Category: Ranchi

Weak monsoon accounts for 30% rain deficit

Source: dailypioneer.com

The rain fall statistics released by the Meteorological Centre Ranchi on July 11 States that Jharkhand is facing a rain deficit of 30 per cent. From June 1 to July 11, the State has received a total of 218.2 mm of rain against the ideal amount of rain which should have been 310 mm.

“During the last week monsoon has been in an active phase in the entire state. In June the rain deficit in Jharkhand was recorded at 55 per cent and as of on July 11 it has come to 30 per cent showing an improvement of 25 per cent. In the next two weeks, it is expected that there are chances of further improvement in the rainfall statistics in the State,” said Senior Scientist, MET Observatory Centre- Ranchi, Dr. RS Sharma.

In the next few days normal rainfall activity is expected over northern parts of Jharkhand. However, in central and south Jharkhand there are not many chances of monsoon showers in the coming dew days. Thereafter another system is likely to form and monsoon might again be active.

“The monsoon trough is shifting towards the foothills of the Himalayas. Therefore from July 12 to July 15, reduced rain fall activity is likely to occur over Jharkhand and not all the stations but few places will receive light to moderate rainfall. However, the northern districts in the state will continue to receive rain,” the scientist further added.

Overall in Jharkhand, out of the 24 districts only five districts have received normal rainfall so far-Dumka, East Singhbhum, Lohardaga, Palamu and Sahibganj. The maximum deficit level- 59 percent was recorded at Pakur which has only received 148.3 mm of rain against the normal 358.5 mm. The State capital has a rain deficit of 35 percent and has received 214.1 mm of rain while the normal amount should be 331 mm.

As per the weather bulletin released by the MET Observatory Centre-Ranchi, on July 11, for the next four days July 12 to July 15, it is going to be cloudy in Ranchi and its surrounding areas.

The maximum temperature will be between 32- 34 degree Celsius while the minimum temperature will be 24 degree Celsius.

Jharkhand opposition holds meet to plan for state polls

Source: hindustantimes.com

The Opposition parties on Wednesday outlined the contours of pre-poll alliance at the residence of JMM working president Hemant Soren.

The leaders stressed on charting out a mutually agreeable formula ahead of the assembly polls.

It was agreed that the parties will give candidates from the seats they had won respectively in 2014 and there was no qualm on it.

The parties also stressed on earmarking the seats in the name of the respective parties wherefrom they finished second in the last assembly election.

Besides, there was confusion over the rights of the JVM (P) to contest the six assembly seats it had owned in 2014 but the party legislators defected to the BJP after winning.

The above two contentions were kept open for further discussions and debate while the allies have been asked to submit their wish list within seven days in writing. The grand alliance of the opposition is cautious after being humiliated by the BJP.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of Congress, JVM (P), RJD, Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) and Forward Bloc.

However, the main Left parties – the CPI, CPI (M) and CPI (ML) Liberation did not attend. The decision was taken on Tuesday.

The Left decided to identify the seats the parties want to contest and to negotiate with the grand alliance parties thereafter. Confirming this, CPI state secretary Bhubaneswar Prasad Mehta said the Left parties will meet on July 16 to finalise their list.

Clarifying further, CPI national secretary Atul Anjan said the Left is open for negotiations. We will support any forces that are keen to defeat the BJP, he said. He said that the most Opposition parties do not have ideas on how the BJP is disintegrating the Opposition engineering defection.

JMM working president Hemant Soren, after the meeting, said that the efforts are on to bring all Opposition parties under one umbrella to show BJP the exit door. He said the parties have been directed to identify the seats they are confident of winning and submit it in writing in one week.

On claims of the parties from the sitting seats they had owned in 2014, Hemant said it is a natural claim. For the rest of the seats, decisions would be taken later regarding who will contest where, he said.

On the vexed issue of seats owned by six JVM (P) legislators, who joined the BJP later, he said, “We are serious on that too and working on mutually agreeable solution before staking claims on those seats.”

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.

Hi-tech watch to clock clean drive

Source: telegraphindia.com

Global Positioning System-enabled watches will keep tab on sanitary workers to ensure cleanliness in the state capital from September onward.

Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) will hold a pre-bid meeting on July 17 of leading GPS-enabled watch manufacturing companies to take stock of the options before starting the process of selecting a private firm for supplying 2,100 watches.

The photographs and phone numbers of each sanitary worker will be taken for creating an ID in the monitoring system at the control room of the RMC, a senior official explained. The ID will help in tracking every worker. Each watch will also have a pulse detector to ensure that it is worn by the sanitary worker. If a worker gets out of the working area during duty hours, the control room will get a notification and action will be initiated against the worker.

The watch will also have a panic button, by pressing which workers will be able to directly communicate with higher officials of the civic body.

“We have formulated beat plan and roster for sanitary workers in cleaning of drains and roadside, lifting of garbage and collection of door-to-door waste. But the compliance part is monitored manually and there is always scope of human error or laxity,” municipal commissioner Manoj Kumar said on Wednesday.

“We plan to procure the GPS-enabled watches to keep track of the staff through computers installed at our control room to ensure beat plan and roster is maintained and the sanitary staff concerned would be easily identified for any deviation or missing from the beat/roster. We hope to selected the agency in a month or so and start distribution of such watches from September onward,” he added.

There are around 2,100 sanitary workers for cleaning of drains, sweeping of roads, collection of roadside garbage, door-to-door collection of waste. The beat/roster plans are made for cleaning to be carried out between 6.30am and 2pm, 3pm and 9pm, and 9pm and 4am.

Sources in the civic body said that the decision to procure GPS-enabled watches was taken following numerous complaints by residents of laxity and negligence by these cleaning and sanitary workers.

“After the RMC took over cleaning and lifting of garbage in all the 53 wards last month, there have been complaints that the staff do not adhere to the beat plan and roster. While a few lanes and drains are cleaned almost daily, others are cleaned once or twice in a week,” a senior RMC official said under cover of anonymity.

“As of now, our control room operators call up residents to inquire if lanes and drains are cleaned or not and rely on the report presented by the supervisors. However, the computerised monitoring will ensure that any laxity on the part of the sanitary worker is detected immediately and action taken promptly,” the official added.

Ranchi ‘Smart City’ locality with mud roads and no drains

Source: telegraphindia.com

Over 1,000 residents of Jagatpuram, a new settlement on a flank of Kanke Road (Ranchi-Patratu Road) less than 5km from the chief minister’s residence, are forced to live without concrete roads and drainage.

A seven-minute drive from the CM’s residence, Jagatpuram mocks the tall claims of the central and state governments of working towards making Ranchi a Smart City.

The locality, which grew virtually from farmland in the past four years owing to the capital’s rapid urbanisation, now has around 200 households. Some of these are opulently built.

But, the first heavy hours have bared the non-existent civic facilities in the area that falls under Ward 1 of Ranchi Municipal Corporation.

The locality has only one cemented road, 200 feet of it, in a part of the colony built with Ranchi Zilla Parishad funds. The mud roads turn slushy streams. The low-lying area is virtually marooned.

Ramanand Raman, who lives here and works at a private pathological laboratory, said he was already regretting having bought land here for his house. “I purchased land here six months ago, I’m already repenting my decision. It rains, and everyone is trapped at home, children can’t go to school, there’s no road to walk on,” Raman said.

Another resident Pramod Kumar said it was a relatively new settlement, not more than four years old.

“Many influential persons bought land here, you can see their palatial buildings. In another season, it may even look like a posh locality. But on the ground, and in monsoon specially, things are a mess because we don’t have proper roads and drainage. These are basics,” he said.

He added that as the bulk of the area was flooded or slushy, sanitation workers had stopped coming. “Imagine, we have to dump garbage here and there. Perfect conditions for mosquitoes to breed,” he added.

Contacted, Ranchi deputy mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya admitted to the problem at Jagatpuram. “RMC is aware of the road and drainage problems there and has prepared a detailed project report worth Rs 5 crore to address them. Work will be done in phases. In the first phase, a Rs 1.5 crore road will be built, for which the tender will be floated very soon,” he said.

Jharkhand: Three men thrashed in Ranchi, allegedly forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’, say reports

Source: scroll.in

A mob thrashed three men and allegedly forced them to chant “Jai Shri Ram” in Ranchi, Jharkhand, The Hindu reported on Saturday.

Aamir Wasim, who lodged a complaint at the Doranda police station, said he and his friends, Altaf Ali and Ali Ahmed, had gone to the airport area on Friday to take photographs when the incident took place. “We were riding our two-wheelers and were in kurta pajamawhen some people besieged us,” Wasim told The Hindu. “Without any provocation, they beat us up and told us to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. As the crowd got bigger, we fled from the spot,” Wasim said, adding that security personnel near the Birsa Munda Airport rescued them.

Community members blocked the MG Marg near Church Complex, demanding that the culprits be arrested. The demonstration went on till late evening on Friday. “We have deployed police along the MG Marg to prevent further escalation,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Anish Gupta on Saturday. “Now the area is peaceful. We are keeping a close watch on the situation.”

A similar incident was reported in Barpeta district in Assam on the same day. Three youths were beaten up and allegedly forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” in Jyoti Gaon area, according to Northeast Now.

Wajed Ali, who filed the first information report, said four people on two motorcycles thrashed Rakibul Haque, Burhan Ali and Kurban Khan, who were working there at a medical store. “They also forced the trio to chant “Jai Shri Ram”,” Ali said. Ali claimed the four suspects verbally abused Haque and tried to kill him by strangling him.

On June 18, a 24-year Muslim man was assaulted by a mob and forced to say “Jai Shri Ram” in Jharkhand’s Seraikela Kharsawan district. He died four days later. On June 24, a 25-year-old Muslim man was allegedly beaten up, verbally abused, and forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” in Diva area of Maharashtra’s Thane district. The same day a 26-year-old madrasa teacher and two others were allegedly assaulted in Kolkata for not chanting “Jai Shri Ram”.

Water conservation in ‘dry’ Ranchi planned

Source: dailypioneer.com

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Raghubar Das stressed on water conservation, the State Government has prepared strategy on water conservation and re-charging depleting ground water table. The State Government from July 7 to September 15 is to launch a concerted save water drive across the State. The campaign though is Government initiatives, but ruling BJP too has jumped in the exercise.

The save water campaign from July 7 to September 15 is to witness voluntary participation of ruling party MPs, MLAs, ministers, besides CM Das himself participating at the campaign. BJP chief whip and MLA, Radha Krishna Kishore said, “From July 7 to 15, all MLAs, ministers, MPs will volunteer their participation in water conservation. Water conservation is need of the hour.”

The Ranchi district administration moving a step ahead too has decided to dole out cash incentives to panchayats taking a lead in water conservation.

Ranchi Deputy Commissioner (DC), Rai Mahimapat Ray on Tuesday held a meeting on water conservation and announced cash incentives for panchayats selected for mini watershed planning. Best performing panchayats will get cash incentives ranging from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore. Ray said, “On July 7, the district administration will launch the drive on which there will be plantations drive and Shram Daan (volunteer participation) by people. The Chief Minister will himself participate at the function in Kanke.” The State Government and Ranchi District Administration stressing on water conservation is due to depleting ground water table, which has become a cause of concern not only for administration but also for residents of the city.

According to city-based Geologist/Environmental Scientist Dr Nitish Priyadarshi ground water table in State Capital in last 15 years has gone down by 3 metre to 25 metres, with areas such Kanke, Ratu Road, Morhabadi, Harmu largely affected due to ground water depletion.

Priyadrashi said, “The main reason for depleting ground water is lack of water management, which includes over exploitation of ground water and shrinking water bodies. In last few years lots of deep boring has been done. These deep borings in the State Capital has forced the water table to move down, as well as Ranchi plateau consists of metamorphic rocks which are relatively impermeable and hence serve as poor aquifers.”

The over exploitation of water table can be gauged from the fact in localities such as Upper Bazar, Harmu area, Kishore Ganj are facing severe water crisis with borings too becoming failure. Atul Choudhary, a resident of Upper Bazar said, “In our house there are two borings but both of them have failed. We are left with no other alternative but to depend upon water supplied through water tankers by civic bodies which too are irregular.”

Apart from uncontrolled deep borings, the other reasons behind depleting ground water are shrinking surface water in State Capital. Ranchi city that used to have more than 52 to 55 ponds and smaller water bodies during Independence, but now only a dozen odd water bodies exist. Even rivers flowing beside the State Capital are crying for existence. Due to growth of City, these large ponds, rivers and water bodies are encroached by construction companies. “Shrinking natural water bodies have lowered groundwater level and as a result people suffer during summer,” said Nitish Priyadarshi.

In 1946, JB Auden, a British geologist who visited Ranchi to explore for underground aquifers, found that ground water level in Ranchi was not reliable due to the presence of Archaean rocks–the oldest rock formations. To meet the increasing demand for surface water, three dams–the Dhurwa Dam in 1962, Kanke Dam in 1954 and Getalsud Dam in 1971– were built in and around the city to cater to a population, but the depressing fact is that neither administration nor citizens have taken effort to protect these water bodies. Priyadarshi claimed that administration and citizen should take some measures such as putting a ban on construction at recharge area or catchment areas, construction of artificial water reservoirs, regular cleaning of ponds, lakes and rivulets and dams.

Tabrez lynching: Police issue alert on fake posts

Source: hindustantimes.com

A joint group of organisations, which took out a protest rally on Friday in the state capital against the recent mob lynching of a community’s youth in Saraikela, attacked and vandalised a bus of Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) at Rajendra Chowk panicking the commuters.

The district and police administration, however, intervened soon and brought the situation under control. Police personnel have been deployed in area.

“It was a minor incident. Situation was soon brought under control,” said Ranchi deputy commissioner Rai Mahimapat Roy. According to eyewitnesses, students sitting in the bus raised religious slogan which incited people participating in the rally. They then attacked the bus and resorted to vandalism. Some students received minor injuries.

Earlier in the day, organisations under the banner of Muttahida Muslim Mahaz (MMM) convened a public meeting at Urs ground at Doranda where leaders vented ire over the rising mob lynching incidents in the state and demanded CBI probe into the recent killing of Tabrez Ansari.

Addressing the gathering MMM convenor Maulana Obedulla Kasmi said that their agitation was not directed against a particular caste or religion but it was against the unscrupulous elements, who are trying to spread hatred by committing crimes like mob lynching.

The organisations prepared a charter of seven demands to press it before the government.

A mob had mercilessly beaten up Ansari for hours and forced him to chant Jai Sri Ram and Jai Hanuman in Dhatkidih village under Seraikela police station (PS) in the night of June 17-18. He succumbed to his injuries on June 22.

Ranchi local court summons Rahul Gandhi for ‘Modi remark’

Source: hindustantimes.com

A local court in Ranchi on Wednesday summoned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on September 11 in a case lodged against him for his ‘all Modis are thieves’ remarks at a rally in Jharkhand capital.

Responding to a complaint case, the court of judicial magistrate Vipul Kumar had earlier issued summons notice to Gandhi asking him to appear before court through his lawyer on July 3. Gandhi however didn’t appear on Wednesday leading to postponement of date for next hearing.

While criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address at Ulgulaan Rally in Ranchi on March 2 this year, Gandhi had wondered why names of all thieves end with Modi. He was referring to Nirav Modi and others along with Narendra Modi.

Following Gandhi’s remark, a Ranchi-based lawyer Pramod Modi filed a case against the Congress leader in the Court of Judicial Magistrate Vipul Kumar.

The petitioner alleged that Gandhi, through his remark, had attempted to tarnish the image of entire Modi community. He also annexed newspaper clippings along with his complaint to prove his points.

The petitioner also claimed a compensation of Rs 20 crore for the ‘defamation’ caused to the Modi community.

Seeking an apology from the Congress leader, the petitioner lawyer stated that Gandhi’s comment badly hurt the sentiments of Modi community.

Police bust interstate cyber frauds’ gang, 2 held

Sourcea: dailypioneer.com

In a major breakthrough against cyber crime, Jharkhand Cyber Cell busted a interstate racket of fraudsters who hijacked people’s bank account using information from the ANYDESK APP.

Addressing a press meet on Wednesday, Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police, Anish Gupta, said Ranchi police arrested two cyber criminals in a case of Rs 25,000 fraud through the Anydesk App. Arrested persons had used the App to withdraw money from the account.

The arrested fraudsters include Vivek Kumar Mandal from Jamtara and Amir Khusro, a resident of Deoghar. Police have recovered 20 Debit cards, 20 fake SIM cards, 5 mobile phones and Rs 15,000 cash from the criminals, he added.

Gupta said that in an attempt to control increasing numbers of cyber crime in the State, Jharkhand Cyber Cell constituted a Special Investigation Team to investigate the cases of fraudulent withdrawal of cash from customers’ accounts.

Narrating the whole story about busting the gang, Gupta said that this was done from the businessman—a resident of Kanke Road, Satyendra Kishore. “On June 4, a call from a cyber criminal on the mobile of businessman Kishore came in the name of SBI Bank’s Chief Manager Amit Kumar Mishra. The fraudster asked Kishore to log in to Internet Banking Account in the Yono App Account. After that, an application called Anydesk was asked to be downloaded and the online SBI asked to log in anywhere.

After that, the messages of SBI continuously on the registered mobile number in Satyendra’s bank account started coming. Then, the cyber criminal asked Satyendra to share his profile password on the Yono app,” he added.

“After sharing the profile password, other bank accounts of Satyendra were also inquired. The person who called Satyendra on this matter was suspicious and then Satyendra went to the bank and said the manager to talk to him. The caller refused to come to the bank.

But by then the criminals had to withdrawn Rs 25,000 through the App. Satyendra gave information about the withdrawal of money and filed a case at Gonda Police Station. Cyber Cell started investigation of the case. During the operation, Cyber Cell found that the money was transferred to Vivek Kumar Mandal’s Paytm account.

To catch the culprits, the SIT started raids. After which Mandal was arrested from Fatehpur in Jamtara and on his information, the police arrested Khusro, a resident of Palajori police station in Deogarh district.

He was also involved in this crime with discretion. But the kingpin of the gang Sushanta Das, resident of Jamtara running the racket from Kolkata is still at large,” said Gupta.

Appealing bank account holder through media the SSP said that never disclose about the bank account details to anybody.