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
Showing posts with label Nalanda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nalanda. Show all posts
Thursday 3 December 2009
Wednesday 7 October 2009
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
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
Tuesday 1 September 2009
Tourist flow goes up in Bihar
The initiatives taken by Bihar government to boost the sagging tourism sector has begun to pay dividends as the number of foreign tourists in the state has gone up by nearly six times in three years.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Bihar has gone up from 63,321 in 2005-06 to 3,56,446 in 2008-09, which was nearly six times, state's tourism minister Ram Pravesh Rai said.
Rai said steady and healthy growth in the number of foreign and domestic tourists was the result of state's NDA government's concerted efforts to create a conducive environment and its commitment to provide better security to them.
"People (tourists) are now feeling safe and secured in the NDA regime and that's why they are visiting Bihar in big numbers", Rai said.
The number of foreigners visited the state in 2005-06 was 63,321 which rose to 94,446 in 2006-07. Similarly, it went up to 1,77,362 in 2007-08 and was almost doubled in the very next year to touch 3,56,446 foreigners in 2008-09. More than 1.14 lakh foreigners have visited till the end of April in the current fiscal.
Similarly, there has been steady rise in the domestic tourists also, except in 2007-08 when it showed a little decline. The number of domestic tourists, which was 86.87 lakh in 2005-06, was hovering over one crore in subsequent years and touched its all time high to 1.21 crore in 2008-09.
Realising the huge potential of tourism in Bihar, which was home to a number of Buddhist, Jain and Sikh shrines, the NDA government increased budgetary allocation to tourism department after coming to power in November, 2005.
The government made a substantial allocation from a meagre Rs 7.43 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 29.78 crore in the current financial year (2009-10) which was almost a four-time raise, the minister said.
Rai said the department has formulated a tourism policy to provide impetus to the sector which has also been accorded the status of industry by the state government.
With a view to making travel more convenient for all tourists including foreigners, steps were underway for broadening and strengthening roads linking to Buddhist, Jain, Sikh religious circuits, official sources said.
Talks were also on with several aviation companies for increasing the frequency of international flights connecting Bodh Gaya airport.
To woo the foreigners, the government has decided to build a three and five star rated hotels at tourist spots such as Patna, Rajgir and Bodh Gaya on public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Tourism Police Force would be deployed at Gaya, Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Vaishali in the first phase and subsequently the force would be stationed at all the tourist sites.
The government was committed to develop tourist sites at Vaishali, Jehanabad, Maner, Kesariya, Lauria, Nandangarh, to attract more tourists, the minister said.
The government has plans to launch courses in travel and tourism, hospitality, hotel management, catering guide, tour and travel operator with assistance from Human Resources Development department to promote greater expertise for improved management of the tourism sector. link
The number of foreign tourists visiting Bihar has gone up from 63,321 in 2005-06 to 3,56,446 in 2008-09, which was nearly six times, state's tourism minister Ram Pravesh Rai said.
Rai said steady and healthy growth in the number of foreign and domestic tourists was the result of state's NDA government's concerted efforts to create a conducive environment and its commitment to provide better security to them.
"People (tourists) are now feeling safe and secured in the NDA regime and that's why they are visiting Bihar in big numbers", Rai said.
The number of foreigners visited the state in 2005-06 was 63,321 which rose to 94,446 in 2006-07. Similarly, it went up to 1,77,362 in 2007-08 and was almost doubled in the very next year to touch 3,56,446 foreigners in 2008-09. More than 1.14 lakh foreigners have visited till the end of April in the current fiscal.
Similarly, there has been steady rise in the domestic tourists also, except in 2007-08 when it showed a little decline. The number of domestic tourists, which was 86.87 lakh in 2005-06, was hovering over one crore in subsequent years and touched its all time high to 1.21 crore in 2008-09.
Realising the huge potential of tourism in Bihar, which was home to a number of Buddhist, Jain and Sikh shrines, the NDA government increased budgetary allocation to tourism department after coming to power in November, 2005.
The government made a substantial allocation from a meagre Rs 7.43 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 29.78 crore in the current financial year (2009-10) which was almost a four-time raise, the minister said.
Rai said the department has formulated a tourism policy to provide impetus to the sector which has also been accorded the status of industry by the state government.
With a view to making travel more convenient for all tourists including foreigners, steps were underway for broadening and strengthening roads linking to Buddhist, Jain, Sikh religious circuits, official sources said.
Talks were also on with several aviation companies for increasing the frequency of international flights connecting Bodh Gaya airport.
To woo the foreigners, the government has decided to build a three and five star rated hotels at tourist spots such as Patna, Rajgir and Bodh Gaya on public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Tourism Police Force would be deployed at Gaya, Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Vaishali in the first phase and subsequently the force would be stationed at all the tourist sites.
The government was committed to develop tourist sites at Vaishali, Jehanabad, Maner, Kesariya, Lauria, Nandangarh, to attract more tourists, the minister said.
The government has plans to launch courses in travel and tourism, hospitality, hotel management, catering guide, tour and travel operator with assistance from Human Resources Development department to promote greater expertise for improved management of the tourism sector. link
Sunday 16 August 2009
Growth and development cannot overlook hungry stomachs: Amartya Sen
Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen while speaking at a Right to Food campaign recently said, "India's stride towards development, prosperity and economic growth cannot happen with a major chunk of the children (around 40%) being malnourished or born underweight."
Appreciating the government for bringing about the Food Security Act, he said that improper distribution of food and malnourishment were injustice done onto the citizens of the country.
Amartya narrated his experience of his stay in regions like Nalanda, Gaya, Rajgir and Patna in Bihar. He could see the change in the administration even in the backward areas. According to him, India had a reason to be optimistic about, as a wider cross-section of people had access to food and that illustrated the change an able leadership can bring about.
The Right to Food Act was a pre election promise of the Congress government. It later proposed National Food Security Bill and mentioned the same in the Budget speech under which poor families would get 25 kg of rice/wheat per month at Rs 3 per kg.
The magnitude of malnourishment, especially in woman, mothers, children and babies at birth, in India was tremendous.
As reported by the Sunday Tribune, Amartya Sen said that India had beaten African nations in child malnourishment. Malnourishment incapacitates the mind and debilitates the body. It is a situation of manifest injustice and we have the means to remove it but there is a certain level of smugness about India's achievements. He said, one must recognise that poverty, lack of food, illnesses and state of education in India were closely linked and were of the same magnitude."
The Indian distribution system though has achieved a level, still needed to be strengthened and effective ways of distribution needed to be designed.
There was a general perception that if the supply of food has been ensured, then the poor do not need the employment guarantee scheme. But the way of getting to all is through diverse necessities.
Commenting on the mid-day meal scheme, Sen said that India had finally achieved what Europe achieved 200 years earlier. Europe had introduced the scheme in the 19th century.
Kids belonging to the wealthier families complain that they find it uncomfortable having food with the kids belonging to the poor families and prefer eating their Tiffin. Media is obsessed with the richer kids and consequently the quality of food gets more weight-age than the fact that many are able to fill their hungry stomachs.
Sen asserted that we have to stand by the mid-day meal scheme so that poorest schools do not lose the grants and benefits they have." Sen, who teaches at Harvard University in US, concluded, "It was easier to teach children in a full stomach than hungry children who could not concentrate and had short attention spans." The discussion was hosted by an umbrella of non-profit groups campaigning for the right to food.link
Appreciating the government for bringing about the Food Security Act, he said that improper distribution of food and malnourishment were injustice done onto the citizens of the country.
Amartya narrated his experience of his stay in regions like Nalanda, Gaya, Rajgir and Patna in Bihar. He could see the change in the administration even in the backward areas. According to him, India had a reason to be optimistic about, as a wider cross-section of people had access to food and that illustrated the change an able leadership can bring about.
The Right to Food Act was a pre election promise of the Congress government. It later proposed National Food Security Bill and mentioned the same in the Budget speech under which poor families would get 25 kg of rice/wheat per month at Rs 3 per kg.
The magnitude of malnourishment, especially in woman, mothers, children and babies at birth, in India was tremendous.
As reported by the Sunday Tribune, Amartya Sen said that India had beaten African nations in child malnourishment. Malnourishment incapacitates the mind and debilitates the body. It is a situation of manifest injustice and we have the means to remove it but there is a certain level of smugness about India's achievements. He said, one must recognise that poverty, lack of food, illnesses and state of education in India were closely linked and were of the same magnitude."
The Indian distribution system though has achieved a level, still needed to be strengthened and effective ways of distribution needed to be designed.
There was a general perception that if the supply of food has been ensured, then the poor do not need the employment guarantee scheme. But the way of getting to all is through diverse necessities.
Commenting on the mid-day meal scheme, Sen said that India had finally achieved what Europe achieved 200 years earlier. Europe had introduced the scheme in the 19th century.
Kids belonging to the wealthier families complain that they find it uncomfortable having food with the kids belonging to the poor families and prefer eating their Tiffin. Media is obsessed with the richer kids and consequently the quality of food gets more weight-age than the fact that many are able to fill their hungry stomachs.
Sen asserted that we have to stand by the mid-day meal scheme so that poorest schools do not lose the grants and benefits they have." Sen, who teaches at Harvard University in US, concluded, "It was easier to teach children in a full stomach than hungry children who could not concentrate and had short attention spans." The discussion was hosted by an umbrella of non-profit groups campaigning for the right to food.link
Saturday 11 July 2009
Daughters are no longer a burden in Bihar
The government of Bihar has launched the Mukhyamantri Kanya Vivah Yojna scheme to help the poor fathers with financial aid to married off their daughters well. This decision of the state government has brought a glow into the eyes of the poor parents. The government scheme has put an end to the bad days of poor fathers.
Under the scheme, the state government will provide a financial help of Rs 5,000 for a girl’s marriage to the families whose annual income is below Rs 60,000.
In the financial year 2008-09, the state government under the scheme has distributed around Rs 40 million to more than 78 thousand poor families.
Government will only provide the money for the girls who are married off at their standard age ie, 18 years.
Poor families who married off their daughters before the age of 18 years will not receive this government assistance.
This scheme will not only provide financial support to the girls of poor families in getting married, but will also help in getting rid of the social stigmas like child marriage and dowry.
In Bihar, family planning survey conducted so far revealed that 51.5 per cent of the girls are married off and are sent to their in-laws before their standard age. In Jahanabad, West Chanparn, Nalanda, Supaul, Madhubani, Vaishali, Jamui district, more than 60 per cent of the girls are married of before the age of 18 years. Twenty two districts of the state suffer from the same condition.link
Under the scheme, the state government will provide a financial help of Rs 5,000 for a girl’s marriage to the families whose annual income is below Rs 60,000.
In the financial year 2008-09, the state government under the scheme has distributed around Rs 40 million to more than 78 thousand poor families.
Government will only provide the money for the girls who are married off at their standard age ie, 18 years.
Poor families who married off their daughters before the age of 18 years will not receive this government assistance.
This scheme will not only provide financial support to the girls of poor families in getting married, but will also help in getting rid of the social stigmas like child marriage and dowry.
In Bihar, family planning survey conducted so far revealed that 51.5 per cent of the girls are married off and are sent to their in-laws before their standard age. In Jahanabad, West Chanparn, Nalanda, Supaul, Madhubani, Vaishali, Jamui district, more than 60 per cent of the girls are married of before the age of 18 years. Twenty two districts of the state suffer from the same condition.link
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