Tag: bihar minister

Bihar minister escapes attack on convoy, three cops hurt, vehicles damaged.

Source – hindustantimes.com

A Bihar minister’s convoy was attacked about 250 km from Patna by supporters of the losing candidate in the elections for the position of the chairman of Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) in Supaul town of north Bihar. Three policemen were injured and two escort vehicles in the convoy of state welfare minister Ramesh Rishidev were damaged. The minister escaped unhurt.

Police suspect the protests were instigated by one Ateesh Kumar who lost the PAC election. Soon after the results were announced, Kumar’s supporters began shouting slogans alleging irregularities in the counting of votes and accused the administration of supporting the winning candidate. The protestors soon blocked the Patel Chowk, where the minister’s convoy was caught in the melee while on its way to Madhepura town.

Police resorted to firing and lathi-charge but not before protestors had attacked and injured three cops and damaged two vehicles in the minister’s convoy. “The minister’s vehicle was diverted,” said a cop.

Police fired three to four rounds in the air to control the violent mob and arrested more than a dozen protestors said the SP.

“Three police officials including a sub-divisional police officer was injured in the incident,” said Supaul superintendent of police (SP) Manoj Kumar.

JD(U) minister Rishidev said, “I was not aware of the protest… escort vehicles accompanying me were damaged.”

A PACS is a grassroots-level unit that gives loans to rural agricultural borrowers and collects repayments. It is considered the final link between the borrowers and the financing agencies. The election for the chairman of PACS is hotly contested by political parties.

Protesting Bihar Politician Takes Waste-filled Tractor to Minister’s Door Step, Fined for Driving Sans Licence

Source: news18.com

Patna: Maverick politician Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav was fined on Thursday for driving without a valid licence a tractor-trolley full of garbage that he threatened to dump in front of a state minister’s residence in Patna, police said.

Yadav, a controversial former MP who has floated the Jan Adhikar Party (JAP), said he did this in protest against the state government’s “failure” to check the outbreak of dengue, which has afflicted more than 200 people in the city since the beginning of this month when heavy rain had left many pockets water-logged for several days.

The police said he was stopped and fined Rs 5,000 as he was carrying a licence to drive light motor vehicles, which expired in 2017, and not one to drive heavy vehicles.

“I have been deprived of my fundamental right to register a protest. I have a licence but they have come up with the challan on a flimsy ground that the one I possess did not qualify me for driving a heavy vehicle,” Yadav said.

The JAP leader who hogged the limelight when he moved on boats through the water-logged streets distributing food, drinking water, clothes and money a fortnight ago, collected trash from densely-populated localities and loaded it in the tractor-trolley with the help of his supporters.

Yadav also sprinkled bleaching powder at garbage dumps after collecting the waste to underscore that the authorities concerned were not doing enough to control the outbreak of vector-borne diseases.

He was, however, stopped a few kilometres ahead of the residence of Urban Development Minister Suresh Sharma by the police.

The men in uniform asked the former MP to furnish his driving licence and handed over a challan to him after he failed to produce a valid one, police said.

“I would have derived no pleasure out of throwing dirt at the doorstep of the minister. But I did want him to have a feel of the hellish condition in which the people of the city are living,” said Yadav, claiming it was a ploy to deter him from lending his voice to the people of Patna who have been suffering.

“This government has skewed priorities. It splurges billions of rupees on publicity while hospitals lack the kit used to transfuse platelets for want of funds,” he alleged.

“I will, however, keep raising my voice against the government’s insensitivity in whatever way it is possible. I shall also purchase a platelet transfusion kit from my own resources and donate it to the IGIMS (Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences) hospital here,” he said.