Bihar exceeds procurement of foodgrains target by Jan end

The Bihar government has exceeded the target set up for procurement of foodgrains from farmers by by purchasing 3.43 lakh tonnes of grains till January end.

The government had set a target to purchase 3 lakh tonne of grains during the period.

A total of 2.75 lakh tonnes of grains was procured by the government by January end in 2011-12 fiscal, state Food Minister Shyam Rajak said.

The Nitish Kumar government has set a target to procure 30 lakh tonne of foodgrains by April this year.

The process of purchase of produce from the farmers have picked up with the easing of winter when grains are not in good condition due to moisture.

"We will achieve the procurement target within time," Rajak said.

The official figures reveal that procurement by the end of January was maximum in Magadh region comprising Gaya, Jehanabad, Arwal, Nawada and Aurangabad with lifting of 68,928 tonne of grains against the target of 42,800 tonne.

The minister said as part of efforts to augment storage capacity for foodgrains the state government has sanctioned creation of 500 tonne capacity godown in all the blocks of the state.

A total of 423 godowns would be established across the state of which 300 have already been achieved, he said.

Rajak said the department was taking effective steps for strengthening distribution of subsidised foodgrains through 42,000 ration shops in the state.

To streamline the PDS functioning, the government has ordered observation of "Foodgrains diwas (day)" across the state during last three days of every month.

Though the Union government is providing ration to 65 lakh BPL and APL beneficiaries in Bihar, the state government is providing subsidised ration to 80 lakh more people from its own kitty as according to its count, on the basis of Saxena committee and Tendulkar committee, there are 1.45 crore eligible people for subsidised ration in the state.

Bihar government may be hard put to explain starvation deaths

The Bihar government is likely to face trouble over a lawsuit alleging at least 100 people have died of hunger in the state in the last three years, as the Patna High Court has directed the petitioner to take it up with the state human rights commission.

Social activist Ramashray Singh, who had filed the public interest litigation (PIL), said he would approach the commission this week. Officials say the state government may not be in a position to answer all the questions asked by the commission.

An official appointed by the Supreme Court had said in October that at least 100 people have died of hunger in the past three years in Bihar. But the state government dismissed the claim.

"It is a hard fact that 100 people died of hunger in Bihar in the last three years due to the failure of food- and work-related government schemes," said Rupesh, state adviser to the commissioner of the Supreme Court to monitor the implementation of food-related schemes of the Bihar government.

Rupesh said he had submitted a report on hunger deaths in Bihar to the state government in August and another in October. The reports were also sent to the commissioner of Supreme Court N.C. Saxena.

Rupesh said the reports not only confirm the deaths due to hunger but "reveal the pathetic situation regarding implementation of food and social security schemes in Bihar".

These schemes include the Integrated Child Development Scheme, the Midday Meal Scheme, the public distribution system, the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the National Maternity Benefit Scheme, the National Social Assistance Programme, the National Family Benefit Scheme and the Annapurna Yojana.

"Apart from major leakages and corruption, the coverage of government food schemes is so meagre that they leave huge holes in the social security net through which large numbers of most destitute women and men, girls and boys slip into starvation and hunger," said Rupesh.

The reports warned that the situation can worsen "if all possible action is not taken before it becomes uncontrollable".

Bihar has been hit very badly by drought and flood. As many as 26 districts are drought-affected. Nearly 40 percent of Bihar's 83 million people live below the poverty line, the highest in India, according to a World Bank report.

Rupesh said researchers led by him visited Begusarai, Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Jehanabad, Nalanda and Patna between June and August. These are the districts where starvation deaths have been reported by the media in the last two-three years.

Rupesh said that in Ratubigha village in Jehanabad district and Jhamawara village in Nalanda district, the block development officer (BDO) did not feel it necessary to send the body for postmortem or get a medical report after alleged starvation death.

In Tetua Tola Kharuna village in Gaya district, Murti Devi in her late 40s died Oct 10. Although the local administration denied that she died of hunger, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has ordered a probe.

In Ratubigha village in Jehanabad district, about 50 km from here, three starvation deaths took place over four days in August, Rupesh said.

Ajay Dome, the son of one of the victims, Chalitar, claimed that his father went without food for eight days before he died. Rupesh's report points out that Ajay and his wife Renu Kumari were not on the list of people below the poverty line, so they did not get subsidised food. Chalitar' unemployed son said the family was fighting for survival.link

Magadh University 2009 PG Results

Magadh University, Bihar has declared Under Graduate (UG) and Post Graduate (PG) Results For Academic Year 2009.

Magadh University is today one of the largest universities of Bihar and India. The University has developed horizontally and vertically having 24 post Graduate Departments, 44 Constituent and 85 affiliated Colleges, altogether with above 2 lakh students and 2 thousand teachers. Prof. B.N.Pandey, an academician of excellence is the Vice – Chancellor. The university expands over an area comprising of Gaya, Jehanabad, Patna, Nalanda, Nawada and Aurangabad districts. The areas of Bhojpur, Buxar and Rohtas and Kaimur districts have been separated under a new University – Veer Kunwar Singh University, with its headquarters at Ara in October 1992. The headquarters of this university is established at Gaya, about 2.5 Km away from the world famed heritage site of Mahabodhi Mahavihara or the Great Temple.

The Gaya – Dobhi National Highway No. 83 passes by and gives it passage to east – west connections with other urban centres of the country. It is 16 Km from Gaya, linked with Railways communication getting linkages with Delhi – Kolkata and also from Patna – the Capital city of the state. The recently built up International Airport will further facilitate its academic importance to countries like Thailand, Srilanka, Myanmar, Colombia, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, China, Singapore and others. Naturally, the University is fortunate to have this background to remain developing in coming days.

Results on Magadh University Website – http://magadhuniversity.ac.in

Bihar floods: 23 dead, 10 lakh homeless

In Bihar, nature is at its ironic best. The state is split - there is severe drought in one part and now, floods in another. Already, 23 people have died in the Bihar floods and 10 lakh have been displaced.

In north Bihar, when it finally started raining, farmers were a relieved lot. But 10 days later, the rain hasn't stopped and the fear of the drought has been washed away by the fear of floods.

Katihar is the worst affected. The Mahananda river is in spate - its embankment broken, ruin all around. The river flowed into 70 villages and 60,000 people have lost their homes.

Engineers are now inspecting the embankment breach on a boat. Rajeshwar Dayal, Chief Engineer, Public Works Department says: ''We are finding it difficult to source boulders required for the repair work . Also, not many labourers are available. We are trying to plug the breach as soon as we can.''

The villagers are angry. Ranjit Kumar says: ''This is a drama, a waste of government money. All this repair will come undone soon. Why do they build weak embankments in the first place?''

In Madhubani and nearby Darbhanga people have been washed away by flood waters. With them, the paddy and maize in the fields and thousands of homes are a gone.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar says: ''We will survey the losses and compensate all farmers. I have asked my officers to work overtime on this.''

Meanwhile, other parts of the state like Jehanabad, Aurangabad, Gaya, Rohtas, Bhojpur, Buxar, Vaishali, Saran, Sivan Gopalganj, Shekhpura and Nawada are still reeling under drought.link

Naxal-affected districts in Bihar to have buildings for cops

The Bihar government has sanctioned Rs 19.93 crore under police modernisation scheme for construction of buildings for the police in about half-a-dozen naxal-hit distrits.

The government released the amount for constructing buildings to accommodate around 300 police officials posted in naxalite-affected districts of Nawada, Jamui, Jehanabad, Arwal, Aurangabad and Bhabua, official sources said.

The amount was released eight days after the naxalites attacked the Mahuliatand village on February nine in Bihar&aposs Nawada district killing 10 policemen and looting their firearms.

Additional Director General of Police Neelmani told that as per the plan, 184 and 108 lower grade and upper subordinate quarters under the separate family accommodation scheme would be constructed by the Bihar State Police Building Construction Corporation.

It may be recalled that Bihar Police Association (BPA) and Bihar Policemen&aposs Association (BPMA) had drawn the attention of the government on umpteen occasions towards the lack of quarters for the policemen posted in the naxalite affected districts.link

Paswan makes unilateral announcemnt on Bihar candidates

In what could be considered as a jolt to the Congress-led UPA, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday announced candidates for 50% of the total Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

Paswan announced candidates for 20 of the 40 LS seats in Bihar that include Araria, Purnea, Supaul, Khagaria, Hajipur, Jehanabad, Begusarai, Sheohar, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Ujiyarpur, Bettiah, Bagha, Motihari, Nawada, Gaya, Ara and Patliputra.

Though Paswan's announcement ahead of any seat sharing talks within the UPA allies in Bihar is seen as his bargaining tactic with the Congress to corner prized seats, the move could also be interpreted as his open defiance on accommodating RJD, much like the last time in 2005.

Speaking to a news agency in the Capital on Monday, Paswan said: "Party leaders in the state are in favour of contesting the elections alone." He added that no concrete proposal for seat sharing had, however, come to his party from either the Congress or the RJD.

Putting the RJD on the same pedestal as the ruling NDA in Bihar, a party leader was quoted as saying, "People have already seen RJD's Lalu Prasad and JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar and are now looking for a change."

Hinting at the fact that he may prefer to go it alone at the hustings, Paswan said, "The RJD's mass base among Muslims and Yadavs has eroded." link