Nearly half a dozen policemen, including a superintendent of police, were injured in a clash between two communities over idol immersion in Bihar’s Gopalganj district. A police sub-inspector died of heart attack immediately after the scuffle, police sources said Wednesday.
The incident took place at Vishnipur village under Sidhwalia police station in Gopalganj district when members of two communities fought over immersion of idols following an earlier dispute.
According to the police, some miscreants set ablaze four tractors and pelted stones at the police.
Police inspector Jaiprakash Paswan collapsed and died of heart attack soon after clash, the police said.
Additional security forces have been sent to the village to maintain law and order, sources said.link
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Free mobile phones to fight Maoists in Jharkhand
Authorities in an insurgency-hit eastern Indian state are distributing free mobile phones to villagers to provide information about Maoist rebels, officials said.
The heads of about 220 villages in Jharkhand have been provided with a mobile phone each and users are provided with a list of police numbers to call as part of the latest strategy to fight Maoist insurgency.
"The idea of distributing mobile sets is to strengthen our network system in remote villages," Sudhir Kumar, police chief of the state's East Singhbhum district, a Maoist hotbed, told. "We are getting a good response."
Maoists, who have been running an almost four-decade-long insurgency, control vast tracts of rural land in about a dozen states in east, central and parts of southern India.
They say they are fighting for the rights of farmers and the poor. The insurgency has claimed thousands of lives and has been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country's gravest internal security threat.
Villagers say the mobile phones are a useful tool in the fight against the Maoists.
"One night we saw a few Maoist rebels roaming around our village. We used our mobile to pass on information," said Antu Hembrom, a village headman.
"Police reacted fast and the rebels were arrested."link
The heads of about 220 villages in Jharkhand have been provided with a mobile phone each and users are provided with a list of police numbers to call as part of the latest strategy to fight Maoist insurgency.
"The idea of distributing mobile sets is to strengthen our network system in remote villages," Sudhir Kumar, police chief of the state's East Singhbhum district, a Maoist hotbed, told. "We are getting a good response."
Maoists, who have been running an almost four-decade-long insurgency, control vast tracts of rural land in about a dozen states in east, central and parts of southern India.
They say they are fighting for the rights of farmers and the poor. The insurgency has claimed thousands of lives and has been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country's gravest internal security threat.
Villagers say the mobile phones are a useful tool in the fight against the Maoists.
"One night we saw a few Maoist rebels roaming around our village. We used our mobile to pass on information," said Antu Hembrom, a village headman.
"Police reacted fast and the rebels were arrested."link
Tuesday 3 February 2009
Sonia to flag off multi-crore rail project in Bihar
Work on the 1,805 km-long Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor project would start next week when Congress President Sonia Gandhi inaugurates it in Bihar’s Rohtas district. Gandhi along with Railway Minister Lalu Prasad will flag off the work on the project on February 10.
Over the last two to three years rail freight traffic has grown by 8 to 11 per cent and is projected to touch 1100 million tonnes by the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan. The Rs 30,000 crore Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project, one of the flagship projects of railways, is envisaged to carry the projected volume of freight traffic. While The Eastern Freight Corridor project aims to link Dankuni in West Bengal with Ludhiana in Punjab, the Western Corridor links Delhi with Mumbai. The traffic on the Eastern Corridor mainly comprises coal for the power plants in the northern region of UP, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and parts of Rajasthan from the Eastern Coal fields, finished steel, food grains, cement, fertilisers, limer stone from Rajasthan, to steel plants in the east and general goods.link
Over the last two to three years rail freight traffic has grown by 8 to 11 per cent and is projected to touch 1100 million tonnes by the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan. The Rs 30,000 crore Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project, one of the flagship projects of railways, is envisaged to carry the projected volume of freight traffic. While The Eastern Freight Corridor project aims to link Dankuni in West Bengal with Ludhiana in Punjab, the Western Corridor links Delhi with Mumbai. The traffic on the Eastern Corridor mainly comprises coal for the power plants in the northern region of UP, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and parts of Rajasthan from the Eastern Coal fields, finished steel, food grains, cement, fertilisers, limer stone from Rajasthan, to steel plants in the east and general goods.link
Court seeks start of construction for medical institute in Patna
The Patna High Court Tuesday asked the central government to invite tenders in February for construction of the Jai Prakash Narayan All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Patna and to start construction by June this year.
A bench of the court gave the order after hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Council for Protection of Public Rights and Welfare.
The Patna high court had last month sought a progress report on the AIIMS in Patna from the central government.
The then Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had laid the foundation stone of the prestigious medical institute at Phulwari Sharif in Bihar on Jan 3, 2004 and Rs.300 crore (Rs.three billion) was allotted for the speedy completion of the project
The proposed AIIMS in Patna was part of the central government project envisaging setting up AIIMS-like institutes in Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Bhubaneswar (Orissa), Jodhpur (Rajasthan) and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand). However, the project is already delayed.
The project was first proposed in 2003 by the then National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and cleared in 2006 by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The new institutions were supposed to come up in three years.
Each institute was to have a 960-bed hospital and provide undergraduate medical education for 100 students per year. Postgraduate and postdoctoral courses are also proposed to be offered.link
A bench of the court gave the order after hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Council for Protection of Public Rights and Welfare.
The Patna high court had last month sought a progress report on the AIIMS in Patna from the central government.
The then Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had laid the foundation stone of the prestigious medical institute at Phulwari Sharif in Bihar on Jan 3, 2004 and Rs.300 crore (Rs.three billion) was allotted for the speedy completion of the project
The proposed AIIMS in Patna was part of the central government project envisaging setting up AIIMS-like institutes in Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Bhubaneswar (Orissa), Jodhpur (Rajasthan) and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand). However, the project is already delayed.
The project was first proposed in 2003 by the then National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and cleared in 2006 by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The new institutions were supposed to come up in three years.
Each institute was to have a 960-bed hospital and provide undergraduate medical education for 100 students per year. Postgraduate and postdoctoral courses are also proposed to be offered.link
Monday 2 February 2009
Maithili language a language of Mithila
Maithili is a language spoken in the eastern part of India, mainly in the Indian state of Bihar and in the eastern Terai region of Nepal. It is an offshoot of the Indo-Aryan languages which are part of the Indo-Iranian, a branch of the Indo-European languages. Linguists consider Maithili to be an Eastern Indic language, and thus a different language from Hindi, which is Central Indic in origin. As per the 2001 census in India alone 12,179,122 people speak in maithili language. While the official data, as per the 2001 census, put it at 12 million only, various organizations have strongly argued that the actual number of Maithili speakers is much more than the official data. In times, Maithili has been considered a "dialect" of both Hindi and Bengali but in 2003 it got the status of an independent language. An active movement was carried out to give the language an official status through its inclusion in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, so that it may be used in education, government, and other official contexts. In 2004, Maithili was given an official status.
Maithili was traditionally written in the Maithili script (also known by the names Tirhuta and Mithilakshar) and Kaithi script. However, in the modern time Devanagari script is most commonly used. An effort is underway to preserve the Maithili script and to develop it for use in digital media by encoding the script in the Unicode standard, for which a proposal, has been submitted recently.
The term Maithili comes from Mithila, which was an independent state in ancient times. Maithili is a separate language, having a large Maithili-speaking community (4.5 crore, or 45 million, people) with a rich literature. The most famous literary figure in Maithili is the poet Vidyapati. He is credited for raising the importance of 'people's language', i.e. Maithili, in the official work of the state by influencing the Maharaja of Darbhanga with the quality of his poetry. The state's official language used to be Sanskrit, which distanced common people from the state and its functions. The name Maithili is also one of the names of Sita, the consort of Rama.
History
It is a fact that scholars in Mithila used Sanskrit for their literary work and Maithili was the language of the common folk (Abahatta). The earliest work in Maithili appears to be Varn Ratnakar by Jyotirishwar Thakur dated about 1224 AD.
The name Maithili is derived from the word Mithila, an ancient kingdom of which King Janaka was the ruler. Maithili is also one of the names of Sita, the wife of King Rama and daughter of King Janaka.
The Medieval age of Maithili appears to be during Karnat Dynasty when the names of the following scholars got prominence: Gangesh, Padmanabh, Chandeshwar, Vireshwar, Vidyapati, Vachaspati, Pakshadhar, Ayachi, Udayan, Shankar etc.
Vidyapati is said to have lived in the period 1350 to 1450. Vidyapati, though a Sanskrit scholar, wrote innumerable poems(songs) relating to Bhakti and Shringar in Maithili. Though equally accepted in Bengal and Mithila, his songs are the soul of Mithila and no celebration is complete without his songs. It will not be an exaggeration to say that his songs have survived in the throats of Maithil women folk. Verses of Vidhyapati are given religious importance in the culture of Mithila.
Literature
Some of the theatrical writings of the medieval age are - Umapati (Parijat Haran), Jyotireeshwar (Dhurt Samagam), Vidyapati (Goraksha Vijay, Mani Manjari), Ramapati (Rukmini Haran), Lal (Gauri Swayambar), Manbodh (Krishna Janma).
Maithili has been preferred by many authors to write humour and satire. Writers like Dr. Hari Mohan Jha took steps to bring about fundamental changes in the centuries old Mithila Culture. His work like Khatar Kaka Ke Tarang decorated modern Maithili Literature.
Maithili has now been listed in VIIIth schedule of the Indian Constitution and thus now it is one of the 22 National Languages of India. Maithali was accepted by Sahitya Academy and since its inclusion has won awards almost every year. A number of academy awards have been won for translation from other languages.
Modern Maithili came into its own after Sir George Abraham Grierson, Irish linguist and civil servant, tirelessly researched Maithili folklore and wrote its grammar.
The type of Maithili spoken depends largely on which part of the state you belong to and in general has 2 broad variants ,one spoken in the north usually referred to as Maithili and the other spoken in eastern part of Bihar and Jharkhand known as Angika from the former state of Angesh, the modern day district of Bhagalpur and adjoining areas.
Maithili was traditionally written in the Maithili script (also known by the names Tirhuta and Mithilakshar) and Kaithi script. However, in the modern time Devanagari script is most commonly used. An effort is underway to preserve the Maithili script and to develop it for use in digital media by encoding the script in the Unicode standard, for which a proposal, has been submitted recently.
The term Maithili comes from Mithila, which was an independent state in ancient times. Maithili is a separate language, having a large Maithili-speaking community (4.5 crore, or 45 million, people) with a rich literature. The most famous literary figure in Maithili is the poet Vidyapati. He is credited for raising the importance of 'people's language', i.e. Maithili, in the official work of the state by influencing the Maharaja of Darbhanga with the quality of his poetry. The state's official language used to be Sanskrit, which distanced common people from the state and its functions. The name Maithili is also one of the names of Sita, the consort of Rama.
History
It is a fact that scholars in Mithila used Sanskrit for their literary work and Maithili was the language of the common folk (Abahatta). The earliest work in Maithili appears to be Varn Ratnakar by Jyotirishwar Thakur dated about 1224 AD.
The name Maithili is derived from the word Mithila, an ancient kingdom of which King Janaka was the ruler. Maithili is also one of the names of Sita, the wife of King Rama and daughter of King Janaka.
The Medieval age of Maithili appears to be during Karnat Dynasty when the names of the following scholars got prominence: Gangesh, Padmanabh, Chandeshwar, Vireshwar, Vidyapati, Vachaspati, Pakshadhar, Ayachi, Udayan, Shankar etc.
Vidyapati is said to have lived in the period 1350 to 1450. Vidyapati, though a Sanskrit scholar, wrote innumerable poems(songs) relating to Bhakti and Shringar in Maithili. Though equally accepted in Bengal and Mithila, his songs are the soul of Mithila and no celebration is complete without his songs. It will not be an exaggeration to say that his songs have survived in the throats of Maithil women folk. Verses of Vidhyapati are given religious importance in the culture of Mithila.
Literature
Some of the theatrical writings of the medieval age are - Umapati (Parijat Haran), Jyotireeshwar (Dhurt Samagam), Vidyapati (Goraksha Vijay, Mani Manjari), Ramapati (Rukmini Haran), Lal (Gauri Swayambar), Manbodh (Krishna Janma).
Maithili has been preferred by many authors to write humour and satire. Writers like Dr. Hari Mohan Jha took steps to bring about fundamental changes in the centuries old Mithila Culture. His work like Khatar Kaka Ke Tarang decorated modern Maithili Literature.
Maithili has now been listed in VIIIth schedule of the Indian Constitution and thus now it is one of the 22 National Languages of India. Maithali was accepted by Sahitya Academy and since its inclusion has won awards almost every year. A number of academy awards have been won for translation from other languages.
Modern Maithili came into its own after Sir George Abraham Grierson, Irish linguist and civil servant, tirelessly researched Maithili folklore and wrote its grammar.
The type of Maithili spoken depends largely on which part of the state you belong to and in general has 2 broad variants ,one spoken in the north usually referred to as Maithili and the other spoken in eastern part of Bihar and Jharkhand known as Angika from the former state of Angesh, the modern day district of Bhagalpur and adjoining areas.
Sunday 1 February 2009
14-day trade fair being organized from Feb 12
National Industrial and Consumer Exhibition (NICE) is organizing a 14-day trade fair in Patna with a view to presenting a wide range of products from across the country to its consumers and also promote the products made by local entrepreneurs.
The trade fair christened Expo 2009 is slated to start from February 12 at Patliputra Maidan in western Patna. NICE has collaborated with the Bihar Mahila Udyog Sangh. The organizers had been trying for either Gandhi Maidan or Miller School ground for the venue, it could not materialise, as a result of which it might inconvenience the visitors, they felt.
"Earlier, we had organized two such Expos at Miller School ground in 2007 and 2008. It proved to be a grand success," said NICE managing director Shabbir Ahmed, adding: "The trade fairs always help in boosting the image of the state where they are organized, because a large number of entrepreneurs exhibit their products for sale and appreciation."
Bihar Mahila Udyog Sangh president Pushpa Chopra said that Miller School ground would have been the ideal venue for the exhibition that has been planned. "We only hope that the government would take into consideration the pleas for a better ground," she said. On the other hand, NICE chief executive officer (CEO) Rishi Raj said that trade fairs have been helping in promoting even products made in Bihar, which, in turn, helps in providing right platform to them, apart from adding to their income through sale.
The products on display at the Expo 2009 would be from such states as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Punjab, among others. Given the appreciable response, 250 stalls would be erected, while there would be provision to enjoy culinary tastes. There will be special Bihar Pavilion at the fair offering items from the state's small and cottage industries, as well as at domestic levels through self-employment.
Adequate care is being taken to attract visitors by organizing cultural and other programmes, as well as competitive programmes and lottery. Utmost attention has been paid to promote crafts and art from Bihar, which would be coupled with fashion products made locally, said Raj. Among those who also gave their ideas on the significance of the fair was local trade fair organizer and Sangh secretary Usha Jha.link
The trade fair christened Expo 2009 is slated to start from February 12 at Patliputra Maidan in western Patna. NICE has collaborated with the Bihar Mahila Udyog Sangh. The organizers had been trying for either Gandhi Maidan or Miller School ground for the venue, it could not materialise, as a result of which it might inconvenience the visitors, they felt.
"Earlier, we had organized two such Expos at Miller School ground in 2007 and 2008. It proved to be a grand success," said NICE managing director Shabbir Ahmed, adding: "The trade fairs always help in boosting the image of the state where they are organized, because a large number of entrepreneurs exhibit their products for sale and appreciation."
Bihar Mahila Udyog Sangh president Pushpa Chopra said that Miller School ground would have been the ideal venue for the exhibition that has been planned. "We only hope that the government would take into consideration the pleas for a better ground," she said. On the other hand, NICE chief executive officer (CEO) Rishi Raj said that trade fairs have been helping in promoting even products made in Bihar, which, in turn, helps in providing right platform to them, apart from adding to their income through sale.
The products on display at the Expo 2009 would be from such states as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Punjab, among others. Given the appreciable response, 250 stalls would be erected, while there would be provision to enjoy culinary tastes. There will be special Bihar Pavilion at the fair offering items from the state's small and cottage industries, as well as at domestic levels through self-employment.
Adequate care is being taken to attract visitors by organizing cultural and other programmes, as well as competitive programmes and lottery. Utmost attention has been paid to promote crafts and art from Bihar, which would be coupled with fashion products made locally, said Raj. Among those who also gave their ideas on the significance of the fair was local trade fair organizer and Sangh secretary Usha Jha.link
Girls lynch Dalit widow in Bihar
A Dalit widow was beaten to death by five girls in a Bihar town after she objected to their cutting grass in her field, police said Saturday.
Shobha Devi, in her 50s, a resident of Ram Tola in Saharsa town, 225 km from here, was lynched by the girls of a neighbouring village.
The victim warned the girls against cutting grass along with spinach from her field. Angered over this, the girls beat her with bamboo sticks and slippers.
“She fell unconscious and died during treatment,” a police officer said.
A case has been registered against the five girls, who are absconding. link
Shobha Devi, in her 50s, a resident of Ram Tola in Saharsa town, 225 km from here, was lynched by the girls of a neighbouring village.
The victim warned the girls against cutting grass along with spinach from her field. Angered over this, the girls beat her with bamboo sticks and slippers.
“She fell unconscious and died during treatment,” a police officer said.
A case has been registered against the five girls, who are absconding. link
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