Jharkhand to become first state in India to have four sub-capitals.

Source – newindianexpress.com

NEW DELHI: In a first, Jharkhand will soon become the only state in the country to have four sub-capitals along with the state capital Ranchi.

Besides Dumka, which has already been declared as the sub-capital during the regime of Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, Jharkhand will have three new sub-capitals – Medininagar, Chaibasa and Giridih.   

Sources in government claimed that the process for same has already been started and a proposal for making Medininagar, Chaibasa and Giridih as sub-capitals of state has been prepared.   

“The proposal has already been prepared which is waiting for CM’s endorsement following which, it will be sent for the cabinet approval,” said a senior officer.

The objective behind the proposal is to enable uniform development in all divisions of the state which so far, have been lagging behind due to various constraints, he added.   

The official added that creation of sub-capital would bring employment opportunities for the people in the three divisions of Palamu, Kolhan and North Choanagpur.

Smart City, AIIMS, 500-bed Dumka hospital get environmental clearance

Source: hindustantimes.com

The Jharkhand government’s five big-ticket projects, including Smart City, AIIMS and 500-bed Dumka hospital, got the much-awaited environmental clearance (EC) from the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), officials said on Wednesday.

SEIAA chairman SEH Kazmi said, the environmental clearance for five building construction projects -civic tower, convention centre, Rabindra Bhawan in Ranchi, AIIMS Deoghar and 500-bed hospital building in Dumka- was given in SEIAA’s 74th meeting held on Tuesday.

Construction work of multistorey civic tower and convention centre under Ranchi Smart City scheme were stopped for want of environmental clearance around three months back.

The Centre had picked Ranchi under its ambitious Smart City project in May 2016. Jharkhand is developing country’s first Greenfield smart city project on an area of 656 acres of land, acquired by the state government from Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) Limited.

Vice-president, Venkaiah Naidu on September 9 in 2017 laid the foundation stones of three major projects such as convention centre, urban civic tower (UCT) and Jharkhand urban planning management institute (JUPMI)-worth around Rs 700 crore. Barring JUPMI, two other projects were waiting for the required EC.

Chief executive officer (CEO) of Ranchi Smart City Corporation Limited (RSCCL), Amit Kumar said, “With getting clearance, mobilisation of building materials and labour force have been started from Wednesday. Now, the projects are expected to progress with its schedule.”

However, the project proposals were given clearance with certain conditions. “We have decided to grant environmental clearance to the project proposals with conditions recommended by the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) subject to if remaining plots of the projects are found to be ‘Jungle Jhari (forest bush)’ in future, the project proponent will have to abide by the provisions of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980,” said SEIAA member secretary Kamlesh Pandey.

Meanwhile, the upcoming All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which is coming up at Devipur in Deoghar, was also granted the clearance. Foundation of the institute on 272 acres of land was laid in May last year. The construction work of the building is in progress.

Teachers’ recruitment process for AIIMS has already begun. A recruitment notice by AIIMS Patna was issued recently for appointment of eight professors, 11 additional professors, 13 associate professors and 30 assistant professors. If sources in the health department are to be believed, the session of the institute will begin from August this year with 50 seats of MBBS.

Similarly, SEIAA also granted environmental clearance to 500bed hospital coming up in Dumka district. Besides, the Rs 155-crore Rabindra Bhawan, proposed to be a cultural hub of Ranchi, also got the clearance for its speeding construction.


11 get life imprisonment in Dumka gang-c case

Source: hindustantimes.com

Dhanbad

A local court in Dumka on Monday sentenced 11 persons to life imprisonment for raping a 19-year-old woman in the district in 2017.

“Pronouncing the punishment on Monday, the court also slapped a fine on each of the convicts of ₹2.97 lakh. It was observed that the amount would be paid to the victim,” said additional public prosecutor Surendra Prasad Sinha.

Last week, district and sessions judge Pawan Kumar had convicted the them under section 376 D (gang-rape) and many other sections under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The court awarded life sentence to John Murmu, Marshal Murmu, Albinus Hembrom, Jaiprakash Hembrom, Subhash Hembrom, Shailendra Murmu, Suraj Soren, Daniel Kisku, Suman Soren, Anil Rana and Saddam Ansari. The convicts are aged between 19 to 24 years.

The case involved as many as 16 accused out of which five were minors. The minors are being tried separately in juvenile justice board.

The incident occurred on September 6, 2017, between 8-9 pm when the victim, travelling on a motorcycle along with her boyfriend, was intercepted by a group of five-six young men at Digghi locality. The miscreants dragged the girl to a nearby secluded place, summoned their other friends and raped the girl one by one. One of the them, even made a video of the whole incident.

According to the FIR lodged with the Mofassil police station on the basis of victim’s statement, the girl, along with her boyfriend, had gone to her college on a motorbike. While returning, they were stopped at a place to attend nature’s call. Soon, the miscreants reached there and inquired from her about the purpose of making a halt. They demanded money from the couple saying that they could provide a hideout to them to get physical.

When the victim reacted, the accused assaulted both of them and snatching their mobile phones and money. The accused summoned some of their friends. Soon 15-20 local youths assembled there and dragged the girl to nearby bushes and raped her.

The girl informed that she had heard names of some of the accused while they were outraging her modesty. She disclosed that she could not recall other names as she fell unconscious after resisting for a while. After regaining consciousness, the girl and her friend somehow managed to reach the police station, she had informed.