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.

Wives of criminal-turned-politicians trailing in Bihar

Four prominent criminal-turned-politicians of Bihar were barred from this Lok Sabha contest by courts. They put up their wives instead. Counting trends Saturday showed all four wives were trailing.

Jailed RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin's wife Heena Sahab, contesting from Siwan constituency as an RJD candidate, was trailing behind independent candidate Om Prakash Yadav.

Ranjeeta Ranjan, the wife of Pappu Yadav, was trailing behind Janata Dal-United (JD-U)'s Vishwa Mohan Kumar in Supaul. A sitting MP from Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Ranjeeta Ranjan had switched parties before polls and joined the Congress, which fielded her from Supaul.

Veena Devi, wife of LJP MP Surajbhan Singh, was trailing behind the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Bhola Singh in Nawada constituency.

Lovely Anand, the wife of former JD-U MP Anand Mohan and a former MP herself, was trailing behind BJP's Rama Devi in Sheohar constituency where she was the Congress candidate.

All the four husbands had been disallowed by the courts from contesting, with the pleas for suspension of their conviction in criminal cases rejected by the courts. All four were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in different cases.

The four are among a dozen politicians, including MPs and legislators, who have been convicted and sentenced by fast track courts in Bihar after 2005, thus becoming ineligible to contest. Anyone convicted for a crime and sentenced to more than a two-year-long jail term cannot fight elections until six years after the completion of his sentence.link

60 expelled on first day of +2 exams in Bihar

At least 60 examinees were on Monday expelled for using unfair means on the first day of plus two examinations, being conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB).

According to the BSEB control room, eight examinees were expelled at Munger, five at Bhagalpur, four at Ara, three at Patna, 11 at Muzaffarpur, eight at Siwan, one at Samastipur, 17 at Saharsa, two at Nawada and one examinee was expelled at Sheohar.

Altogether 5,82,309 examinees are appearing at the Intermediate examinations at 459 examination centres across the state. Compared to last year, 72,000 more examinees are appearing at the examination this year.

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