Tag: Bihar-government

70 Officers May Face Action For Lapses In Running Bihar Shelter Homes.

Source – ndtv.com

Patna: Twenty-five Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers are among over 70 officials in Bihar who could face action for lapses in managing shelter homes in the state that was shook by sexual exploitation of over 40 girls at such facilities in 2018.

The lapses tumbled out one after another during a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as it dug deep into the case for one-and-a-half years, officials said. The CBI has asked the Bihar government to act against the officials and has also informed the Supreme Court, officials said.

The CBI in an affidavit to the Supreme Court said it has completed investigation into all the 17 cases liked to the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape cases.

Young girls were forced to dance to vulgar songs, sedated and raped at a government-run shelter in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur in a massive sex scandal with links to influential politicians and bureaucrats. A human skeleton – believed to be the remains of one of the victims – was found in October 2018 at a cremation ground in the district’s Sikandarpur area.

More grisly details are found in the chargesheet filed by the CBI against the main accused, the politically well-connected Brajesh Thakur, who operated the shelter for several years.

“We have got the report. We will take action under the law. The Nitish Kumar government does not falsely implicate or free anyone,” Bihar Social Welfare Minister Krishnanandan Verma told NDTV.

Nivedita Jha, the petitioner in the case, said the findings of the CBI so far are “prima facie”. “It is said the criminal act part of the case is yet to be proved. I feel they need to investigate this care more thoroughly,” Ms Jha told NDTV.

The state government, however, is yet to decide on what kind of action it should take against the 25 IAS and 45 state civil service officers. Sources said in most of the cases, the officers could be let off with a warning or one or two increments in their salaries could be blocked.

Bihar government schools’ students to become police cadets.

Source – hindustantimes.com

In an effort to fight incidents like child marriage, female foeticide or even liquor vending, the government has introduced a student police cadet (SPC) project in all the government schools across the state, under which a group of girls and boys from every school are being groomed to evolve as future leaders.

The students are being explained how to respect the laws, maintain discipline and civic sense and how to stop social evils like child marriages, female foeticide, liquor vending, domestic violence and teasing. They are also being familiarised with the way the police function and are being taught how to act like a common link between the police and the community.

It’s an education department project which is being implemented by the Bihar Education Project (BEP) Council, a part of the state education department, responsible to bring quantitative and qualitative improvement in elementary education system in the state and to improve education standards in elementary schools.

Altogether 1,100 government schools of the state have been covered under the project and in every school, 22 girls and 22 boys have been selected for the project.

In Patna district, altogether 1,760 girls and boys from 40 government schools have been selected to become the SPCs.

“The numbers of schools under the project vary in different districts. In Patna, 40 schools have been identified and they are being trained to work as SPCs. During the training sessions, which take place on Saturdays, the students are being explained how to prepare a plan of action to stop certain social evils and coordinate with the police and the community to succeed in their mission,” Neeraj Kumar, district education officer, Patna district, said.

There are certain issues which cannot be solved only by police’s interference.” You need people to intervene and stop the evil. The most common issue these days is child marriage and female foeticide,” he said.

Another very common problem these days is liquor vending.

Many teenagers had been found in liquor vending network. The SPC’s intervention may prove to be very affective in this direction also, he added.

Rajesh Thakur, an official from BEP, Patna, said the cadets would be provided caps with the logo of the SPC and a whistle. “And in every school there will be a nodal teacher to head the group of cadets of that school. The nodal teacher has been imparted training by a master trainer of that district to handle cases, while the district level master trainers have been imparted training by the BEP at a workshop recently held in the state capital,” he said.

The training programme in district is almost over and the cadets will now be taken to police stations and camps in their localities to learn how police respond and take actions in different cases, he added.

“The cadets will be in regular touch with their nodal teachers and the local cops. In fact, this project of student police cadet is intended to bridge the gap between the police and common people. In many cases, people do not approach the police because of various reasons. This has to be changed,” he said.

Bihar STET 2019 application window re-opens: Apply before December 24.

Source – indiatoday.in

Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has re-opened the application portal for the Secondary Teachers Eligibility Test (STET) 2019 on the official website, biharboardonline.bihar.gov.in. The application portals will close on December 24 and applicants will be allowed to edit their application form on December 25 and December 26.

BSEB aims to recruit 25,270 teacher posts for secondary classes and 12,065 teacher posts for higher secondary classes.

About BSEB STET 2019:

Bihar STET 2019 will be conducted for two papers (Paper 1 and Paper 2) for selection of Secondary School Teachers and Higher Secondary School Teachers respectively.

Eligibility criteria:

For Paper I: A candidate must have a graduation degree in a relevant subject with BEd from a recognized institute.

For paper II: A candidates must have a post-graduation degree in a relevant subject along with BEd

Minimum qualifying marks:

For general category candidates: 50 per cent

For reserved category candidates: 45 per cent

Note: The Bihar STET 2019 scores will be valid for seven years in which time a candidate can apply for teacher recruitment with the Bihar government on the basis of their STET score.

Reason behind postponement of exam date:

The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has postponed the Bihar STET 2019 exam date due to Patna High Court’s order on October 15 to increase the upper age limit for the applicants for STET.

As per the press release, Bihar education department, the conducting body of the exam will decide upon the revised upper age limit after discussing it with the legal department after which the final date of exam will be announced.

About BSEB:

The Bihar School Examination Board is established for holding and conducting an examination at the end of the Secondary School stage, for prescribing course of studies for such examination and for carrying out such other objects and duties as may be considered necessary for the purpose as stated in the Act, Rules and Regulations of the Board.

Apart from the Secondary School Examination, the Board also conducts departmental examinations (not on yearly basis) such as Diploma in Physical Education, Certificate in Physical Education and Teachers Training Examination on such terms and condition as laid down by the state government.

Delhi Anaj Mandi fire: After victims’ families object, bodies of Bihar residents to be taken home by road.

Source – thehindu.com

Bowing to pressure from families of those killed in the Anaj Mandi fire on December 8, the Bihar government has decided to send the bodies of the State’s residents home by road instead of train.

Earlier, it was decided that the railways will carry the bodies in the seating-cum-luggage rake (SLR coach) on board the Swatantrata Senani Express over December 9 and 10.

However, the victims’ families objected to the arrangement, choosing to take the over 1,000 km journey by road instead.

Many of the 43 people who were killed in Sunday’s blaze were migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They were trapped in the building as they were asleep when the fire started.

“The families were not comfortable in taking the bodies by train, so we have decided to send them in ambulances. One ambulance will have two bodies.

“All the preparations were made for sending the bodies by train. Special coaches were also attached [to the train] but the family members [of victims] did not agree to let the bodies go by train,” said Kumar Digvijay, Joint Labour Commissioner, Bihar Bhavan.

“As and when post-mortem is being done, we are sending the bodies home. Till now 36 bodies of Bihar residents have been identified and we are trying to send them back to the State as soon as possible. The procedure is slow, but we are trying our best,” he said.

Zakir Hussain from Bihar’s Madhubanj area, who lost his brother Shakir in the fire, said though the Bihar government had made arrangements to take the bodies back home by train, there was no clarity about the procedure.

Mohammad Shamshir from Begusarai, whose neighbour Naveen Kumar (19) died in the fire, said it was not feasible to take the body in a train.

“We were not happy with travelling via a train. The train would stop at Samastipur station and our village Barijana is another 70 km from there,” Mr. Shamshir said.

According to officials, the resident commissioner of Bihar in Delhi had approached Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for help to send the bodies back home. Upon Mr. Goyal’s intervention, the Delhi Division had arranged for the coach.

2 Killed in Celebratory Firings During Wedding Within 1 Week in Bihar.

Source – newsclick.in

Patna: Celebratory firing continues to claim lives of people in Bihar. Vijay Kumar and Manoj Shah alias Bittu were killed during celebratory firing at wedding ceremonies in the state in separate incidents within a week. These latest killings took place despite the fact that celebratory firing was banned by Bihar government following a guideline from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Ignoring the government’s directives and warning of action against celebratory firings at social functions including marriages, influential members of society, particularly in rural areas, continue to indulge in this. The police and administration’s failure to take action against the perpetrators is further adding to the impunity of these violators.

In the latest cases, both the victims were photographer. Vijay was killed in a celebratory firing at a wedding ceremony in Samastipur district on late Thursday night (November 28). He was recording the dancing members of the groom’s marriage party near the bride’s house when a few members, who were intoxicated started the celebratory firing. “One or two bullets hit his chest, killing him on the spot,” according to an witness.Vijay was a resident of Begusarai district and was hired by the groom’s family to record the marriage party.

Another photographer cum videographer Manoj was killed last Friday night at a wedding ceremony in Chandi Dhanush village in Vaishali district. He was hit by a bullet when he was recording the exchange of garlands and died on the spot, as per the people present there.

What has left Manoj’s family members fuming is that the marriage party took his body in a vehicle and dumped it a few kilometres away from the venue to suppress the evidence of the incident. But the police has lodged a case against the family members of the groom and bride.

Not only these, several other cases of serious injuries after being hit by bullets during celebratory firing have been reported from a number of districts including Khagaria, Begusarai, Muzaffarpur and Begusarai in the last ten days.

A senior police officer at the police headquarters in Patna told NewsClick, “Since January this year, during the traditional marriage season—locally knowns as lagan—more than two dozen people have been killed in celebratory firing and several others injured.”

He added, “Among the people killed, there was a music band member, two girl dancers as well as close relatives of the grooms and brides.”

In July 2019, a groom was killed in Patna district when a bullet hit him during celebratory firing during the wedding ceremony.

Celebratory firing is used as a way of displaying money and muscle power during wedding ceremonies, which is common particularly in the rural areas in Bihar. The practice of celebratory firing is most popular among the powerful and dominant upper castes like Rajput, Bhumihar and OBCs like Yadav, Kurmi and Kushwaha, during the traditional marriage season.

Talking about the increasing incidents of celebratory firing, social activist Mahendar Yadav, associated with the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) said, “In Bihar, it is not unusual if someone is carrying firearms. People are used to celebratory firing during wedding ceremonies, victory processions of political parties and even during religious functions.”

He said there is a provision to cancel arms licence of the accused but it has remained only on paper. Besides this, most of the arms used during celebratory firings are allegedly illegal. “It is for the local police to check such practices but police have failed totally,” he added.

A senior police official admitted that the central government has recently sent a letter to all state governments directing them to take strict action against those who are found guilty of engaging in celebratory firing.

India: Growing AIDS cases among prisoners alarm Bihar government.

Source – gulfnews.com

Patna: The increasing cases of Aida among prisoners lodged in Bihar jails have alarmed the state administration. So far, 89 prisoners out of 4,000 inmates who underwent medical examination have been found suffering from Aids whereas the medical examination of remaining 34,000 prisoners lodged in jails are still under process.

Jail authorities are apprehensive of the fact that the number of such prisoners could go up alarmingly if the entire lot of 38,000 prisoners lodged in 59 jails were completed given the prevailing rate. The number of prisoners currently detected by AIDS is about 2 per cent of 4,000 inmates who were medically examined so far, officials said.

“The figures of inmates suffering from this deadly disease are indeed alarming. We have already chalked out a plan to create massive awareness drive about this disease among the prisoners,” Bihar’s inspector general of prisons Mithilesh Mishra told the media on Monday.

Mishra said the authorities would organise awareness camps among all the jails on December 1 to make them aware how they could protect themselves from this disease.

He added that the jail administration would intensify the medical tests from the very next month and would also initiate quite few more steps for better health care of the inmates.

According to officials, one of the major reasons behind the spread of the disease is the inmates’ addiction for drugs. “A good number of inmates lodged in jails are drug addicts. They may have taken drugs through infected syringes unaware of their serious consequences, before being sent to jail,” a senior jail official said preferring anonymity.

According to an official report, the number of HIV cases have grown alarmingly in the state in the past few years. The latest report of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) says of the total number of estimated 2.14 million HIV cases in India, Bihar has roughly 115,000 people living with this disease.

Patna HC expresses concern over pendency of over 2 lakh liquor ban cases.

Source – indiatoday.in

Expressing concern over pendency of over 2 lakh prohibition-related cases, the Patna high court has asked the Bihar government to file its reply on tackling litigations arising out of enforcement of prohibition law in the state.

Complete prohibition was enforced by the state government in April 2016 under which manufacturing, storage, transportation, selling and consumption of all types of liquor are banned.

A division bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh on Thursday directed the state government to file a detailed reply as how it intends to deal with the pending cases arising out of liquor ban in the state.

The matter has been posted for hearing in the Chief Justice’s court on Friday.

The bench observed that it is the duty of the state government to ensure speedy hearing of such cases after enforcing the prohibition law.

It also wanted to know about appeals filed by the state government in the Supreme Court in the past three years, during which the prohibition law was under challenge.

“In how many such cases has the state government appealed the high court’s orders in the Supreme Court?” the bench asked advocate general Lalit Kishore.

The court passed the order while hearing a case arising out of an order passed by the single bench of Justice Anil Kumar Upadhyay on August 21, 2019.

The single bench had expressed concern over the pendency of over 2.07 lakh cases related to the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 in subordinate courts till July 8, 2019.

Around 1.67 lakh people were arrested and 52.02 lakh litres of liquor seized under the prohibition law in past three years, it had said.

The single bench had sought a detailed reply from the chief secretary as to what the government has done for quick disposal of prohibition-related cases.