five years and Jharkhand will get a strong government,” he said. “Our Government is committed to the development of the entire Santhalpargana including Mihizam. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ruled in Santhal Pargana for years but Santhal went backward. The Soren family stalled the development of Santhal.

 This time Santhal Pargana has to be made Congress and JMM free. Our government gave the right of sand to the gram panchayats, but the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha government gave the contract of sand to a contractor in Mumbai. The first right on the resources of the State belongs to the people of Jharkhand and not to anyone outside,” he added.

At Khaira of Nala Assembly seat, the CM held discussion with locals over tea. “Our government has given top priority to dialogue with the people since the beginning.

In setback for Congress, its former Jharkhand unit chief joins AAP

Source: livemint.com

New Delhi: The former chief of the Jharkhand unit of the Congress, Ajoy Kumar, joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday, in the first casualty for the Congress after a change in the top leadership. Kumar’s induction into AAP comes less than six weeks after he resigned from the top post of the Congress’ Jharkhand unit.

The move comes ahead of the assembly elections in Jharkhand scheduled later this year, and in Delhi, which is likely to take place in early 2020.

AAP is in power in Delhi, with party chief Arvind Kejriwal as the chief minister. They, however, do not have a significant presence in Jharkhand where the state’s politics is dominated by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition alliance of the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.

“Today I am joining AAP because of the political situation in the country. AAP is practising the politics of good governance and no corruption. There are a lot of people from Bihar and Jharkhand, from where I come, who have moved to Delhi and have benefitted from the government’s schemes in the areas of health and education. The money they save because of free water and electricity, they are able to use elsewhere,” Kumar said. “People of India who do not have any connection with politics have entered this area and are making people see how clean politics can be.”

Kumar joined the party in the presence of AAP leader and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, party chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj, and senior leader Durgesh Pathak.

“An important politician has joined AAP today. He has served the country as an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and a parliamentarian. We have known each other since the days of the India Against Corruption movement. He will work in other states as well as in Delhi where the AAP has a presence,” Sisodia said.

Kumar had resigned as the Jharkhand unit chief of the Congress last month amid a leadership crisis in the state unit. Kumar had alleged that many senior leaders were seeking “to grab political posts for personal benefit and have made attempts to bypass the systems that have been put in place to benefit the party”.

Separately, on Thursday, Delhi speaker Ram Niwas Goel disqualified legislator Alka Lamba from the assembly after she resigned from the party and joined the Congress.

Kumar has a medical degree and has served as an IPS officer in Bihar and Jharkhand. He was considered close to Rahul Gandhi and was handpicked to lead the party in Jharkhand.

Will make Jharkhand No. 1 state in country: Amit Shah

Source: indiatoday.in

Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday promised that the Bharatiya Janata Party governments at the Centre and in Jharkhand would work together to make the state the No. 1 state in the country. Shah said that since Narendra Modi came to power at the Centre, Naxalism has declined in the state and various welfare schemes have been successfully implemented in the state.

Shah was addressing a rally in Jharkhand’s Jamtara district. Jharkhand, along with Maharashtra and Haryana, is expected to go to the polls later this year. Shah was speaking after launching the BJP’s ‘Johar Jan Ashirwad Yatra’.

The yatra will crisscross Jharkhand’s 81 assembly constituencies ahead of the polls in the state.

Speaking at the rally, Amit Shah also Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed Pakistan its place by abrogating Article 370 and 35A and established that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India.

Shah said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should tell people of Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana, when he goes to those election-bound states, whether he was with the decision to abrogate Article 370.

ATTACKS CONGRESS

“Removing Article 370, Modi ji showed Pakistan its place, and established that Kashmir is an integral part of India,” Shah said.

“Our stand has been to remove Article 370 ever since it had been there,” Shah said and asked “why the Congress felt a ‘stomach ache’ following its abrogation?”

Launching a scathing attack on the Congress, Amit Shah said the party had also opposed and sought evidence after the surgical strikes.

“They (Congress) should tell the people which direction they want to go,” he added.

Shah said even while being in the opposition, his party leaders had supported the government on important issues.

“Atal Bihari Vajpayee had supported former prime minister Indira Gandhi after winning the Bangladesh Liberation war.

‘CONGRESS DID NOT HEED JHARKHAND’S WISHES’

Amit Shah went on to question what the Congress did for the state and slammed the party for not heeding the decades-old demand to create a separate state. (Jharkhand was a part of Bihar until 2000).

Shah said that the Congress had not accepted Jharkhand people’s decades-old wishes for a separate state and that it was former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who fulfilled the dreams.

“I don’t hesitate to say that Atal ji created Jharkhand and Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji nursed it towards development during the last five years,” Shah said.

“There is Modi government above [at the Centre] and Raghubar Das government below [in the state]. The double engine governments have changed Jharkhand, and the evidence is that the people of Jharkhand gave 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats to Modi government in the Lok Sabha elections,” Shah said.

“Naxalism was there, but now Jharkhand is headed towards [becoming] almost naxal-free and moving forward with developmental initiatives,” Shah said. “The double engine governments will make Jharkhand the number one state in the country.”

One dead, 7 injured as leopard goes on rampage in Jharkhand village

Source: hindustantimes.com

A panicked leopard went on rampage in a Jharkhand village on Monday morning killing one woman and injuring seven others, forest officials said.

The attack took place in Pakur district’s Nashipur village under Maheshpur block. A team of forest officials reached the village but faced an uphill task to capture the leopard in absence of its experts and a tranquilliser.

“The leopard entered the village early in the morning and killed one Sonamoni Tudu, 65, who had gone to collect mushrooms in her farm field. Leopard bites were found on her neck and shoulder,” said Anil Kumar Singh, forest range officer, Pakur.

Singh, who is camping in the village, said the villagers with sticks and other weapons tried to capture the animal in the morning but the panicked leopard injured seven of them.

“Six people were sent to Maheshpur hospital for treatment while one Stephen Hansda,40, who is serious, was referred to PMCH, Dhanbad,” Singh said.

Forest officials gave away Rs 25,000 to Tudu’s kin for final rites and Rs 25,000 to Hansda for treatment. As per the forest department’s rule, a compensation of Rs 4 lakh is given if one dies in a man-animal conflict.

Singh said, “The village crowd is posing trouble in driving away the animal. If need arises, we will impose section 144 to keep the situation under control.”

Singh said houses in the village were scattered and there were farm fields in between the houses where the leopard was hide and seek.

“Since we neither had tranquilliser nor its expert to capture the leopard, we have sought guidelines from the divisional forest officer,” he said.

Villagers said this was the first incident of killing by leopard in the village in recent years. One such incident took place a year back at Agua hill, which is located five kilometer away from the village, a villager said.

The forest officials said the leopard might have come from the Agua hill where forest cover was degrading for past few years. The animal might have deviated from its route and entered the village.

State wildlife board member DS Srivastava said, “Santhal region has good population of leopards. With tree cover degrading in the region, now they are coming out of the forest and entering villages in search of food.”

100-bed cancer centre in each division

Source: newagebd.net

The executive committee of the National Economic Council on Tuesday approved a project involving Tk 2,388.40 crore to set up a 100-bed full-fledged cancer centre in each government medical college hospital in every divisional city.

The ECNEC cleared a total of eight projects with an estimated cost of Tk 8,968.08 crore.

The approval came from an Ecnec meeting held at the NEC conference room with ECNEC chairperson and prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

‘Today, the meeting approved eight projects and the estimated cost of the project is Tk 8,968.08,’ said planning minister MA Mannan while briefing reporters after the meeting.

Of the cost, Tk 8,952.59 crore will come from the national exchequer, while the rest 15.49 crore from the funds of the agencies concerned, he said.

Of the approved projects, five are new and the remaining three are revised ones.

The planning minister said the Directorate General of Health Services will implement ‘Establishment of 100-bed Full-fledged Cancer Centre in Government Medical College Hospital in Divisional City’ project.

The project will be implemented from October 2019 to September 2022.

The remaining four new projects are ‘Mymensingh (Raghurampur)-Fulpur-Nakla-Sherpur (R-371) Regional Highway Development’ project involving Tk 855.49 crore, ‘ Upgrading pavement of the Bindur Mor-Biman Bandar-Naohata Bridge portion of Rajshahi-Naohata-Choumasia Road into four-lane’ with Tk 326.87 crore, ‘Construction of Rahonpur-Monakasha 400-KV Transmission Line in Chapainawabganj for importing electricity from Jharkhand of India to Bangladesh’ with Tk 225.49 crore, and ‘Research on Prevention and Control of Zoonosis and Transboundary Animal Diseases’ with Tk 150.42 crore.

The three revised projects are ‘Ashrayan-2 Project’ (3rd revised) involving with the cost of Tk 4,826.16 crore, ‘Widening Upashahor Mor-Sonadighi and Malopara Mor-Sagorpara Mor roads in Rajshahi city’ (2nd revised) project with Tk 126.40 crore, and ‘Strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation Capabilities of IMED (SMECI)’ (3rd revised) project with Tk 65.85 crore.

The minister said the implementation rate of Annual Development Programme was 4.48 per cent in the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year, which is higher than 3.49 per cent in the same period of the last fiscal year.

He said the ADP expenditure is Tk 9,626 crore till August in 2019-20 fiscal year, which was Tk 6,318 crore in the same two months of 2018-19 fiscal year. 

New traffic rules: Jharkhand will not impose fines before December

Source: livemint.com

RANCHI : Giving relief to motorists under the new Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, that came into force from this month, the Jharkhand government has decided to postpone its implementation for the next three months.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, during a review meeting on Friday, directed the transport department to open facilitation centres across the state to enable people get their documents in order in the next three months.

The Jharkhand government has asked state residents to complete all their documents within three months while putting the provisions of the Act on hold for the period.

“Taking cognisance of people’s safety some amendments were made in the Motor Vehicle Act by Centre. However, taking note of the issues people are facing, we have decided to give three-month relief to people so that they can get their documents in order,” Jharkhand Transport Minister CP Singh told ANI.

The chief minister has asked people to abide by traffic rules and refrain from rash driving. In view of the heavy fine under the Motor Vehicles Act, several state governments have decided to put its implementation on hold. Gujarat and Uttarakhand have even announced a cut in penalties for traffic violations under the Act.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had said that the Central government did not take the states into confidence before implementing the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019.

The new Motor Vehicles Act has enhanced the penalties for traffic violations and erring drivers. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had notified the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 last month and it was implemented in many states across the nation from September 1.

According to the new law, in case of dangerous driving, first-time offenders face imprisonment of six months to one year and/or fine of between ₹1,000 and ₹5,000. For drunken driving, a violator will have to face imprisonment up to six months and/or a fine of up to ₹10,000 in case of first time offense. For the second offense, there will be a prison term of up to 2 years and/or a fine of ₹15,000 will be levied.

For driving without licence, a motorist will have to pay a penalty of ₹5,000, an increase of 10 times from ₹500.

With new poll symbol, Nitish to fight BJP in Jharkhand

Source: deccanherald.com

Nitish Kumar may be an ally of the BJP in Bihar but he will be contesting against the BJP Government in Jharkhand headed by Raghuvar Das during the Assembly elections in November this year.

The Election Commission has, however, allotted a new poll symbol to the JD(U) after the party’s existing symbol ‘arrow’ created confusion with the election symbol of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). The JMM has ‘bow and arrow’ as its symbol.

Ever since Nitish decided to contest on all the 81 Assembly seats in neighbouring Jharkhand on its own, the JMM approached the EC to freeze the JD(U) symbol ‘arrow’ as it might confuse the voters in tribal-dominated State. After much deliberations, the EC recently allotted ‘farmer driving a tractor’ symbol to the JD(U).

Nitish earlier this month sounded the poll bugle in Ranchi where he came down heavily on the BJP Government in the State. “It’s around 19 years since Jharkhand was formed after bifurcating Bihar in November 2000. And the mineral-rich tribal State has witnessed virtually no development in the last two decades. On the other hand, ever since I took over the reins of Bihar in 2005, the State’s growth rate has increased by leaps and bounds,” said Nitish lashing out at his Jharkhand counterpart, although he refrained from taking his name.

It’s not only the JMM but Shiv Sena too, which had protested a similar election symbol of the JD(U). The Maharashtra-based party Shiv Sena too has ‘bow and arrow’ as its symbol and it protested to the EC when it came to know that the JD(U) would field its candidates during October 2019 Assembly polls in Maharashtra. “The EC has allotted ‘diesel pump’ as the election symbol to the JD(U) for Maharashtra Assembly polls,” said a ruling party source here in the state capital.

Ever since the JD(U) performed well in Arunachal Pradesh during the May 2019 elections (when it won seven Assembly seats in the N-E State), Nitish, who is also the national president of the JD(U), is in expansion mode of his outfit, aiming to get it a status of national party.

PM Modi inaugurates Jharkhand assembly building, lays foundation of state secretariat

Source: hindustantimes.com

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated the Rs 465 crore newly constructed state-of-the-art Jharkhand assembly building, putting an end to the state’s 19-year wait for construction of its own assembly building and laid foundation stone of the Rs 1238 crore proposed construction of state secretariat.

The ground plus three floors magnificent structure of the assembly building has come up on a site of 39 acres of land at HEC township near Jagannath temple. A symbolic one-day special assembly session has been convened on September 13 in this new building.

Inaugurating the assembly complex, Modi said, “It’s a historic day for Jharkhand. After 19-years of its creation, the state now gets its own assembly building and foundation stone of the proposed state secretariat has been laid.”

Appealing to the youths to must visit this assembly complex, Modi said, “One should not consider this building as a structure with walls only. It will lay foundation of the better future of state’s citizens. It will help in realizing the dreams of coming generations.”

Recalling the importance of these buildings, the Prime Minister said, “The recently concluded monsoon session was one of the most productive sessions of the Parliament after independence. The houses worked till night to discuss and pass important legislations. People felt happy to see it going. Credit goes to all MPs and political parties for giving effect to a healthy discourse.”

The dome shaped Jharkhand’s new assembly complex consists of Central, East and West wings and service buildings including covered car parking. A rooftop solar power plant of 500 KVA capacity have been set up over the car parking area. The campus is beautifully landscaped with three stage fountains in the south (front) and north (back). Besides, work is in progress to set up four half ball fountains.

The main attraction of the building is its large dome just overhead of the assembly hall. The dome has been decorated with traditional Jharkhandi arts from the inside. These arts will be illuminated with high quality lights.

The building’s central wing consists of a assembly hall of seating capacity of 150 persons, chambers of chief minister, assembly speaker and deputy speaker, a conference hall with seating capacity of 400 persons, MLAs lobby, press gallery, media lobby, library, canteen and others.

While the building’s East wing would have 22 minister rooms, six committee rooms, establishment, budget, pension, question and answer sections, accounts, legislative section and others, the west wing would house chamber of leader of opposition, five committee rooms, parliament, public information, dispatch, whip sections, bank, post office and other services.

The four-storied proposed state secretariat building will be constructed on an area of 33.60 lakh square feet in HEC township.

Central Wing: Assembly hall (150 seating capacity), chambers of CM, Speaker, deputy speaker with rest rooms, 400 seater conference hall, MLA lobby, press, officers, visitors galleries, library, canteen, dispensary and others

East Wing: 22 minister rooms, six committee rooms, establishment, budget, pension, question and answer sections, accounts, legislative section and others

West Wing: Chamber of leader of opposition, five committee rooms, parliament, public information, dispatch, whip sections, bank, post office and other services.

Service building: Electrical sub-station, AC plant room, police barrack, maintenance room, covered car parking (400 vehicles)

Lightning kills 8 youths in Jharkhand, CM Raghubar Das announces compensation

Source: indiatoday.in

A lightning strike killed eight people in Jharkhand on Thursday. The incident happened in Jharkhand’s Garwha. The eight youths, hailing from Pasi Tola under Mjhiyon police station, were playing out in the open when the lightning strike killed six out of them on the spot.

The other two were rushed to a hospital but to no avail. They breathed their last in Sadar Hospital, Garwha on Thursday.

Garwha SDO Pradip Kumar said that it was raining and the youths tried to hide themselves under a tree. The trees are a good conductor of electricity. When the lightning hit it the tree the current was discharged upon the youths hiding under it.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das said, “My heart goes out to the families who lost their loved ones.” Raghubar Das also announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the deceased.

Meanwhile, senior geologist of Ranchi University — Dr Nitish Priyadarshi — expressed his concern over death due to natural disasters time and again in the far flung and rural areas.

Nitish Priyadarshi has cited that acute lack of awareness is the big reason of casualties from nature furies. Villages located at high altitude is common in Jharkhand and people don’t know that it is not at all advisable to go outside in fields and open spaces when there are any chances of thundering or lightning strikes.

“Above all still, the use of conductors are minimal in the rural areas. Massive awareness campaign is required to update the people to stick to the dos and don’ts during thundering and lightning. This is high time disaster management department of Jharkhand government should take a call to preempt casualties,” Nitish Priyadarshi said.

Lynching case: Jharkhand police defends decision to drop murder charges against accused

Source: nationalheraldindia.com

The Jharkhand Police on Wednesday strongly defended its decision to scale down charges — from murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder — against the 11 accused in the lynching case of Tabrez Ansari, saying it was based on investigation and medical report.

Ansari, 24, was seen on national television being beaten up with rods while tied to a pole and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ over an alleged theft.

The Seraikela-Kharsawan district police had charge- sheeted 11 of the 13 named accused in the case on July 29, dropping the stringent charge of murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. All 11 of them will now face the law for lesser offence under section 304 of IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

“We have taken the decision to convert section 302 under the IPC to 304 of the code after consulting the authorities. The decision was taken based on proper probe and post-mortem and forensic reports, which said that Ansari died of cardiac arrest,” Superintendent of Police Karthik S said.

Questioning the hue and cry over the police decision to drop murder charges, the SP said, “Why are people undermining section 304 of the IPC? The undermining of the section tantamount to undermining of the Indian Penal Code.” AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday reacted sharply to the dilution of the charge and said there was a “chance that the prosecution will do its best to do a shoddy job”.

Twitterati has also raised questions over the move to water down charges against the 11 accused.

Asked whether the police received the Central Forensic Laboratory report from Chandigarh, the senior police officer replied in the affirmative but refused to give any details.

He also asserted that the video of the mob attack on Ansari was “not tampered with, but it did not synchronize with the audio”.

Talking about the petition filed by Ansari’s widow Shahista Perveen in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Manju Kumari, he said, “As the case was filed under section 295(A) of the IPC (maliciously insulting the religion or religious beliefs of any class), the district administration has forwarded it to the state government to take a decision.” Altaf Hussain, Perveen’s lawyer, also said that the petition would be admitted only after the state administration’s approval.

“We have filed the petition against the dropping of section 302 IPC against the accused and converting it to 304 of the IPC. It will be admitted only after the state administration’s approval.”

Ansari worked as a labourer and welder in Pune and had come home to celebrate Eid when he was captured by locals at Dhatkidih village on the night of June 17 over suspicion of trying to steal a motorcycle.

He was tied to a pole and assaulted by a mob with sticks and iron rods. A video of the scene that went viral and was flashed across TV networks showed he was forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’ by his tormentors.

As Ansari’s condition deteriorated, he was shifted to the district government hospital the same day. With no signs of improvement, he was then referred to the Tata Main Hospital, where he was declared brought dead on June 22.

Altogether 13 people were named accused in the case.

While police has charge-sheeted 11 of the 13 accused, the probe is still under way against two.

Though there was no evidence of the perpetrators’ link to any Hindu right organisation, Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists had protested their arrest.