Patna police to go hi-tech

With Spurt in crime, the city police in Patna, is all set to go hi-tech, thanks to initiative taken by police head quarters in this regard. Police Patrol cars will now carry GPS. Only a few weeks ago, police officers from IG to Dy SP and many SHO of the state capital were reshuffled after a bizarre incident, in which one girl was stripped in a public place on a busy exhibition road round. It earned lot of criticism for the police and national media, both electronic and print, got flooded with news related to police apathy and non-competence.

The young IPS Manu Maharaj was made city SP and crackdown has been unleashed on the criminals bring the morale of criminals down to a considerable level. Now herculean task with the top cop of the city is to keep constant watch on the movement of patrol cars, which is said to be 100 odd in number, so that the police personnel performs up to the expectations. IG PN Roy, who is also an expert in disaster management and has undergone trainings in countries like USA has chalked out plans to install Global Positioning System (GPS) on all the patrolling cars of the city in first phase.

It has been seen in the recent times that Police patrol cars remained conspicuously absent from the site of crime and could only be located when the criminals left the place of occurrence (PO). The arrangement has already been done that at least one police patrol should touch one particular place within 10-15 minutes. But due to absence of any device, the police parties on the patrol cars could easily lie about their locations at the time of commitment of crimes. Now with the installation of GPS, this problem can be checked and no police patrol can lie about its location. The SP or any other senior police official can locate the particular police parties.

If this experiment gets successfully implemented, it will certainly enhance the mobility of the police patrol parties and also help, in a better way, to keep watch on the movement of police patrol cars. At present the city police use primitive method of wireless as the sole method of communication which is far from satisfaction. There are several electronic devices easily available in the market which can intercept and leak the messages. Naxalites are using this methodology on large scale and thus they easily track the movement of police force. The leakage of wireless messages are said to be major cause of attacks on police by Naxalites.

The use of GPS will certainly improve the efficiency and communication network of the police, provided it is implemented religiously. While Nitish Kumar, the CM, has been relentlessly trying to improve the police force to bring the house in order, there are large numbers of elements in the police department itself who leave no stone unturned to thwart the reform process. The official website of the police department still carries the name of DN Gautam as DGP, whereas he has retired few weeks ago. Such is the apathy and irresponsibility of the senior police officers. Hopefully this innovation would go un-sabotaged and is implemented in letter and spirit. If it happens so will improve efficiency of the city police and help improve law and order, bring down crime rate and un-choke the traffic of the city.link

Lalu wants janata hotels for Bihar's poor

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Thursday asked the Bihar government to open "janata hotels" in rural areas to provide cheap food to poor people in view of the drought.

Last week, 26 of the state's 38 districts were declared drought-hit. Bihar has recorded a 38 percent rainfall deficit so far this monsoon season.

"The government should initiate a move to provide lunch and dinner at Rs.2 for the poor who are likely to be hit hard by the drought," Lalu Prasad said on Thursday.

The former railway minister also asked middle class and affluent people to restrict their intake of food to save food grains.

"We should take care to consume less to save food grains," he said, adding that as per official records India has a foodstock buffer for just 13 months.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for an aid package of Rs.23,071 crore to meet the financial burden caused by the "unprecedented drought".

A 11-member central team Wednesday embarked on a three-day visit to the drought-hit districts.

The drought has affected about 1.26 crore families in 26 districts with paddy coverage showing an overall shortfall of 57 percent. link

Konwar sworn in as Bihar governor

Former Assam minister Debananda Konwar was on Monday sworn in as the governor of Bihar. Patna High Court's acting Chief Justice Shiva Kirti Singh administered the oath of office and secrecy to Konwar at a simple function at Rajbhavan's Darbar Hall. Konwar, 63, whose appointment as the state governor was notified by the Rashtrapati Bhavan on June 24, succeeds R L Bhatia whose tenure ended last week.

A four-time MLA and a former finance minister in the Tarun Gogoi-led ministry of Assam, Konwar took oath in Hindi. Chief minister Nitish Kumar, Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Choudahry, Legislative Council acting chairman Arun Kumar, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, several ministers and top bureaucrats attended the swearing-in ceremony. Several relatives and friends of Konwar had also arrived from Assam for the occasion. Some Congress leaders were also present to greet him.

Later, the new governor and his wife joined Nitish and other dignitaries for high tea. Nitish said the appointment of Konwar was a good sign for better relations between Assam and Bihar. "The governor is now a Bihari and he will certainly be of great help in maintaining cordial relations between the two states," he said wishing Konwar success.

Four killed as overbridge collapses in Muzaffarpur

Four persons were killed and three others seriously injured when portion of an underconstruction overbridge collapsed near Amgola in Muzaffarpur town on Monday, triggering angry protests by locals who blocked the railway tracks near here for several hours.

One of the pillars of the overbridge built over rail tracks suddenly gave in and those passing by on two-wheelers and bicycles got trapped under chunks of concrete, police said.

While locals brought out four bodies from the debris, three were rescued and taken to a hospital in serious condition.

Train movement on the Muzaffarpur section was affected for several hours as angry locals blocked the underneath railway tracks at Amgola for several hours demanding adequate compensation to the families of the victims.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered a magisterial inquiry into the collapse of the overbridge.

The chief minister also announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs one lakh to the dependents of each of the deceased, official sources said.link

Nitish Kumar ‘Politician of the Year’

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been named the ‘CNN-IBN Politician of the Year-2008′.

According to a release by the channel, Nitish Kumar faced strong competition from his Delhi counterpart Sheila Dikshit, but eventually won the award ‘for turning around one of the most under-developed states in India and showing that ultimately, every adversity crumbles in the face of vision, belief and resolve’.

The winners in other categories include Olympic shooting champion Abhinav Bindra for sports and Aamir Khan for entertainment.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief G. Madhavan Nair and the team behind India’s moon mission Chandrayaan have won awards in the public service category, while Aditya Puri of HDFC Bank topped in the business category. link

The ‘Global Indian’ of the year went to A.R. Rahman ‘for his music in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and compositions for hits like ‘Ghajini’, ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ and ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na”.

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