Category: Ranchi

In a first for Indian Railways, eight trains from Bihar to have ‘Entertainment-on-Demand’ facility soon

Source: newindianexpress.com

PATNA: In a first for the Indian Railways, the Danapur division of East Central Railway (ECR) has come up with an ‘Entertainment-on-Demand’ (EoD) facility for passengers through an in-coach video and audio streaming platform.

The facility will allow the passengers onboard to watch videos and listen to audio of their choice from a large digital library to kill the boredom during the journey. More interestingly, it would be free of cost for the entire journey.

On Monday at Danapur divisional HQ, a formal demonstration of this first-of-its-kind service was made by senior divisional commercial manager Aahdar Raj following the direction of DRM PK Thakur.

Spokesperson of Division, Sanjay Kumar Prasad said: “This kind of entertainment facility can be availed by passengers on board initially in select eight long journey express trains including the Patna-New Delhi Rajdhani through their devices like laptop, smart mobile phones using local wireless connectivity within the coaches without wasting their data”. Prasad said that EoD is being provided by Danapur division for the first time in the history of Indian Railways.

“The said facility will be made available for use in the Rajdhani express and the Sampooran Kranti express by July and in six other express trains by August 15 this year”, he claimed, adding that the objective behind launching this facility is to make the train journey memorable and to give an experience similar to that of an international flight. There would a digital hub of around 7000 Bollywood, Hollywood new and old movies and 12000 different programs under various subjects of public interest also.

Besides video and audio delights, Prasad said: “special category for elderly passengers will be available which includes devotional songs, movies, artis, bhajans. For kids, videos and audios on culture, general awareness, education and other healthy information would be available”.

The six express trains slated to have the facility from August are the Patna-Mumbai Suvidha express, Patna-Bandra Humsafar express, Patna-Kota Express-I, Patna-Howrah Jan Shatbdi express and Patna-Ranchi Janshatbdi express and the Patna-Kota express-II.

Prasad said that the process for launching this facility is near completion. “Following the response of passengers after the initial launch in eight trains, it can be considered to provide this facility in 70 other mail and express trains of the division in future”, he said.

GoAir flight meets with accident at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport: Narrow escape for 165 passengers

Source: indiatvnews.com

A GoAir flight met a freak accident after its rear portion hit runway during landing. Bengaluru-Ranchi flight G-8/375 was carrying 165 passengers when its rear portion hit the runway of Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi. The pilot was able to control the flight and all passengers were deplaned safely.

The incident took place at 1:30 pm on Sunday. A flight engineer carried out a check up of the the airplane which was then declared grounded. The plane was to take-off for Bengaluru at 2.20 pm but it was not allowed to take off till 7.30 pm.

Passengers who were due to travel to Bengalur were forced to wait at the Ranchi airport. They were onboarded on flight G6/116 incoming from New Delhi and the plane proceeded to Bengaluru.

Passengers who were due to travel to New Delhi were also inconvenienced. They were told that the flight for New Delhi will leave by 8:30 pm. However, the flight was cancelled at 9 pm.

Ranchi Municipal Corporation asks for geotagged photos to aid anti-dengue mission

Source: telegraphindia.com

Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has asked supervisors to upload GPS-tagged photographs of the ongoing cold fogging exercise to ensure better compliance of the anti-dengue measure that involves killing full-grown mosquitoes.

“All multi-purpose supervisers (MPS) will have to upload GPS tagged photographs (geotagged images) of the cold mist fogging exercises that is on in various lanes of all 53 wards to ensure strict adherence to the monthly roster that has been prepared to tackle the vector menace,” RMC additional municipal commissioner (AMC) Girja Shankar Prasad said on Monday.

As per a directive issued on Sunday evening, all 53 MPS will have to upload GPS tagged photographs of the fogging exercise in the RMC’s WhatsApp group in the morning and evening while monitoring the activities of 66 workers.

“From Monday onwards there will be cold mist fogging and anti-larvicidal spraying in mornings and evenings. While the morning exercise will be carried out between 5am and 7am, the evening exercise has been scheduled between 6.30 pm and 8.30 pm,” said RMC assistant medical officer Kiran Kumari.

RMC has three cold mist fogging machines and the roster has been made in such a way that fogging is repeated in each ward after a span of nine days, the time taken by larvae to develop into an adult Aedes aegypti mosquitoe, she said.

“Cold fogging machines are aimed at killing adult mosquitoes. There have been complaints earlier from residents that their wards are not being covered although supervisors show us log books to claim that they have covered all areas. GPS tagged photographs will remove such confusion and help us monitor the fogging exercise,” she added.

RMC efforts at controlling dengue come in the backdrop of last year’s outbreak with Ranchi recording 350 dengue positive cases. Unconfirmed reports claimed two casualties but the health department denied these were caused by dengue.

“Yes, there was a dengue outbreak in Ranchi last year but there was no casualty. Blood samples of two persons suspected to have died of dengue turned out negative in the Elisa test. This year, there have been no reports of any dengue positive cases,” said Ranchi civil surgeon Dr Vijay Prasad.

RMC has stopped its earlier practice of thermal fogging that was less effective. “The 10 thermal fogging machines will not be used anymore in any of the wards. Cold mist fogging machines will be using a chemical, insective Aqua K-Othrine, which can be mixed with water instead of diesel (as in thermal fogging machines) and will not harm the environment,” Kumari said.

Cold fogging is in the form of a mist and is more precise in hitting adult mosquitoes compared to earlier methods that led to smog and was not that effective. “We also plan to buy three more cold mist fogging machines later,” Kumari added.

The cold mist fogging machines will be deployed alongside the 600 hand-held machines that are used to spray larvicide in drains and other water accumulation points where mosquitoes breed.

“We have a roster for spraying larvicide too. MPS will also have to send GPS tagged photographs for that too. Two workers have been assigned in each of the 53 wards (106 in 53 wards) and the roster has been made in such a manner that larvicide spray is repeated in a particular drain every seven days,” Kumari said.

Ranchi death reminds what not to do on escalators

Source: indiatoday.in

Thirteen-year-old Parthiv Shah, who fell to his death from an escalator in Ranchi’s Nucleus Mall, has once again raised an outrage over safety concerns in upscale malls and about preventable tragedies, which are allowed to happen because of largely unmonitored movement of visitors.

Closed circuit television camera footage acquired by the Ranchi police shows the boy climbing over the moving handrail of the escalator on the first floor to reach the ground floor.

It proved to be a fatal mistake by the boy who was apparently trying to have a feel of a moving slide on the escalators.

He climbed over the handrails but could manage to hang on it before he lost his balance and fell on the ground floor, 30 feet below. His skull was fractured, and within seconds, there was blood all around. Eyewitnesses recall he did not even cry and died on the spot.

The shocking footage shows how the boy, a Class VI student of Bridgeford School in Jharkhand’s capital city, awkwardly climbed the handrail chest down before losing his balance-and life.

In the footage, Parthiv is seen standing near the escalator with his hands touching the handrail. That was perhaps the moment when he seemed to have assessed the possibility of doing a stunt.

The 1.44-minute CCTV footage established that Parthiv’s fall was completely preventable and while the mall management, somewhat rightly, has blamed the incident on the guardians for not monitoring their children visiting the mall, the onus should also be on them for not deploying an adequate number of security persons to stop such a misadventure by visitors.

Parthiv was the only child of retired Navy man Raj Kumar and Ranchi anti-human trafficking unit sub-inspector Durga Gupta. The boy had gone to the mall for shopping with his relatives, who were not close by when the boy attempted the fatal stunt.

Accidents near escalators are not unusual in India.

In January this year, an 18-month-old toddler died after falling from an escalator at a Bengaluru Metro station onto the main road 50 feet below. The child, who was with her grandfather, suddenly slipped and suffered head injuries. She was rushed to a state-run hospital where she died.

In April 2018, a 10-year-old boy died of severe head injuries that he sustained when his school bag snagged in the moving handrail of on escalator in Chennai’s Express Avenue Mall.

A mall employee in Patna admits that most accidents happen because of “user behaviour.” “We have seen visitors running on escalators or walking backwards on them. Many times, we also see people not holding the handrails, and talking on mobile phones. All this can prove dangerous,” he said.

“The most common (reasons) that cause people to lose balance are because some refuse to hold onto the handrail, while others carry heavy objects. Besides, walking up the escalator steps and even leaning against the side of the escalator must be avoided,” added a security professional working with a mall in Patna. Escalators provide convenience, but the recent incidents are giving a bit of a scare.

NIA arrests engineer in Ranchi for connection with PLFI

Source: zeenews.india.com

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday arrested an engineer from Ranchi, Jharkhand, for his connection with banned group Peoples’ Liberation Front of India (PLFI). Sources told Zee Media that the arrested engineer identified as Jitendra is an associate of PLFI chief Dinesh Gope. NIA said that Jitendra has been arrested in connection with terror funding and he has been remanded to judicial custody till July 3. Jitendra was arrested from his residence at Ranchi’s posh Prem Nagar area.

NIA sources said that Jitendra used to invest the levy money which was illegally collected by PLFI members. Meanwhile, Jitendra’s brother had rejected the NIA’s claim and said that his brother has nothing do with the PLFI. Sources told Zee Media that Jitendra belongs to a high-profile family.

It may be recalled that in February this year the NIA had conducted raids at 10 locations in Jharkhand and West Bengal in connection with a terror funding case involving the PLFI. At that time, the NIA had raided the residences and offices of close aides and companies associated with Gope in Ranchi, Gumla, Khunti and Kolkata.

The NIA had seized cash approximately Rs 3.41 lakh, incriminating documents pertaining to payments/investment by PLFI chief/cadres in various firms and immovable properties, fake PAN cards and fake identity cards, bank accounts details and fixed deposits, documents showing payments made to the various shell companies, 40 mobile phones and other digital devices containing incriminating information during the raids.

Ranchi: Tribal man killed for objecting to weed being smoked outside his house, Md Sajid, Azam Ansari and Ramzan Ansari arrested

Source: opindia.com

In a shocking incident, Mangru Pahan (30), belonging to a tribal community from Jharkhand was stabbed to death, on the night of June 21, just because he had asked three men not to smoke ganja outside his house.

Three accused identified as Mohammad Sajid alias Chottu, Azam Ansari alias Babu and Ramzan Ansari alias Chutri have been arrested, according to a report in Bhaskar. The police has also recovered the knife allegedly used in the crime.

The accused confessed before the police that the stabbing took place following an argument with Pahan.

Mangru Pahan, who is survived by his wife and four children was a resident of Sarna Toli in Kadru area under Argora police station area. Pahan, who used to earn his living as a labourer. In the incident which took place around 9 pm, the three accused along with their friends were smoking ganja near Magru’s home at Kadru Sarna Toli. Mangru’ polite request to not smoke ganja outside his house, angered one of the youths so much that he stabbed Magru in his stomach and escaped.

Recalling the incident, Mangru’s relative said, “They had come outside the house (where there is a tree) and were smoking. Mangru objected on this. He told them that you can go to the railway station, where there are no people. But they first picked up an argument and then one of them stabbed him.

“We rushed him to RIMS (Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences), where he was declared brought dead,” confirmed Mangru’s relatives.

Last year, in a similar incident, one Santosh was allegedly killed by Wasim after he too objected to ganja smoking. Santosh was reportedly a BJP party member and Wasim was allegedly the son of a Congress worker. In his statement to the police, Ashok, 27, who witnessed the attack, said Santosh had taken objection to the prime accused Wasim smoking marijuana.

Two-day feast of organic delights for aam aadmi in Ranchi

Source: telegraphindia.com

If you’re a mango person — a.k.a aam aadmi — yearning to bite into delicious carbide-free varieties, your prayers have been answered.

The two-day Mango Festival that kicked off at the regional office of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) here on Thursday provides a win-win proposition for consumers and producers alike of organic mangoes.

A dozen stalls have been put up by NGOs with which Nabard has been working for implementation of its Wadi project, meant for providing an assured supplementary income to the poor of the project area.

Rajesh Murmu, from Mehjia village of Jamtara district, was sitting idle at his stall after selling his entire stock of 60kg of Amrapali mangoes within two hours of the opening of the festival.

“It was raining when we started yesterday (Wednesday) and we couldn’t bring more than half of the mangoes we had planned to display here,” he said at the empty stall of the Badlao Foundation he is attached to.

Nabard implements the Wadi (a Gujarati word meaning small orchard) project under its tribal development scheme that was introduced in 2008-09 for improving the socio-economic condition of the people living in its project areas by encouraging them to grow organic, carbide-free fruits and also helping them in the production, processing and marketing of their produce. Hence, the rural bank has been organising a mango festival in Ranchi since last year.

“We started planting mango saplings under the Wadi scheme in 2010 and got good quality of fruits from the third year itself,” said Alex Hansda of Chetna Vikash, who came from Saraiyahat in Dumka district with mango varieties such as Amrapali and Fazli.

“We have been cultivating mangoes for the past five years and started getting good quality Amrapali mangoes after three years,” said Ram Kumar Oraon of Grameen Seva Kendra of Patratu in Ramgarh district.

The stalls are selling mangoes at Rs 40 and Rs 50 per kg, depending on the variety.

“The quality of mangoes sold here is really very good as I found last year,” said Ashok Sharma, a visitor, after buying 3kg of Amrapali mangoes from one of the stalls.

Sorry, children, you live in a capital whose guardians can’t keep dirty water off roads

Source: telegraphindia.com

Nine-year-old Anushka Kumari, who was returning home from school on Thursday, stumbled and fell on the waterlogged stretch of Gandhinagar-Vidyapati Road of Ranchi Municipal Corporation’s ward 2. When she got up, she vomited many times as she had gulped drain water, and had blood oozing out of her knee.

The Class I student of Gyanodaya Public School in Gandhinagar on Kanke Road has to walk 1km to her Misirgonda residence. That would have been no sweat for the girl if she did not have to cross the low-lying stretch flooded with drain water by stepping on small boulders.

Like thousands of pedestrians, Anuskha manages to do that every day, but on Thursday she tripped. But the child, despite vomiting and hurting her knee badly, was more scared of what her mother would say for dropping her schoolbag in the dirty water and spoiling her textbooks.

Those who use the Gandhinagar-Vidyapati Road — a low-lying stretch of Kanke Road — every day are forced to step on boulders for some 15 metres to avoid ankle-deep drain water. Reason: the dirty water has nowhere to go.

Earlier, drain water used to flow out to a low-lying disputed stretch of land. But in the past month, some people blocked the drain’s exit point. Now, water from the drain spills on to the road.

“Despite reminders, the RMC is silent. Senior officials of the RMC say residents are at fault as they built houses without approval of the building map. That’s a complete lie,” Sanjay Kumar; a local resident, said.

He said the road got flooded even after the “slightest bit of rain”. “You can imagine our dread this season,” he said.

A few months ago, RMC had prepared a database of existing drains aided by 50 students from Ranchi University’s geography department. Ranchi municipal commissioner Manoj Kumar also visited affected localities.

But, residents and even ward councillors feel that the corporation simply does not do enough for Ranchi’s drainage.

A resident of Edalhatu, Shyam Bahadur, said: “RMC’s monsoon plan is meant for certain VIP pockets only. People like us live with choked drains. RMC only collects taxes.”

Ward 7 councillor Sujata Kacchap said she herself was a victim of the “RMC’s mismanagement”. “My house is at lane 2 at Khorhatoli. Two years back, during underground electric cabling work, drainage there was destroyed by (outsourced company) Polycab. The company said they would rebuild the drainage and asked me to submit a detailed project report through the RMC. Unfortunately, the RMC is sitting on the report. I’ve raised this matter at least thrice at board meetings.

The entire stretch near my house gets flooded, but the RMC doesn’t even send safai workers.”

Councillor of ward 4 Husna Ara agreed. “There are certain pockets in my ward with perennial flooding. Harihar Singh Road is the worst affected.

Drain water has no place to flow out. Instead of working out a permanent solution, RMC elevated the road. Now, the slightest shower floods the road.”

RMC health officer Kiran Kumari said they held a special meeting on waterlogging and drainage. “We are taking account of all individual cases of waterlogging due to choked drains. Every ward supervisor has been asked to send reports. We are looking at preventing vector-borne diseases, and permanent solutions.”

Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das cracks whip on co-op housing societies, orders probe into land deals

Source: hindustantimes.com

Chief minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday asked land and revenue department to set up probe against all housing cooperative societies allegedly involved in murky land deals and immediately dissolve New AG Office Employees Cooperative House Construction Society Limited (NAGOECHCSL) at Kadru in Ranchi.

Das also asked the department to lodge FIR against its secretary Kapildeo Giri charged with defrauding people in land deals.

Following the chief minister’s order here , Registrar, Jharkhand Cooperative Societies, issued a letter on Tuesday evening dissolving the management committee of NAGOECHCSL.

The registrar also appointed Sanjeet Kumar, cooperative extension officer, as administrator to look after daily routine works of NAGOECHCSL for next three months.

Das passed the order while hearing people’s complaints during Sidhi Baat programme at chief minister public hearing centre.

The matter relates to a complaint lodged by one Hansraj Jaiswal, a resident of New AG Colony, Ranchi.

Jaiswal, a retired employee of the State Bank of India, knocked the CM’s door for registration of an AG Colony’s land plot which he had purchased from his relative way back in 2003.

During a direct interaction with the chief minister on Tuesday, Jaiswal informed that secretary Giri was playing fraud with him and not cooperating to

get the land registration done. He said, “I have been living in the house constructed on the said land since long back but I don’t have the land registration document, which validates the owner’s legal right over the land.”

He alleged that Giri was an employee of the accountant general’s office and had earned huge assets worth hundreds of crore through land deals linked with NAGOECHCSL.

Jaiswal further informed that he had lodged several complaints with the Registrar, Jharkhand Cooperative Societies, but to no avail.

He urged the chief minister to

set up an inquiry into the matter and take necessary action to get his land registration done.

Top government officials including CM’s principal secretary Sunil Burnwal drew his attention towards many earlier complaints they had come across against Giri.

Taking serious note of the matter, the chief minister ordered an enquiry against all housing cooperative societies and immediate dissolution of the NAGOECHCSL.

He said, “The officers of the cooperative department connive with builders and people like Giri in dubious land deals to cheat people.”

Young Boy falls, death, shopping mall, escalator, trousers, caught, handrail,

Source: thesun.co.uk

The young boy, named as Partiv Shah, appears to be bored and begins to play with the moving handrail at the top of the escalator at the Nucleus Mall in Ranchi, East India.

CCTV footage shows how he panics as his trousers appear to be caught in the mechanism, the young boy is hurled forward and his body thrown over the glass partition.

Shah manages to hold on for a few seconds before the fall, as panicked onlookers rush to the escalator in a vain attempt to help him.

TRAGIC ACCIDENT
According to reports the boy had been shopping with his aunt and uncle and had become separated from them at the time of the accident.

The mall’s manager urged guardians to take care of children and reiterated that this tragic accident could have been avoided.

Local journalist, Vishvendu Jaipuriar who claims to have witnessed the horrific accident said the boy appeared to be playing a game in which he was trying to ‘stop’ the escalator.

“The boy was rubbing his body against the escalator’s conveyor belt.

“He was playfully trying to stop with all his might. In the process, he got his pants stuck in the belt and was pulled along.”

SAFETY REGULATIONS
The journalist pointed out that had the mall been in accordance with Indian government rules which require safety nets near escalators, the young boy’s death could have been avoided.

Shah was rushed to hospital from the scene, as traumatised witnesses describe how there was ‘blood all around’ and that the boy didn’t even scream as he hit the floor.

The 13-year old was pronounced dead on arrival.

City Superintendent, Sujata Kumari Veenapani said in a statement: “It seems he was trying to slide down the ground floor through the handrail. The matter is being probed.

“Police will also look into the security aspects at malls.”

Mall manager Kumar Pandey insisted that the shopping centre complied with government safety regulations, he said “escalators [were] installed conforming to global security norms.