Category: Jharkhand

Ranchi: Anti-lynching protest turns violent as mob tries to set college bus on fire; FIR lodged, 6 arrested

Source: financialexpress.com

Ranchi violence: The Ranchi administration is on its feet trying to water down the simmering tension in various parts of Jharkhand’s capital city after an incident last Friday when a mob tried to burn a college bus and vandalised several other vehicles. The police swung into action after CCTV images of the purported violence went viral. The incident reportedly took place during a rally organised to protest the lynching of Tabrez Ansari in Saraikela district on June 17.

The viral video shows a violent mob attacking a bus in Ranchi’s Doranda area on July 5. According to reports, some elders among the crowd were seen trying to pacify the agitated men not to resort to violence.

The Ranchi Police has set up special teams study the CCTV footage of the violence. Six people have been arrested so far and three separate FIRs have been filed, Ranchi SSP Anish Gupta said.

Earlier this week, the Jharkhand High Court asked the Jharkhand state government to submit a report on the lynching of Tabrez Ansari, 22. Hearing a public interest litigation, the High Court asked the state government to submit an action-taken report by July 17. The court also asked the Ranchi Police to submit a separate report about recent incidents of violence in the city.

Ansari was brutally thrashed by a mob which accused him of theft on June 17. He succumbed to his injuries on June 22. At least 11 people were arrested for the mob lynching incident.

The incident of Saraikela even featured in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Parliament on June 26. PM Modi said he was ‘pained’ by the incident. “The lynching in Jharkhand has pained me. It has saddened others too. But, some people in the Rajya Sabha are calling Jharkhand a hub of lynching. Is this fair? Why are they insulting a state. None of us have the right to insult the state of Jharkhand,” PM Modi had said.

Jharkhand government seeks national fair tag for Deoghar Shravani mela

Source: hindustantimes.com

The Jharkhand government will send a proposal to the Centre requesting national fair status to Deoghar Shravani mela, the cabinet decided on Tuesday. The formal proposal will be made soon.

Putting a seal on the tourism department’s proposal, the state cabinet decided to take it up with the Union government in the form of a recommendation with the plea to declare Shravani mela a national fair, said cabinet secretary Ajoy Kumar Singh in Deoghar while briefing media persons after the meeting.

The mela is held in Baidyanathdham (Deoghar) every year in the month of Shravan (the fifth month of Hindu calendar from mid July to mid August) wherein people offer Gangajal to the Shivalingam situated in Babadham temple. It is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas in India wherein kanwarias (devotees) in lakhs from various parts of the country and foreign lands throng the temple city.

The cabinet also put its seal on removing state value added tax (VAT) that is being levied on liquor and human consumption items sold at army canteens of the state besides the border security force (BSF) training school in Meru (Hazaribag).

It cleared the decks for the construction of two new roads and reconstruction of three existing roads as well.

The new roads sanctioned are: Dumka ring road (7.45 km) at the cost of Rs 36.77 crore (revised estimate), BishnugarhNarki road (22.96 km) in Bokaro costing Rs 41.57 crore and Fatehpur More- Bangi road via Bhelwaghati (Rs 50.51 crore) in Giridih.

The roads for which widening and strengthening was cleared are: Katra-Kerakona road in Gumla (11.40 km; Rs 56.72 lakh) and the 6.31 km Koeridih-Dighria road between Punasi and Jasidih in Deoghar district costing 27.92 crore.

Helped by official, daughters of two ex-Maoists join school in Jharkhand

Source: hindustantimes.com

Daughters of two former Maoists were admitted into a residential school for girls in Dhalbhumgarh under East Singhbhum district, thanks to the initiative by Gudbandha block development officer (BDO) Seema Kumari.

Slain Maoist Sanjiv Munda’s daughter Sabera Munda and jailed Maoist Bhuglu Singh’s daughter Anisha Singh were given admission in Kasturba Gandhi Girls’ Residential School (KGGRS) in Class 6 on Friday.

“Their mothers have written letters to me requesting to arrange for their daughters’ education as they are very keen to go to school. I discussed the matter with the district social welfare officer and then talked to the Dhalbhumgarh KGGRS authorities who readily agreed to admit the two girls. I took them in my vehicle to the school on Friday and got them admitted in Class-6,” Kumari said on Monday.

She said both the girls had dropped out of school after Class 5 a few years ago owing to abject poverty and Maoist background of their fathers. “They told me that they wanted to go to school and become self-reliant by pursuing higher studies. We hope the girls succeed in their mission and inspire other parents to send their wards to school under ‘Beti Bachao, Bei Padhao’ mission,” added Seema.

Both the girls hailed from Jiyan village under Maoist-infested Gudabandha block, on the borders of Jharkhand and Odisha, about 90-km from district headquarters Jamshedpur. The development is also indicative of how East Singhbhum is slowly coming out of Maoists’ shadow of violence.

Carrying a reward of Rs 25 lakh on his head, Kanhu Munda had surrendered with his entire squad on February 15, 2017 by handing over their weapons to the then Jamshedpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Anop T Matthew. Squad member Bhuglu Singh, also from Jiyan village, had also surrendered on the day. Singh is in jail. Sanjiv Munda, on the other hand, was killed in an encounter with the police in 2013. He too hailed from Jiyan village and was a member of Kanhu Munda squad.

Jharkhand: Over 500 Muslims defy Sec 144 in Ramgarh to protest against mob lynching

Source: dnaindia.com

A group of over 500 people belonging to the Muslim community gathered in a school in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh on Monday to protest against the rising incidents of mob lynchings plaguing their community even amid prohibitory orders issued by the Ramgarh district administration, the Times of India (TOI) reported.

The group, under the banner of the Mutheda Muslim Mahaj, met at Chitrarpur High School just off the National Highway 23 in Gola Road area, to voice their grievances regarding violence against their community. They had earlier sought permission from the district administration for a demonstration rally, which was at first granted but cancelled later on keeping in mind the incidents of violence that are increasingly being associated with anti-mob lynching rallies in the state, the report said.

For a bit of context, a joint group of Muslim organisations had taken out a similar anti-mob lynching rally in state capital Ranchi on Friday but it ended with the group vandalising a Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) bus in protest demonstrations, according to a Hindustan Times (HT) report. The rally had been taken out specifically in protest of the lynching of Tabrez Ansari in Jharkhand’s Seraikela Kharsawan district on June 18.

In light of this, the Ramgarh district administration, fearing disturbance centering around the rally, had on Sunday cancelled the permission for the rally and also issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) that barred all unlawful assembly along the proposed route of the demonstration.

According to reports, even though the rally did not happen, hundreds of Muslims still gathered at the Chitrarpur High School to carry out their protest demonstrations, which, being an unlawful assembly, is also in violation of the prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC.  

The district administration at Ramgarh in Jharkhand said it will take legal action in response to the incident on Monday.

TOI quoted Ramgarh Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Anant Kumar as saying, “What they (outfit) did was in defiance of the prohibitory orders and we would initiate lawful action against them now.”

On the other hand, the secretary of the Muslim outfit who led the protest demonstrations on Monday, Ahmad Khan, reportedly claimed that even though the permission for the rally had been denied, they had received police permission for a meeting after request on Sunday night.  Ramgarh Superintendent of Police (SP) Prabhat Kumar denied this claim, saying “no such permissions were issued,” according to the HT report.

The report further said that the Chief Speaker at the Muslim gathering, Sahjada Anwar, clarified the purpose behind the demonstration. The Supreme Court had issued directives to every state, including Jharkhand, to the Home Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP) to review mob lynching cases every three months and constitute a task force to look into such cases. “However, nothing of that sort has been done in Jharkhand,” HT quoted an aggrieved Anwar.

Jharkhand Witnesses 35% Rainfall Deficit

Source: weather.com

Jharkhand is witnessing a 35 per cent rainfall deficit in this monsoon season, a Met Department official said here on Monday.

“Jharkhand has received only 181 mm rainfall against the normal 276 mm till now. In the last two days, the rainfall has improved and it will continue for next 48 hours,” S.D Kothal, Director of the Ranchi Met Department, told IANS.

“But the rain will shift towards the Himalaya region from July 10 to 12. When it will retreat, state will then witness an improvement of the rainfall.”

The worst affected areas of the state are Godda and Pakur where rainfall shortage is more than 70 per cent. Garwah and Chatra have witnessed over 60 per cent deficiency.

Due to the shortage, paddy sowing has not gained momentum.

Jharkhand has not received normal rainfall in the last two years.

In 2018, the Jharkhand government had declared 129 blocks in 18 districts as drought-affected and released Rs 490 million for immediate relief.

As per the Met Department’s data, Jharkhand received 72 per cent average rainfall in 2018. However, in some places, it was less than 50 per cent. The worst affected were Pakur and Koderma.

The average rainfall in the state is 1,027.7 mm, but in 2018 it received only 741.9 mm.

Won’t Tolerate Mob Lynching or Any Crime: Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das

Source: thewire.in

Ranchi: Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das has asserted that there will be no discrimination based on caste or religion while dealing with those involved in mob lynching or other crimes and anarchy won’t be tolerated.

Talking about the recent lynching of Muslim youth, accused of stealing a motorcycle in Saraikela Kharsawan district, he said, “My government strongly condemns this incident. Our commitment is to punish criminals… Jharkhand is the only state in the country where such cases are taken up on a fast-track basis with quick punishment to the guilty.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last month said in Rajya Sabha that this lynching incident pained him and the guilty should get the severest punishment. He, however, said that for this incident, the entire state should not be pronounced guilty and everyone put in the dock.

Tabrez Ansari was beaten up by a mob, and a video showed that he was purportedly made to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’. He later died.

Das urged people to refrain from taking law in their hands and expressed his government’s commitment to “punish the criminals” irrespective of caste or the religion.

He also lashed out at the opposition for “giving a communal colour” to stray incidents and said things should not be blown out of proportion and “the government or any particular political party should not be blamed for such incidents”.

“It is a matter of great sadness that the opposition starts playing politics on such issues”, he said.

“Be it this kind of crime or any crime, my government will not tolerate any anarchy… There will be no discrimination in punishing criminals… the colour of blood is the same. Our motto is to ensure communal harmony, peace and brotherhood,” Das told PTI in an interview.

He said his government has constituted a special investigation team to probe the incident and eleven people have been arrested, and two police officers suspended.

According to him, there had been lynching cases during Congress regime too, but this is the first time that action against the guilty is being taken through fast-track courts in Jharkhand.

Das said that Jharkhand has followed Supreme Court guidelines fully in this regard.

The apex court had in 2018 said that “horrendous acts of mobocracy” cannot be allowed to overrun the law of the land and issued a slew of guidelines to deal with mob lynching and cow vigilantism, besides asking the centre to consider enacting a new law to deal with such cases sternly.

It had asked the state governments to designate a senior police officer, not below the rank of superintendent of police, as nodal officer in each district to take steps to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching.

Modi, in his speech, had objected to some people calling Jharkhand a hub of lynching.

“Is this fair? Why are they insulting a state? None of us have the right to insult the state of Jharkhand,” he had said and referred to violence in states ruled by opposition parties.

“All kinds of violence, whether in Jharkhand or West Bengal or Kerala, should be treated as same and law, should take its course,” he had said.

On June 24, leader of the opposition in the upper house Ghulam Nabi Azad had said that Jharkhand has become a lynching factory where Muslims and Dalits were lynched and attacked every week.

Last year, a fast track court in Jharkhand had convicted eleven people for lynching a meat trader in June 2017 over the suspicion that he was carrying beef in his car.

Fuel price hike irks trade bodies

Source: hindustantimes.com

The Jharkhand Petroleum and Dealer Association (JPDA) and Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FJCCI) raised questions on cess and special excise duty on petrol and diesel.

In the 2019 union budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed to increase special additional excise duty, and road and infrastructure cess by Re 1 per litre on petrol and diesel.

The JPDA president, Ashok Singh, said the tax payers would have to spend Rs 2 extra on every litre of petrol and diesel. “The state tax is imposed on the total price of a litre of fuel which includes excise duty, cess and special excise duty. Thus from now, petrol or diesel is going to be costlier by Rs 2.44 a litre in Jharkhand. This way, 44 paise will go to the state exchequer. So, it’s abki baar, garibo pe waar budget,” said Singh.

One litre of petrol was sold at Rs 69.39, while diesel was sold at Rs 65.67 per litre, at fuel stations in Ranchi on Friday.

FJCCI Deepak Kumar Maroo said the move will have multiple effects on customers. “It will leave a cascading impact on inflation as travel and food costs rise.” He added, “I believe it was not required when fuel prices are already high.” Former FJCCI president Ranjit Garodia said the budget focused more on making government exchequer healthier.

Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das termed the budget as balanced. “The budget will push the idea of new India of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Every section, including women, youth, farmers, industrialists and small traders were kept in mind in the budget.”

HC allows repatriation of 104 Jharkhand kids to home state

Source: indianexpress.com

THE PUNJAB and Haryana High Court has ruled that a child welfare committee is well within its rights to ask a children’s home located in its jurisdiction to send back inmates of other states or districts to their home region in case it requires to accommodate local children in need of shelter.

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A single bench of Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa gave the verdict in the case of Ferozepur-based Arya Anathalaya, which was earlier this year asked by the district child welfare committee to send back nearly 104 children of Jharkhand to their home state.

Justice Dhindsa in the verdict, however, added that “even such course of action can be adopted only after consultation with the concerned child welfare committees in the home districts from where the inmates are currently lodged”.

Arya Anathalaya was established in 1877 for providing shelter to children who had lost their parents or had nobody to take care of them, its plea had said in the court. There are 104 – 60 boys and 44 girls – at the home, all of them from Jharkhand.

The HC said that the State counsel has not been able to cite any provision under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 to construe that there is an embargo with regard to admitting children, who may be residents from outside Punjab. It, however, added that the child welfare committee wanted to admit local children to provide them the shelter but it was refused on the ground that the facility was already full to its capacity.

“If the petitioner Anathalaya declines admission to the children who are in need, for the reasons that it already has utilized its capacity to the hilt by admitting inmates from Jharkhand, no exception can possibly be taken to the decision of the child welfare committee, Ferozepur in calling upon the Anathalaya to send such inmates back to their home districts or states,” the order read.

Meanwhile, the State has told the court that the repatriation of the children staying in Anathalaya would be taken up with the child welfare committees of Jharkhand and put into operation in a phased manner and that too with proper consultation and co-ordination with the concerned child welfare committee of Khunti and Ranchi districts in Jharkhand.

Toyota Expands Its Dealership Network With A New Showroom In Jharkhand

Source: motoroids.com

Yesterday, Toyota extended its dealership network in India with the inauguration of its 364th touchpoint in Jharkhand. The newly unveiled Dhanbad Toyota is a well-equipped, world-class facility which will cater to 3S (Sales, Service and Spares) requirements of customers and is also the 5th touchpoint in the state of Jharkhand. The touch-point was Inaugurated by Mr N Raja, Deputy Managing Director – Toyota Kirloskar Motor along with Mr Rituraj Sinha, Dealer Principal – Dhanbad Toyota. With its philosophy of ‘Customer First’, Toyota is geared up to ensure the most enjoyable and hassle-free car buying experience for every customer associating with the brand.

This new dealership spreads across 46000 sqft and will cater to the customers from the eastern parts of Jharkhand. Dhanbad Toyota is equipped with many modern amenities to strengthen Toyota’s existing network in the region and help in achieving the highest level of customer satisfaction with an entire team of well-trained professionals and service teams. In addition to showcasing the entire range of Toyota products in India, the new dealership is fully stocked to facilitate distinctive offers to customers in car servicing like Express Maintenance, Body & Paint Repair and other Value-Added Services. These services are undertaken by professionals from the best technical institutes supported by Toyota and constantly upscaled through unique skill training of global standards.

Speaking at the inauguration, Mr Rituraj Sinha, Dealer Principal – Dhanbad Toyota said, “It is our absolute privilege to get associated with Toyota, one of the global leaders in car manufacturing. We are grateful to Toyota Kirloskar Motor for their confidence and thereby making us a part of their India journey. We at Dhanbad Toyota, are here to affirm Toyota’s commitment to its customers through their experience with best-in-class purchasing and service offerings at our full-fledged facility. As ambassadors of Toyota, we look forward to representing the premium brand by demonstrating Toyota’s renowned global standard products and service quality to the people in the region, ensuring the highest level of satisfaction of the valuable Toyota Customers.”

Commenting on the opening of the new dealership, Mr. N Raja – Deputy Managing Director of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, “The inauguration of Dhanbad Toyota marks yet another milestone in our relentless commitment to establish fruitful and everlasting relationships with our patrons as we continuously strive to reach closer to our customers and deliver world-class Toyota products and services lineage through their delightful experience with us. We are glad to have intensified our reach in the state of Jharkhand, which is a very important aspect of our growth strategy, thus aligning with our approach to offer advanced amenities and quality services through strategically located network set-ups in different parts of the country. We have been successful in establishing a positive synergy with all our dealer partners as a result of which, Toyota has set a benchmark in the sales & service offering to the customers. As our dealer partner, Dhanbad Toyota has a good understanding of this prominent market and is aligned with Toyota’s deep-rooted focus on high-quality service with ‘Customer First’ approach. We are confident that this state-of-the-art showroom in Dhanbad will further strength our presence in this region by catering to the increasing demand for Toyota cars and enable customers to enjoy the experience of car ownership with Toyota brand”.

HEAVY RAINS TO LASH PARTS OF BIHAR, FLOOD LIKE SITUATION FEARED

Source: skymetweather.com

The eastern districts of Bihar have been observing on and off rain and thundershower activities for quite some time now. During the last 24 hours, Bhagalpur and its adjoining areas have received light to moderate rain and thundershowers.

According to Skymet Weather, the intensity of rains will increase over Bihar during the next few days. Neighbouring Jharkhand would also observe intense showers now. Light rain will be witnessed in both the states for the next 48 hours. Thereafter, the intensity of rain will increase significantly. These rains would be a result of the Cyclonic Circulation over Bihar and its adjoining areas. A well-marked Low-Pressure Area is already present over Northeast Madhya Pradesh and adjoining Southeast Uttar Pradesh, which is instrumental in giving occasional light rain in the region for the last two days.

Easterly/southeasterly winds from the Bay of Bengal will impact both the states during the upcoming rainy spell. Moreover, we expect the intensity of rain to remain high in Bihar than Jharkhand. Bihar is likely to observe light to moderate rains with a few heavy spells, while light to moderate showers with isolated heavy spells would be a sight in parts of Jharkhand.

During this spell, good rains are also expected in adjoining Nepal. This raises fear of rivers flooding in Nepal and large amounts of water flowing into Bihar and its rivers, resulting in flood like situation in the state. However, we do not expect any serious flooding to take place, but due precautions must be taken.

This spell of rain is likely to continue until July 9, with rains peaking on July 7. This could turn out to be the rainiest spell of Monsoon Rain so far. It will definitely be helpful in reducing rainfall deficiency in the state to a great extent. These showers will also be highly beneficial for crops and in soil moisture restoration.