Tag: patna

Patna court grants Rahul Gandhi bail in defamation suit filed by Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi

Source: hindustantimes.com

Rahul Gandhi on Saturday appeared in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate here and pleaded ‘not guilty’ in a defamation case filed by Bihar’s deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

Gandhi was granted bail on two sureties of Rs 10,000 each.

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had on April 18 filed a defamation case against Gandhi, alleging that he had made defamatory remarks against those having the surname of Modi. In the case, Modi referred the statement of Gandhi at a public meeting in Kolar (Karnataka) on April 13 and found it offensive and derogatory.

Pleading on Gandhi’s behalf in the court of Kumar Gunjan, his counsel, AN Singh and Sanjay Pandey argued that the allegations levelled against the Congress leader was false. Modi’s lawyers, however, countered the arguments and appealed to the court not to grant bail and start the trial of the case.

“Whoever is raising his voice in the country against the Modi government, against the BJP-RSS, he is targeted through court cases. But my fight will continue,” Gandhi told reporters before leaving the court premises.

To a query, he said the voice of people of the country was being suppressed. “My struggle to protect the constitution and the rights of farmers and labourers would continue relentlessly,” he said.

This was the first visit of Gandhi to Patna after he declared his decision to step down as the Congress president after his party’s crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. A large number of party leaders and workers, including AiCC in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil, BPCC president Madan Mohan Jha, former BPCC chief Anil Sharma received Gandhi at the airport.

Gandhi arrived here on a service flight and had a brief conversation with senior party leaders at the state hanger, before heading for the court. He returned to Delhi by another service flight.

AES lens on Gaya now as 3 kids die

Source: hindustantimes.com

Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), the mystery disease that has claimed lives of 156 children across Bihar so far, has claimed four more lives during the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 160, health officials said.

While one child died at the Muzaffarpur’s Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital (SKMCH), the rest three succumbed to their ailment at Gaya’s Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMCH).

Spread of AES from the state’s north to south is a matter of serious concern for the health department, which is already under fire for failing to contain AES deaths as the disease has been recurring every year during the extreme summer and causing much devastation.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, while expressing serious concern over the death in the state assembly two days back, had said that experts from across India and even US had come up conflicting and incomplete findings on causes that lead to AES among children in Bihar.

ANMCH officials said at least six children were brought to the hospital, of which four showed AES symptoms while two were brought dead in the last 24 hours. The deceased, who were referred by primary health centres, were being treated for AES, official said.

Another one died on way to Patna.

Officials said that rest three patients of suspected AES are still undergoing treatment at the ANMCH and their conditions are said to be stable.

ANMCH superintendent Dr Vijay Krishna Prasad said blood samples of all the patients had been sent to the Rajendra Medical Research Institute in Patna for laboratory tests to ascertain the type of the disease. “At present, we have identified symptoms of Japanese encephalitis and AES, but the same can be confirmed only after the RMRI tests. We can just call it suspected encephalitis cases,” the ANMCH superintendent said.

He, however, said that the medical college is well equipped to counter the menace. “We have already created 30-bed ICU attached to the paediatric ward for AES patients. Besides, we have adequate medicines and experts to handle such cases,” the superintendent said.

Since JES generally strikes in a big way after the first showers across the Magadh division, the health department had earlier chalked out strategy to combat the situation. “There would no Muzaffarpur-like situation here as we are on high alert and patients are being promptly attended upon,” a health department official said.

“The Bihar government has announced Rs 50,000 compensation to the families that have lost their kids to AES. We are now preparing the patients’ records,” the superintendent said.

Meanwhile in Muzaffarpur, the epicentre of the disease, 24 AES afflicted children are currently undergoing treatment at the SKMCH while one is being treated at the Kejriwal Maternity Clinic.

Man lynched near Patna’s Vaishali village on theft suspicion, no arrest yet

Source: hindustantimes.com

A 35-year-old unidentified man, suspected of a theft at Akhtiarpur Patedha village falling under Sarai police station of Vaishali district, was beaten to death by a mob in the wee hours of Tuesday.

Sources said the police arrived on the spot around 3 am after a tip-off that six dacoits had barged into the house of one Sant Lal Paswan and injured him along with his wife.

The police found the victim with multiple bruises lying lifeless on the outskirts of the village.

He was taken to the Sadar hospital where doctors declared him dead. The body has been sent for autopsy.

“Two separate cases have been lodged with the Sarai police station. One of the FIRs has been lodged in connection with the murder of suspect on the basis of the statement of the SHO against unidentified persons while second is on the basis of Paswan’s statement against dacoits,” said Vaishali SP Manavjit Singh Dhillon.

In Vaishali, there have been several incidents of theft, burglary and dacoity.

According to villagers, the Paswan family raised an alarm after which people gathered, chased the dacoits and caught one of the man. The villagers beat the man using bamboos and sticks. The police are trying to identify the man and the locals involved in the incident.

SHO of the Sarai police station Dharmjit Mahto said police recovered cutters and a mobile from his possession.

Patna High School turns 100; VP Naidu to attend centenary bash of school, PU Library on August 4

Source: indianexpress.com

Patna High School, one of the oldest educational institutions in the country established in 1919, on Tuesday turned 100 and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu is slated to attend its centenary celebrations on August 4, officials said.

On the same day, the vice president will also be the chief guest at the centenary celebrations of the Patna University Library, which is currently in its 100th year.

“Patna High School was established seven years after the creation of the new province of Bihar and Orissa (in 1912) and initially, it mostly served the children of ‘babus’ (bureaucrats) and clerks who worked at the Patna Secretariat and other government offices. It was set up as Patna High English School,” the institute’s principal, Ravi Ranjan, said.

Located in a sprawling campus in Gardanibagh area of central Patna, the school’s oldest building is an E-shaped main block, constructed in 1919, which is getting a facelift ahead of the celebrations in August.

“We feel proud that this historic institution, which has produced illustrious alumni, has turned 100 and VP Naidu has consented to attend the centenary celebrations here on August 4. It is a matter of great honour for the school,” Ranjan told PTI.

The word ‘English’ was dropped from the name of the school, soon after Independence, and in 2008, it was rechristened to Shaheed Rajendra Prasad Singh Rajkiya Uchh Madhyamik Vidyalay, but it is still popularly known as Patna High School, he said, adding that it was established on July 2, 1919.

“Rajendra Prasad Singh was a matric student of this school and was one of the seven youths who was killed in the infamous Patna Secretariat firing case during the Quit India Movement in August 1942. Hence, the school was renamed by the Bihar government in his honour,” Ranjan said.

Patna’s famous Shahid Smarak in front of the state assembly building complex commemorates the sacrifices made by the seven persons for the nation’s freedom. A bust of Singh was also installed in the campus a few decades ago.

“On the day of the centenary celebration which will be held at Adhiveshan Bhawan, Vice President Naidu will felicitate the widow of Rajendra Prasad Singh, who is in her 90s, and the most aged alumnus (old boy student) and alumna (old girl student) of the school. A centenary souvenir will also be launched by the vice president during the function,” the principal said.

Ranjan said arrangements are also being made to set up a replica of the bust of Singh at the function venue.

Naidu will pay homage to Singh, as per the plan, he said, adding that the event will end with a cultural programme.

“The function is slated to take place late afternoon. So, an alumni meet will be held in the school’s campus in the first half of the day, where old boys can gather and celebrate the occasion, among themselves, to relive old times,” he said.

According to Ranjan, who completed class 9 and class 10 (1978-79) from the school and later in 1989 returned to the campus as a Physics teacher, Patna High School began as a co-educational institution, and in the 1960s, it became a boys school as a separate school was started for girls at a nearby campus.

“For the centenary, a special logo has been created and it will be unveiled by the vice president. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, an alumnus of Patna High School, will also be attending the function,” he said.

The school counts a number of noted personalities among its alumni, including Gauba, Governor of Sikkim Ganga Prasad, veteran politician Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Rajya Sabha MP R K Sinha, and several top government officers, Ranjan said.

“About eight-nine serving DMs of various districts who passed out of this school will also be present on the occasion,” he added.

According to an old succession board hung on a wall in the principal’ office, located in the century-old building of the school, Ambika Charan Mishra was its first principal.

A portrait of Rajendra Prasad Singh, flanked by those of B R Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru, hangs on a wall behind the principal’s desk.

A cabinet full of trophies won by its students highlight the achievements of its current and former students while a double-lock colonial-era safety vault installed in a corner of the high-ceiling room evokes an era gone by.

Ranjan points to the prancing horse logo of the ‘Das & Co of Chitpur, Calcutta’ on the vault and the ‘Patna High School’ metallic plate placed at its bottom.

“This E-shaped building is a heritage of Bihar and this old vault, which is still functional tells the story of this building. On August 4, this building will be illuminated to mark the centenary,” he said.
Patna University Library, which was also set up in 1919, two years after the university was established, is celebrating its centenary this year.

“The library was set up on September 24, 1919. A number of programmes are being organised to mark the centenary. And, on August 4, Vice President Naidu will be the chief guest for our main centennial celebration that will be held at the historic Wheeler Senate House in the university campus,” PU Vice Chancellor RBP Singh told PTI.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief guest at the main centenary function of the university in October 2017. And, now the vice president has consented to grace the centenary celebration of its equally historic library. We are deeply honoured,” he said.

Tejashwi Yadav finally surfaces in Patna but still can’t make it to Bihar assembly

Source: theprint.in

Patna: Under fire for the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD’s) dismal campaign in the Lok Sabha elections, Tejashwi Yadav is still to return to the political arena even though he was back in Patna Sunday evening after spending a month in New Delhi.

Yadav’s absence is all the starker as he is the leader of opposition in the Bihar assembly, where the monsoon session commenced Friday. On Monday, the treasury benches allowed a rare adjournment motion on the death of around 180 children in Muzaffarpur due to the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES).

Adjournment motions are an opportunity for the opposition to censure the government on its lapses, but Tejashwi, the son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, wasn’t present in the House despite his home in Patna being less than a kilometre from the assembly building.

That prompted Parliamentary Affairs Minister Srawan Kumar to gesture at Tejashwi’s empty chair even as Speaker Vijay Choudhary remarked, “Let’s focus on the members who are present”, leaving RJD MLAs red-faced.

“This must be the first time in parliamentary history that the leader of the opposition has been absent on such an important issue,” an angry RJD MLA later told ThePrint.

The onus was then on a few senior opposition leaders such as Abdul Bari Siddiqui of the RJD and Sadanand Singh of the Congress to grill the JD(U)-BJP government on the issue but they targeted Health Minister, the BJP’s Mangal Pandey, as opposed to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The Nitish government has been pulled up by the Supreme Court and the media over the Encephalitis deaths but was virtually handed a walk-over in the assembly as the opposition allowed Pandey to read out the steps taken by his department without questioning him.

Family, party unsure of whereabouts
Tejashwi had gone off the radar after addressing a press meet in Patna on 28 May following the Grand Alliance’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. There was much speculation on his whereabouts with some RJD leaders even claiming that he may have gone to London to watch the Cricket World Cup as he is a former cricketer himself.

On 28 June, exactly a month later, Tejashwi tweeted accusing the media and his political opponents “of cooking up spicy stories” of his absence and stating that he was away as he had an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.

He then went on to reiterate his party’s “commitment to the poor” and added that he was “following up on” the death of children due to Encephalitis.

But there is little clarity on his whereabouts, with family members showing irritation when asked the question. Tejashwi’s brother Tej Pratap surfaced in the assembly Monday but shrugged off the question. “He must be at his home,” Tej Pratap said. Their mother, former chief minister Rabri Devi, Friday snapped back at a reporter over the same question. “He is at your home,” she said.

RJD MLAs, however, told ThePrint that Tejashwi was yet to interact with them. “When a few MLAs telephoned him they were told that he would call back. But that call never came,” a senior RJD MLA said, adding that the party was yet to hold its routine meeting of legislators to discuss its floor strategy for the monsoon session.

“The result is that in the assembly we are going soft on CM Nitish Kumar, but in the state legislative council, Rabri Devi is demanding his resignation,” he added.

Opponents mock RJD leader
NDA leaders have been taking jabs at Tejashwi ever since his tweet on 28 June.

“Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj made their illness public while they were in office,” said deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi. “Tejashwi Yadav made his absence mysterious and has disrespected his party and its legislators.”

The RJD leader is also facing flak from his own party colleagues. “The manner in which he runs the party raises questions on if the party will survive. He refuses to meet his supporters and leaders,” said another RJD leader. “All this is happening when the party has to gear up for the assembly polls next year.”

The leader further said that Tejashwi is living up to his reputation as a “non-serious political leader who did not even cast his vote in Patna during the Lok Sabha polls”.

Patna ranks high on liquor raids across Bihar, low on recoveries

Source: hindustantimes.com

Is Patna the hot spot for liquor traders in dry Bihar? If the number of raids for illicit liquor is any indicator, it seems to be the prime spot on the radar of the police and the excise department, though in terms of recoveries it ranked way below many bordering districts.

Between April 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019, Patna alone witnessed 13,550 liquor-related raids, the highest in the state, involving registration of 3,872 cases and arrest of 1,566 persons, as per the official statistics of the excise department.

However, the recovery of Indian-made foreign liquor was 13,077 litres, while that of country liquor was just 535 litres. In the last two months of April and May, which coincided with peak election period, it recorded zero recovery of country liquor, though recovery of foreign liquor was 5,363 litres.

After Patna, the second highest number of liquor-related raids during the 14 months between April 2018 and May 2019 took place in Purnea. 7,311 raids were recorded, 394 cases were registered and 4,694 litres of IMFL was recovered.

In contrast, there have been districts like Gopalganj and Muzaffarpur, which have a nearly four-time higher recovery rate of foreign liquor, despite just one-fourth of raids. Similar is the case with other ‘high-yielding’ districts like Vaishali, Gaya, East Champaran, Rohtas, where recoveries of IMFL as well as country liquor were very high, despite fewer raids.

There is also huge inter-district variation in recoveries. If Jehanabad and Arwal show meagre recoveries of barely around 635 litres of IMFL in the last 14 months, including virtually zero during the last two election months, the neighbouring Gaya alone accounted for around 17,641 litres during the period. This was despite 4,308 raids in Arwal and Jehanabad, compared to just 1,831 in Gaya.

In some districts like Bhabua, Katihar, Vaishali, Saran, Samastipur, Saharsa, Purnea, Madhepura, Khagaria, Buxar, Bhojpur, Arwal the figures suggest growing proclivity for IMFL, with its high recoveries, despite virtually no recovery of country liquor and other local intoxicating drinks.

In the first Lok Sabha elections in dry Bihar, seizure of all kinds of liquor fell significantly to just 1 lakh litres compared around 5.78 lakh litres during 2014. However, IMFL still accounted for the highest share of recoveries, nearly 37% of the total during the April-May period.

Four districts – Begusarai, Gopalganj, Bhojpur and Patna – accounted for over 50% of the IMFL recoveries during the two election months. Another significant aspect is the growing recoveries of IMFL, compared to country liquor. In many districts, country liquor recovery has dipped significantly, while the more lucrative and high-risk IMFL trade continues to find favour.

Excise commissioner B Kartikey Dhanji said that the reason why districts like Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur, East Champaran etc. had high recoveries was mainly attributed to big caches. “At the entry points, there are round-the-clock check posts. There are also main routes, where truckloads of liquor are intercepted,” he added.

SP (prohibition) Rakesh Kumar Sinha said that in Patna there were smaller recoveries in large numbers, generally meant for deliveries to clients. “So, the number of cases go up,” he added.

Blazing India: Bihar’s poor slog and suffer the most

Source: downtoearth.org.in

Droughts, heatwaves and weak monsoons come and go every year. Some survive it and some don’t. But those who always bear the brunt of rising temperatures are the poor. Thousands of daily wage labourers in Bihar step out every day to be able to earn a meagre amount but the scorching sun is not letting them do that either. Unable to beat the heat, they work late hours and earn less.

The rising temperatures killed 78 people within 48 hours in Bihar’s Aurangabad, Gaya and Nawada districts, which are also facing a water crisis.

After hundreds of deaths, district magistrates of five Bihar districts, including the worst-hit Gaya, invoked Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to ban public activities during daytime.

While rains did lash Bihar last week, it could only provide temporary relief. Temperatures again rose to 41 to 42 degrees Celsius with high humidity. The India Meteorological Department’s Patna office again issued a heat wave alert.

“I was earning Rs 500-600 a day to dig up soil on contract basis, carry sand, bricks or stone chips. But the intense heat has forced us to reduce our working hours and got our earnings down to Rs 300-400 a day,” said Rajdeo Yadav, a daily wage labourer in Patna.

The hostile climate is forcing the poor to not take the risk of working during in the afternoon. “We have to take regular intervals to rest and escape the Sun. We don’t work between 12.30 pm and 3.30 pm,” added Yadav.

Farmers too are finding it tough to irrigate land. Manish Singh, a marginal farmer in drought-hit Jehanabad district, said rising mercury and no pre-monsoon showers have together left no moisture in the land to start the process of cultivation for Kharif season.

“We have not even begun preparing our land for paddy as the soil is rock-like owing to lack of moisture,” he said adding that the fear of another drought is haunting them all.

In the state capital Patna too, where temperatures are above 45°C, roadside vendors are severely hit.

“No customer shows up in the afternoon. There’s no sale, no business. We are totally dependent on the evening after the Sun sets,” said Nagender Kumar, a garment vendor who sits near Patna railway station.

The IMD recorded 45.8°C on June 15, the hottest day in the past 53 years.

Manoj Kumar, executive director of the state health society, said Bihar government issued an advisory asking people to avoid going out in the day and keep themselves hydrated.

It is an alarming sign that temperatures are rising and rainfall is decreasing every year, said Ranjeev, an environmental activist. “The heat is slowly putting more and more stress on farmers. They are dependent on water, but the prolonged heatwave has dried water bodies,” he said.

Monsoon covers whole Bihar, many places receive good rainfall

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

PATNA: Several cities and towns in different parts of Bihar on Saturday received good rainfall as the monsoon covered the entire state, Met officials said.

The monsoon which hit Bihar’s north east districts on Friday, covered the entire state on Saturday, the Patna Meteorological Centre said.

Several cities and towns in different parts of the state received a good rainfall bringing down the temperature below normal maximum temperature.

Patna, like other cities, which have been facing the heatwave since the beginning of June this year, on Saturday witnessed a pleasant weather because of the first spell of good rainfall since the morning.

Patna received 33.0 mm of rainfall during the day between 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, bringing down maximum temperature down to 32.4 degrees Celsius which is three notches below normal, Met official said.

Gaya recorded a temperature of 33.0 degrees Celsius which is three degrees below normal maximum temperature, he said.

Bhagalpur and Purnea recorded maximum temperature of 36.0 degrees and 33.8 degrees respectively, Met official said, adding that Bhagalpur and Purnea recorded 3.2 mm and 0.3 mm rainfall respectively.

Met department forecast said that Patna is expected to witness generally cloudy sky on Sunday while Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea are expected to witness generally cloudy sky with possibility of rain or thunderstorm.

Patna sizzles at 45.8 degrees celsius, highest in 10 years

Source: business-standard.com

Patna recorded its highest maximum temperature in the past 10 years at 45.8 degrees celsius on Saturday, the meteorological department here said.

Residents of the state capital singed under blistering heat wave condition, as the city’s maximum temperature was 9.2 degrees above normal, the Patna Meteorological Centre said.

The minimum temperature was 31 degrees celsius, 4.2 notches above normal for this time of the year.

Heat wave is declared when the maximum temperature is recorded above 4.5 degrees from its normal for two consecutive days, a Met official said.

According to a Met department bulletin, Gaya recorded 45.2 degrees celsius, Bhagalpur 41.5 degrees celsius and Purnea 35.9 degrees celsius.

The Met department has forecast heat wave conditions on Sunday as well in Patna, Gaya and Bhagalpur.

Meanwhile, the Bihar government on Saturday said all schools in the city will remain closed till June 19 in view of the prevailing weather condition.

Patna district magistrate Kumar Ravi said all government and private schools of Patna will remain shut till June 19, due to persisting heatwave-like condition for the past several days, an official release said.

A number of private schools were scheduled to open in the week starting June 17 after the summer vacation.

This is the second time the district administration has extended suspension of academic activities in schools due to the weather.

Earlier on June 9, the DM had ordered closure of schools till June 16.

Patna’s Over Century-Old Heritage Market Demolished In Smart City Project

Source: ndtv.com


Patna:  The over 100-year-old Gole Market in Patna, a unique heritage building constructed as the Bihar capital’s first planned municipal market, has been demolished by local authorities as part of a Smart City project.

The demolition work began on Friday and by Sunday the historic landmark, located in the heart of Patna and endowed with beautiful red-tiled roof, was reduced to a skeletal shell.

“The Gole Market was demolished as part of a major redevelopment project of the railway station area under the Smart City initiative. Other markets lining the streets are also being knocked down as part of the mega project,” Patna Municipal Commissioner Anupam Kumar Suman told news agency Press Trust of India.

As part of this Smart City project, the now-dismantled Gole Market, located near Patna Junction, will make way for a seven-storeyed commercial complex and a modern municipal market along with a vending zone will come up in the area adjoining the Station Road, he said.

Popularly known as Gole Market, among the local people, it was Patna’s first planned municipal market designed by architect Joseph Fearis Munnings while he was planning the layout of the “New Capital” city of colonial Patna after the creation of the new province of Bihar and Orissa in 1912.

Despite the historical value of the building, the demolition has drawn feeble protest from citizens of the city, but many people in Patna are angered by this “shocking move” of the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC).

“This is just madness. It was a historical building and should have been preserved. But, instead of restoring and reusing it as a cafe or something, the corporation razed it,” said city-based researcher and author Arun Singh.

“One by one the local government is knocking down heritage buildings in the city. This is an attempt to erase the colonial history of Patna in the name of development,” he alleged.

In December last year, the 133-year-old Anjuman Islamia Hall, perhaps the first public hall of Patna, was demolished to make way for a modern complex.

The heritage market had faced decades of neglect and its occupant shopkeepers had been feeling the shadow of the wrecking ball for years as local authorities had planned a redevelopment project much earlier too, which kept on getting stalled, a local shopkeeper, who did not wish to be named, said.

“My grandfather had a meat shop in it during the British time, and elite of the city would come in their cars to buy meat, fish, chicken, eggs, grocery and milk. It should have been preserved,” he said.

City-based 84-year-old architect and INTACH Patna Chapter Convener J K Lall also expressed shock and anger over the demolition of Gole Market.

“It was a unique single-storeyed building with a raised central hexagonal core topped with elegant red-tiled roof and two flanks came out of it and again it was topped with red tiles of the colonial-era Burn & Co. It was a perfect building and a perfect setting for a heritage cafe,” he told PTI.

“Smart City also means preserving our architectural legacy and not just building new ones,” he said.

PMC Commissioner Suman, when asked why the building was demolished, said, the Gole Market was “coming in the middle” of the layout of the Smart City project plan.

“There were suggestions made to us by a few heritage lovers to preserve the building and reuse it as a cafe. We tried but the market structure was coming in the way of the plan. So, we had no option left but to knock it down,” he said.

“Also, besides the fact that it was designed 100 years ago by Munnings as the first municipal market, there was not much heritage value of it. And, sometimes we have to lose something old to build a new, better future,” the municipal commissioner said.

However, the iron shell of the building and whatever can be salvaged will be stored and later reused in a new gazebo at the site, Mr Suman said.

“That gazebo will be built with new material and old material from the dismantled Gole Market. We are trying to look into our archives to know about the history of the building, which along with old pictures would be displayed there, so that people will know there was a Gole Market here,” he said.

Retired bureaucrat R N Dash, who served as the district magistrate of Patna from 1972-74 and Divisional Commissioner from 1983-85, also said that demolition was a “wrong move” and that restoration and proper rehabilitation of local shopkeepers should have been planned instead.

“The overall master plan should have ensured the preservation of the market and other heritage buildings, and Smart City project should have factored that in. Converting it into a cafe was a good idea and people coming to these complexes would have visited too, so it was a win-win situation,” he said.

Ironically, Gole Market was also listed as a heritage building in a 2008 Bihar goverment publication — Patna: A Monumental History.

Mr Singh, whose book “Patna – Khoya Hua Shahar” came out early this year, talks about the history and glory days of this market, located in what is termed officially as the New Market area, falling between the railway station rotary and the Patna GPO roundabout. 

“In its heydays, it had a rose garden around it and six routes leading to it from the streets around it.

“British people including European women would visit there as would the Indians in their cars. Instead of restoring old charm, as done world over, Patna is wilfully destroying its own heritage,” he rued.