Patna Archives - Page 5 of 11

Doctor part of central team in Patna to check dengue spread is now a patient.

Source – hindustantimes.com

An entomologist, from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, who was visiting Patna to check houses for Aedes mosquito larvae, which transmits Dengue, has now been afflicted with the disease.

Dr Ram Singh, joint director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), and head of the Centre for Medical Entomology and Vector Management, New Delhi, has been sent to the sick bay after he tested positive for Dengue and Chikungunya on Saturday.

He was a part of the Central team sent to the city on October 3, at the behest of Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey, to help the state in curbing the spread of the disease.

Patna was battered by incessant rain between September 27 and 29.

Dr Singh, who is down with high fever and acute joint pain, could not return to Delhi with the rest of the team on Saturday. The Central team wound up its fortnight-long operation in Bihar, this weekend.

“I am shivering with high fever and have pain in my joints since Friday. I had to return to Delhi yesterday (Saturday) but am still here under the care of Dr Krishna Pandey of the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) after my blood serum test tested positive for Dengue and Chikungunya,” Dr Singh said over the telephone.

Dr Singh had visited several waterlogged houses to check them for Aedes mosquito larvae, as microbiologists and entomologists accompanying him went around collecting samples of water from piped sources and tanks to check for the presence of microbes and those in buckets, planters, toys, pools, birdbaths, flowerpots, or trash containers, to check vector density of Dengue. Mosquitoes are known to breed in stagnant water.

The Central team conducted health camps and collected blood samples to check vector and water-borne diseases as well as samples of stagnant water from households to check dengue vector density. It wound up its operations after consultation with the state government on October 18.

The team comprised doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi; Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Delhi; Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi; the National Institute of Malaria Research, Delhi; Regional Malaria Research Centre, Bhubaneswar, directorate of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), Delhi; the NCDC, Delhi; AIIMS-Patna and the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS), Patna.

Earlier, two BJP legislators — Nitin Navin and Sanjiv Chaurasia — both from Patna, were stung by the Aedes mosquito.

Cases of Dengue and Chikungunya have increased this month. Bihar has reported 2,538 cases of Dengue of which 1,916 are from Patna and another 268 cases of Chikungunya out of a total 293 in the state this year till October 19.

At least five Dengue patients have died in Patna since October 15, but the state government has so far not attributed any of these deaths to the disease.

Doctors, requesting anonymity, said that nine out of 10 deaths in case of Dengue was due to co-morbidity and failure of different organs like the heart or the liver, triggered due to the disease.

Patna floods: High court lawyer files complaint against Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi and others

Source: financialexpress.com

A complaint was filed against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi over the recent floods in Patna that left the city paralysed for more than a week. Several state ministers and Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials have also been named in the complaint.

The complaint was filed in the court of Patna Chief Judicial Magistrate under several sections of the IPC including 302 (murder) and (120B) criminal conspiracy. The complainant, an advocate at High Court, has sought action against Kumar, Modi and others for inaction during the crisis.

Besides Kumar and Modi, those who have been named in the complaint include Cabinet minister Suresh Kumar Sharma, PMC Mayor Sita Sahu, Commissioner Amit Kumar Pandey, Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited Managing Director Amrendra Prasad Singh, Ex-UDD principal secretary Chaitanya Prasad and Ex-Patna Commissioner Anand Kishor.

The complainant said that several people lost their lives and government and private properties worth over Rs 100 crore were damaged due to the ‘man-made’ flood. He said that flooding in the capital was caused due to the non-maintenance of the drainage system and the failure of the government machinery.

Patna, the capital of Bihar, was flooded a few weeks ago after heavy rains lashed the city and neighbouring districts. The posh Rajendra Nagar, Kankarbagh localities were waterlogged for almost a week. The historic Gandhi Maidan, busy Dak Bungalow Chauraha were also inundated.

The complainant claimed that even after 18-20 days of flooding, some of the affected areas were water-logged.

As many as 73 people lost their lives in different districts of the state due to floods in September.

Complaint Against Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi Over Patna Floods

Source: ndtv.com

PATNA:

A complaint was filed against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, several ministers and Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials seeking action against them over the recent Patna floods.

The complaint was filed in the court of Patna Chief Judicial Magistrate under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 302 (murder) and (120B) criminal conspiracy.

Bihar Cabinet minister Suresh Kumar Sharma, PMC Mayor Sita Sahu, Commissioner Amit Kumar Pandey, Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited Managing Director Amrendra Prasad Singh, Ex-UDD principal secretary Chaitanya Prasad and Ex-Patna Commissioner Anand Kishor were also named in the complaint.

The complaint urged the court to look into the matter, take cognizance against the accused in the given sections and suitably punish them.

The complaint, filed by an advocate, alleged that the lives of several people were lost and government and private property worth over Rs. 100 crore was affected due to the “man-made” floods, caused “due to the non-maintenance of the drainage system” and the failure of the government machinery.

It said that even after 18-20 days, some of the affected areas were water-logged.

Over 73 people died in the floods in several parts of the state.

Ink Attack on Union Minister Ashwini Choubey Outside Government Hospital in Patna

Source: news18.com

Patna: A bottle full of ink was flung here on Tuesday towards Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who ended up with stains on his clothes while his vehicle got smudged with the dark blue liquid.

The drama unfolded outside the Patna Medical College and Hospital which Choubey had visited to inspect the ward where patients suffering from dengue, incidence of which has witnessed a spurt in the past fortnight, were admitted.

The minister, who is known to prefer taking the front seat adjacent to that of the driver, had opened the door and was about to board when the uncorked bottle came across flying and crashed a few feet away from him.

Spots of the ink could be seen on the ministers kurta sleeves and his sleeveless jacket while the cars bonnet and window panes were covered with blotches. Hospital authorities and officials who had come out to see the minister off exclaimed in horror while the personnel deputed for his security gave the suspected miscreants, one of them donning a blue T-shirt and jeans and the other dressed in a formal full-sleeve shirt and trousers, a chase for some distance.

A visibly irritated Choubey told a posse of journalists before speeding away “it has been orchestrated by elements who do not believe in democracy, who led a life of crime before entering politics”.

Although the minister took no names, his barb was apparently aimed at controversial politician Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who has floated his own outfit Jan Adhikar Party (JAP).

Several people, claiming to owe allegiance to JAP, had raised slogans against Choubey when he had arrived at the PMCH in the morning.

Yadav had made his presence felt in the state capital during the recent waterlogging when he was seen moving through the inundated streets atop motor boats, distributing food, drinking water and money among residents.

On a local news channel, a man in his 20s appeared dressed in a blue T-shirt claiming that he indeed was the one who had thrown ink at the minister.

He said he did so as an expression of “personal anguish” over the failure of governments in the state as well as the Centre to help the people of the city whose lives had come to a grinding halt on account of streets remaining submerged in waist-deep water for several days together.

He also said his name was Nishant Jha and although he acted in his “personal capacity”, he was an active member of the students wing of JAP.

However, when Yadav was contacted and told about Jha, he remained evasive about the young mans connection with his party.

“I do not condone such acts. But did the honourable minister expect bouquets? A few drops of ink on his clothes has got his goat.

“He should try putting himself in the shoes of those whose homes and shops were destroyed in water logging and who are still not able to live in peace, thanks to the outbreak of vector-borne diseases that the deluge has brought in its wake”, Yadav told reporters.

Later, after concluding a meeting with state health officials besides central medical experts who have been camping here to assist the former, Choubey denounced the episode as “a cowardly act”.

He said “if people are so desirous of expressing anguish, they should do so in my face, without hiding behind a crowd and scurrying away immediately afterwards”.

Meanwhile, no FIR was registered in connection with the incident which took place several hours ago and Pir Bahore police station SHO- Rizwan Ahmed Khan- said “we are awaiting a complaint to be lodged on behalf of the aggrieved party”.

A close aide of Choubey said on condition of anonymity the minister has left for Samastipur where he has been requested by LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan to campaign in favour of his nephew and party candidate Prince in the Lok Sabha by-election.

“We, wonder why the police cannot act taking suo motu cognizance of an incident that has taken place at a public place, caught on camera and involves a Union minister,” the minister’s aide said.

Patna Waterlogging: Dengue Death Causes Panic, Ink Thrown at Union Minister

Source: newsclick.in

Patna: With the death of a 7-year-old child due to dengue and a BJP MLA testing dengue positive, panic regarding a dengue outbreak among residents of Patna has increased. This is the first reported dengue death following the worst waterlogging incident in Bihar’s capital city after heavy rains.

Abhinav Kumar, son of a Bihar police constable, died in a hospital on Monday (October 14) night. He was suffering from dengue fever for the last few days.

Sanjeev Chourasia, BJP MLA from Digha Assembly seat in Patna, has also been tested dengue positive. Besides, over one dozen police officials are undergoing treatment after being affected by dengue fever.

According to health department officials, dengue has spread to new residential localities in Patna in the last two days as fresh dengue cases are being reported from there. Till Tuesday morning, the number of dengue positive cases in Patna alone stood at 1,195, while the total number of dengue cases reported in the state was over 1,500.

In Patna, more than 80 dengue patients are undergoing treatment in the government-run Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) and different private hospitals.

The rising number of dengue cases has left the residents of Patna—who were already angry with waterlogging for days—infuriated with the administration and political leaders. On Tuesday, a youth threw ink at Union Minister Aswani Kumar Choubey during his visit to the dengue ward in PMCH. The youth fled from the scene afterwards.

The accused youth has reportedly identified himself as Nishant Kumar Jha, a youth activist of Jan Adhikar Party (JAP). He said that this was his way of protesting against the NDA government in state and at the centre for neglecting waterlogged victims in Patna for days.

Several people have expressed unhappiness by blaming government agencies for negligence and have demanded that urgent steps be taken to ensure regular fogging and spraying of bleaching and lime powder as well as speeding up of the cleanliness drive.

District officials said dengue is spreading fast among the waterlogged victims in the worst waterlogged residential localities here after water receded. Waterlogging is main cause of spread of dengue in the city.

What has become a bigger worry for health officials is that waterlogging still remains a problem in certain residential areas. Health officials said that water logging help these vector-borne diseases to spread faster due to increased mosquito breeding. Another disturbing fact is that not only is dengue spreading, there are also reported cases of chikunguniya, diarrhoea and stomach upset from waterlogged areas.

Patna civil surgeon Dr R K Choudhary said arrangements have been made for dengue test in all primary health centres in view of increasing dengue cases after waterlogging.

According to a top health department officer, measures have been started to prevent an outbreak of diseases and teams of doctors will soon visit affected areas to provide medical treatment if needed.

Angry With Waterlogging in Patna after Heavy Rain, People Surround Deputy CM Sushil Modi’s House

Source: news18.com

Patna: Irked over the problems of waterlogging and accumulation of trash in some areas of the city, a group of people on Sunday gheraoed Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi’s residence here.

The state capital was pounded by heavy rain late last month leading to waterlogging in areas such as Rajendra Nagar, Kankar Bagh and Pataliputra Colony. Even after a fortnight, water has not fully receded in some low-lying localities and garbage has not been cleared in some pockets.

“Around 50-60 people took out a march to Sushil Modi’s house (in Rajendra Nagar area) and returned after some time,” said City Superintendent of Police (Central) Vinay Tiwari.

On September 30, Modi and his family members were rescued by an SDRF team from his flooded residence in Rajendra Nagar. However, they returned later to the house.

The BJP leader, however, was not present during the protest, official sources said adding that security has been beefed up at Modi’s residence. Modi could not be contacted for his comment despite several attempts.

Angry people, carrying placards, shouted anti-Modi slogans and demanded action against officials who failed to flush out water fully in Rajendra Nagar area, making their lives difficult.

“He (Modi) left us in the lurch and fled to a safe place,” one of the protesters said.

A heap of garbage has piled up in the area and it has become quite difficult to live, another protester said. Another demanded an enquiry by Enforcement Directorate and CBI into the assets of all local BJP MLAs and ward councillors. They were also seeking compensation for the damage done to their properties in three days of incessant rain.

After demonstrating there for around 30 minutes, they reached the Patna Municipal Corporation office and protested there.

The state capital was pounded by 342.5 millimetres of rainfall between September 27 and 30, as against the state average of 255 millimetres.

Another group of people also blocked Bailey Road near Saguna More and burnt tyres to protest against the continued waterlogging in some areas. They also shouted anti-government slogans.

“Local people had blocked Bailey road near Saguna More at around 8 am for around half-an-hour. We got the blockade lifted after pacifying them,” a police officer said.

Patna man seeks Rs 100 refund from Zomato, loses Rs 77,000 in dubious transaction

Source: indiatoday.in

Zomato user in Patna ordered food for a meager Rs 100 and ended up losing all money in his bank account, a total sum of Rs 77,000 while attempting to claim refund for his order.

The bizarre incident took place in Bihar capital Patna where Vishnu, an engineer by profession, ordered food via the food delivery app. When a delivery boy arrived at his door with the food, Vishnu was unsatisfied with the food quality and asked him to take it back.

The delivery boy instead advised him to call up Zomato customer care and asked Vishnu to Google search “Zomato customer care”. The delivery person asked Vishnu to dial up the first number on Google search results and follow the instructions.

After he called on the first available number, Vishnu got a call back from a person who identified himself as a Zomato customer care executive and said Rs 10 will be deducted from his bank account for Zomato to process the refund amount of Rs 100.

The caller then sent him a link for Vishnu to deposit Rs 10. Without any second thoughts about the whole procedure, the engineer clicked on the link and deposited Rs 10.

Within minutes of this transaction, Rs 77,000 was deducted through multiple transactions from his bank account and Vishnu was left with no money.

The money was deducted via multiple PayTm transactions and Rs 77,000 vanished within minutes and the man failed to do anything to stop it.

The incident took place on September 10 and Vishnu has since been knocking on the doors of the police, banks and several other forums but with no respite.

Patna’s new home delivery: pollution under control certificates

Source: downtoearth.org.in

Bihar’s transport department launched a mobile pollution testing van facility to deliver pollution under control (PUC) certificates on vehicle owners’ doorsteps.

After implementation of the new Motors Vehicles Act, penalty for violating PUC norms increased to Rs 10,000 and so did the footfall of certificate seekers at pollution testing centres. This prompted the department to launch the facility.

A trial of the mobile van facility was conducted at the Patna secretariat on September 18 and it will soon be completely functional with the launch of a toll-free number, said transport officials.

“We are in the process of launching a toll-free number. Once it starts functioning, the mobile van service will be operational too,” said Sanjay Agarwal, secretary, state transport department.

“Vehicle owners will then be able to call the van to their homes by dialling the toll-free number and get the PUC certificate issued on the spot within few minutes,” he added.

They will initially press 10 such vans into service in Patna and later expand it to other districts, said Agarwal.

Patna is the seventh-most polluted city in the world, according to a recent Greenpeace report. The annual level of particulate matter 2.5 in 2018 was 119.7 micrograms per cubic metre in Patna, added the 2018 World Air Quality Report, jointly prepared by IQAir AirVisual and Greenpeace.

The fear of the fine and inadequate number of pollution testing centres made vehicle owners opt for public transport.

“My PUC certificate has expired, so I have stopped rising my bike to work. I am commuting through public transport so I don’t have to pay a heavy penalty. Also, there are no pollution testing centres in and around my locality so I have failed to get the certificate renewed,” said Dilip Kumar Singh, who works in a private company in Patna.

There are around 500 such centres in Bihar, of which 98 are in Patna district, according to a report by the state transport department.

The department has also asked all petrol pumps and service centres of automobile companies to set up pollution testing centres soon. “Opening of these centres will not only curb air pollution but also provide job opportunities to youths,” said the transport secretary.

There are 2,550 outlets of various oil marketing companies in the state.

There’s also a plan to set up 150 more centres in the state in the next six months.

Three-hour runway shutdown at Patna airport spooks 12 flights, 2000 fliers

Source: hindustantimes.com

A three-hour suspension of operations after a fire tender got stuck near the runway at Patna airport on Wednesday afternoon forced the diversion of nine flights, delayed three others on the ground and held up the departure of other flights from Delhi, Mumbai and other airports affecting around 2000 passengers.

The fire tender had gone to extinguish a fire on the grass along the runway when it got stuck 22 metres from the runway edge, said an airport spokesperson.

The fire was caused after firecrackers were used to chase away birds which pose serious risk to aircraft. Airport authorities at Patna still use rudimentary methods to scare away birds from the runway.

“A crash fire tender (CFT) was immediately sent to the site to extinguish the fire. After extinguishing the fire, the CFT got stuck in the area possibly due to soft surface because of overnight rain,” the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said in a statement later in the evening.

“The CFT was removed with help of cranes and other earth moving equipment, available at the ongoing new airport terminal building project construction site,” the statement added.

All incoming flights to Patna were diverted between 12.30pm and 3.16pm. Air operation was shut from 12.10 pm, when the Air Traffic Control (ATC) spotted the fire in the grass, and restored at 3.40 pm. The AAI issued notice to airmen (NOTAM) for temporary runway closure from 1.10 to 3.30 pm.

Among the flights diverted were four of IndiGo, two each of GoAir and of Spice Jet and one non-schedule charter flight of Saraya Aviation.

Three flights were diverted to Varanasi, and two each to Lucknow, Kolkata and Ranchi.

Among the flights diverted to Varanasi were IndiGo 6E-811 flight from Kolkata to Patna; Saraya Aviation’s VTEJZ flight from Delhi to Patna; and SpiceJet’s SG-6258 from Bengaluru to Patna.

Those diverted to Ranchi included IndiGo’s 6E-485 from Bengaluru to Patna and GoAir’s G8-2511 from Delhi to Patna. IndiGo’s 6E-6126 from Delhi to Patna and SpiceJet’s SG 954 from Ahmedabad to Patna were diverted to Lucknow. Similarly, GoAir’s G8-131 from Delhi to Patna and IndiGo’s 6E-787 from Mumbai to Patna were diverted to Kolkata.

GoAir’s G8-378 to Bangalore, Air India’s AI-410 and IndiGo’s 6E-2325, both bound for Delhi were delayed at the airport for more than three hours.

Interestingly, air traffic controllers had given IndiGo’s flight to Delhi the clearance for takeoff, but the pilot decided against it as it was fraught with risk. The pilots returned to the parking bay from runway 07 after which the AAI sought NOTAM for temporary closure of runway.

The AAI’s decision to send the CFT, which weighs around 37 tonne within 22 metres of the runway’s edge on unmetalled surface especially after Patna registered 94.4 mm rainfall on Tuesday evening, has also come under the scanner since the fire engine can easily fight a blaze from a distance of almost 90 metres.