Tag: people

Jamshedpur citizens join hands for Patna flood affected people

Source: avenuemail.in

Jamshedpur: Social organization, ‘Prayaas Ek Kadam’ and Inner Wheel Club of Patna joined hands to collect relief items like flattened rice, jagery, dry grocery items, utensils, old and new clothes, warm clothes, blankets, sanitary pads, bleaching powder, chlorine and other vital necessities for distribution among the flood affected people of Patna especially in the slum areas of Gandhinagar, Haj Bhawan, Kaushalnagar and others.

In a please release issued on Wednesday, October 9, ‘Prayaas Ek Kadam’ founder Renu Sharma and president Puja Agrawal stated that even today the flood affected were going through harrowing times. They mentioned that the organization’s team of relief workers would continue to remain in Patna for some more time in distributing relief materials to the affected people. They mentioned that with the help and cooperation of other social organizations that already three lots of relief material have been sent to Patna by road. The Inner Wheel Club of Patna is providing full support to the team of ‘Prayaas Ek Kadam’ in the distribution of the relief material sent from Jamshedpur.

The organization’s relief team working in the Patna flood affected areas include, besides Renu Sharma and Puja Agrawal Manju, Vinita, Ranvir, Shubham, Abhishek, Ramesh, Ravi and others who are working selflessly for the alleviation of misery of the flood affected people of Patna.

Angry With Waterlogging in Patna after Heavy Rain, People Surround Deputy CM Sushil Modi’s House

Source: news18.com

Patna: Irked over the problems of waterlogging and accumulation of trash in some areas of the city, a group of people on Sunday gheraoed Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi’s residence here.

The state capital was pounded by heavy rain late last month leading to waterlogging in areas such as Rajendra Nagar, Kankar Bagh and Pataliputra Colony. Even after a fortnight, water has not fully receded in some low-lying localities and garbage has not been cleared in some pockets.

“Around 50-60 people took out a march to Sushil Modi’s house (in Rajendra Nagar area) and returned after some time,” said City Superintendent of Police (Central) Vinay Tiwari.

On September 30, Modi and his family members were rescued by an SDRF team from his flooded residence in Rajendra Nagar. However, they returned later to the house.

The BJP leader, however, was not present during the protest, official sources said adding that security has been beefed up at Modi’s residence. Modi could not be contacted for his comment despite several attempts.

Angry people, carrying placards, shouted anti-Modi slogans and demanded action against officials who failed to flush out water fully in Rajendra Nagar area, making their lives difficult.

“He (Modi) left us in the lurch and fled to a safe place,” one of the protesters said.

A heap of garbage has piled up in the area and it has become quite difficult to live, another protester said. Another demanded an enquiry by Enforcement Directorate and CBI into the assets of all local BJP MLAs and ward councillors. They were also seeking compensation for the damage done to their properties in three days of incessant rain.

After demonstrating there for around 30 minutes, they reached the Patna Municipal Corporation office and protested there.

The state capital was pounded by 342.5 millimetres of rainfall between September 27 and 30, as against the state average of 255 millimetres.

Another group of people also blocked Bailey Road near Saguna More and burnt tyres to protest against the continued waterlogging in some areas. They also shouted anti-government slogans.

“Local people had blocked Bailey road near Saguna More at around 8 am for around half-an-hour. We got the blockade lifted after pacifying them,” a police officer said.

Bihar floods toll reaches 97

Source: thehindubusinessline.com

Five more people died in Bihar floods, pushing the death toll up to 97 on Saturday, as over 69 lakh people were affected in 12 districts, the state’s disaster management department said. Of the fresh five deaths, four were reported from Madhubani district, which has so far accounted for 18 casualties, and one from Darbhanga district, where a total of 10 people have died in the deluge.

Sitamarhi, with 27 deaths, remained the worst-hit district, the disaster management department said in a report. The number of deaths in other districts are Araria (12), Sheohar (10), Purnea (nine), Kishanganj (five), Supaul (three), East Champaran (two) and Saharsa (one).

Muzaffarpur and Katihar districts have not reported any death in the flash floods that hit the state in the wake of torrential rains in the catchment areas of neighbouring Nepal last week.

Around two lakh more people were affected by the flood on Saturday, pushing the overall figure to 69.27 lakh though the districts hit by the deluge remained 12. Over one lakh people have been displaced, with 1.14 lakh taking shelter at 131 relief camps of which 126 have been set up in Sitamarhi alone.

Food is being prepared for the affected population at 859 kitchens and distributed by 796 personnel equipped with 125 boats, who are assisted by 19 teams of the NDRF. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and Disaster Management Minister Lakshmeshwar Roy surveyed the worst-hit Sitamarhi and Madhubani districts, respectively, to take stock of relief and rehabilitation work on Saturday.

Modi said, “Those affected by a calamity have the first claim on the coffers of the state.” He asked officials to ensure that dependents of those who died in the flood are paid ex-gratia expeditiously, and no surviving flood victim is denied financial assistance.

Water levels have begun to recede in nearly half a dozen rivers which are, nevertheless, flowing above the danger mark at a number of places. The weather department has predicted heavy rainfall during the next two days in some of the affected districts which may have an adverse impact on the flood situation.

Jharkhand lifts most people out of poverty; still remains among poorest states

Source: financialexpress.com

Eastern state Jharkhand has made the fastest leap in bringing down the number of poor among fellow Indian states and has reduced the incidence of multidimensional poverty from 74.9 per cent to 46.5 per cent in the decade ending in 2016, The Indian Express reported. Jharkhand showed the steepest decline in the poor populace which was once second only to Bihar’s in 2005-06. However, it still remains one of the poorest Indian states with more than half of India’s poor populace concentrated in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. 

In a report released by the UN Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development, it was found that in India, the number of people living in multidimensional poverty went down to 369.55 million in 2015-16 from 690.55 million in 2005-06. This is a considerable reduction of 271 million people in a decade.

The multidimensional poverty index (MPI) takes into account a person’s deprivations across 10 indicators; hence becoming a comprehensive indicator that looks beyond income poverty. These indicators are — health, education, and standard of living — nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance; access to cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water; electricity and housing; and assets. 

In India, the MPI fell from 0.283 to 0.123 in a decade. India and Cambodia are the fastest in 10 selected countries which reduced their MPI’s the most. In fact, India has halved the number of people living in abject poverty from 55.1 per cent to 27.9 per cent in a decade. It has also brought down the intensity of deprivation from 51.1 per cent to 43.9 per cent, according to the global MPI report.

The report also said that India demonstrated “the clearest pro-poor pattern at the subnational level: the poorest regions reduced multidimensional poverty the fastest in absolute terms”. India is also among three countries where urban areas were outshined by rural areas in reducing poverty. 

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Poverty index: how Jharkhand reduced its poor the fastest

Source: indianexpress.com

LAST WEEK, the UN Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative released the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report for 2019, which found that Jharkhand has made the fastest improvement among Indian states in reducing poverty (The Indian Express, July 13). Across India, the number of people living in multidimensional poverty has gone down from 690.55 million in 2005-06 to 369.55 million in 2015-16 — a reduction of 271 million people in a decade.

Jharkhand reduced the incidence of multidimensional poverty from 74.9 per cent to 46.5 per cent between 2005-06 and 2015-16. The accompanying graph shows how its index, second only to Bihar’s in 2005-06, has shown the steepest decline among the poorest states. Jharkhand, however, remains one of the poorest states in the country. Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh together accounted for 196 million MPI poor people — more than half of all multidimensionally poor in India.

The global MPI factors in a person’s deprivations across 10 indicators in health, education, and standard of living — nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance; access to cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water; electricity and housing; and assets. For India, the MPI has reduced from 0.283 to 0.123 in a decade. Of 10 selected countries, India and Cambodia reduced their MPI values the fastest. While the proportion of the population living in multidimensional poverty in India has halved from 55.1 per cent to 27.9 per cent in a decade, the intensity of deprivation has fallen less sharply, from 51.1 per cent to 43.9 per cent, the report said.

People travel 46 kilometres free of cost from Rajgir to Tilaiya in Bihar

Source: indiatvnews.com

About 46 kilometres of the train journey is absolutely free for the people from Rajgir to Tilaiya. It is not a gift from Railways but the common people have created this system. 

There is a junction, a station and five halts between Rajgir and Tilaiya. There is no arrangement for buying tickets in all these places and neither is the ticket collector also the train stops without any prior signals. Apart from Rajgir and Tilaiya, there is no restriction on people’s movement.

The Railways have abandoned the maintenance of these seven stations. There are bushes grown over the platforms and devices have been stolen. This railway route was approved by Nitish Kumar while being the Railway Minister and the project started in 2002. On June 19, 2010, CM Nitish Kumar inaugurated it.

On this railway route, there are two passenger trains, one is Danapur-Tailaiya and the other is Bakhtiyarpur-Gaya DMU, also one and half dozen goods trains are running. All these trains give a blow while crossing the station.

In 2012, the ticket counter was inaugurated at Jethian Railway Station. The responsibility of collecting tickets was given to the private company. In Jethian, 3 Assistant Station Master, 4 Porter and Gangman, RPF was also deployed. But the private company returned from the fear of commuters when the trains were getting late.

From Rajgir to Tilaiya, there are Negpur, Natesar, Jethian, Sarasu, Oro, Mahmudpur and Sitarampur stations and halts. Signal lights at all these places are not working.

According to media sources, there is a shortage of staff in the railway at these stations. The process of restoration is going on after which the vacant places will be filled. 

2019 Lotus Lantern Festival wishing for peace held successfully with more than 400,000 people participating

Source: prnewswire.com

SEOUL, South Korea, June 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The 2019 Lotus Lantern Festival called YeonDeungHoe, one of Korea’s traditional annual events and Intangible Cultural Property No. 122, has been successfully held with more than 400,000 Buddhists, citizens, foreign residents and visitors participating and enjoying the festival together.

To celebrate Buddha’s birthday and wish for peace, this year’s Lotus lantern festival took place from May 3 to 5, with a variety of programs including lantern parade and traditional cultural events.

During the festival, about 100,000 beautiful lanterns brightened Seoul’s night sky, delivering the wishes of temples and organizations that had prepared the lanterns for the last one year, and giving warm energies to people’s hearts.

A wide variety of colorful lanterns, such as 4 Buddhist instrument lanterns and Bodhi tree lanterns (grande lanterns) which symbolizes Buddha and his birth, Taegeukgi (the Korean flag) lanterns and star lanterns, had attracted people’s attention. During the Hoehyang Hanmadang, which combines the splendid, majestic energy and passion of the lantern parade, both Koreans and foreigners expressed their joy by enjoying the “flower rain” from the sky and traditional performances as well as fast beat music of EDM.

On May 5, which is Children’s Day in Korea, Traditional Cultural Events featured six themes: “youth and children,” “international,” “NGO,” “food,” “tradition” and “sharing.” Several programs for kids were prepared, such as traditional ring toss and a game of ttakji-chigi, or slap-match. Surprisingly, Buddhist monks gave presents to children on the streets, which was very popular among kids.

In the “Lotus Lantern-Making for foreigners”, around 200 foreigners participated and made colorful lanterns with a unique harmony of colors, while participants’ children also enjoyed Korea’s Children’s Day by playing yut, a traditional board game, and jegichagi, Korean shuttlecock game, for the first time.

Yeondeungnori started with grande lantern parade led by the festival’s global supporters and small-sized parade by Yeonhui Group. It was full of happy energy with a variety of performances and ended with promise for the next year’s lotus lantern festival (YeonDeungHoe).

Exhibitions of traditional lanterns held in Jogyesa Temple, Bongeunsa Temple, and Cheonggyecheon Stream were also successful. The beautiful lanterns that had shone with the lantern festival will be even brighter in the next year. Next year’s Lotus Lantern Festival is scheduled to take place from April 24 to 26, 2020.

SOURCE Yeon Deung Hoe Preservation Committee