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Wednesday 15 July 2009

Bihar to take over road construction work under PMGSY

Central agencies engaged in the road construction work under the PM Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) have often faced criticism for their shoddy performance resulting in tardy and poor quality work. The state government has now asked them to hand over those roads which could not be completed for want of contractors.

Minister of rural works department Brishen Patel acknowledged the fact that a large number roads under PMGSY could not be completed ostensibly because contractors were not coming forward to file tenders.

The minister, who was replying to a short notice question of Ram Dev Verma (CPM), informed the Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday about the problems faced by central agencies in road construction.

"As per central government guidelines , there is no provision for revision in estimate and price adjustment in the road construction work. This is why contractors were not willing to file tenders floated by the central agencies. But we have now asked them to hand over the work to us," the minister said, adding the state government had a provision of Rs 653 crore from its kitty to meet additional cost.

The minister admitted that central agencies had accepted the proposal to hand over the work to state agencies which will be inviting tenders for ensuring speedy completion of work."Since the government was willing to revise the cost estimate, the state agencies will not face any problem in engaging the contractors," the minister said.

The minister informed the House that about 30000 km road was to be constructed under PMGSY and both central and state agencies were involved in construction work. "But construction work of the central agencies were of poor quality. More importantly, the work was executed in a tardy manner. So we requested the Centre to allow us to complete the work by our own agencies," the minister said. link

Bihar gets Rs63.50 crore for police modernisation

The Bihar government today received Rs63.50 crore from the Centre for police modernisation in past four successive financial years. In reply to a question by RJD's Nawal Kishore Yadav, Water Resources Development minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav told the state Legislative Council on behalf of the government that the state received Rs11.50 crore in 2005-06, Rs51 lakh in 2006-07, Rs15 crore in 2007-08 and Rs36.49 crore in 2008-09 for police modernisation.

The minister said that the state government has utilised the funds to purchase 8932 rifles, 185 LMGs, 14 Mortars, 168 carbines, 946 pistols, 572 grenade rifles and various types of 17,88,860 cartridges and 960 bomb mortars to modernise its police force. The purchased arms and ammunitions have been distributed amongst the policemen, Yadav said. link

21st Century's Best Solar Eclipse View in Taregna

People in Taregna, which is just 35 km from Patna, are gearing up for a rare sight on July 22. They will witness the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century on July 22. A large number of astrophysicists, solar scientists and astronomers from across the country, will gather in Taregna to witness the rare solar eclipse.

Among the top scientists, who will visit Taregna on July 22, are NASA's solar scientist Sandeep Das Gupta, his wife Ratnashri, who is the Director of the Nehru Planetarium and some scientists from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)-Mumbai.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is also expected to visit Taregna to view the solar eclipse. Renowned astronomer Amitabh Pandey will accompany him. Indira Gandhi Planetarium, Patna has joined hands with a Delhi-based SPACE to help the scientists cover the entire solar eclipse event.

Special arrangements are being made in Patna for the mass viweing of the solar eclipse. The live telecast of the event will be jointly shown by DDK-Bhopal, Patna and Dibrugarh.link

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Asian Art Museum: Mithila Women painters of India

The Frey Norris Gallery has been featuring the work of Shalinee Kumari, a contemporary Indian woman artist painting in the style commonly referred to as “Mithila” or “Madhubani” painting. Mithila is a region in Bihar, in India. Madhubani is the name of a town in this region

Traditionally (and still today), these graphically engaging paintings were done by women as mural art decorating the walls of their homes, often marking an important celebrations, a wedding or the birth of a child, for example, or religious themes. The show at the Frey Norris Gallery shows the transformation of this painting style into a contemporary form of expression on paper and canvas that is now sold to art collectors. While stylistically linked to traditional forms, some Mithila artists are exploring a wider range of issues.

The Asian Art Museum also has a collection of Mithila paintings some of which are currently on view on the 3rd floor. This installation includes a male painter in this genre, who is among those encouraged by the economic success of the women artists to enter this once purely local, folk art tradition. The museum installation of Mithila paintings closes after Sunday, July 26 and conservation policy states that these light sensitive works go into dark storage to rest for five years so that they may retain their brilliant colors for generations to come.link

Metro's accident has not deterred Lattipur youths from dreaming of work in Metro

Pappu Yadav had planted a cactus in a tin pot on the terrace of his house here before he set out for Delhi seven months ago to join work. The 25-year-old had also promised his father he would make the family house a pucca structure when he next visits home, in Lattipur village of Bhagalpur district.

Two days after he became one of the three fatal victims from Lattipur in Sunday’s accident at Delhi Metro’s construction site in South Delhi, the family is still looking at the cactus and the half-built house to find strength and come to terms with reality.

Besides Pappu Yadav, Amit Yadav, 25, and Niranjan Yadav, 18, were the other victims from Lattipur among six fatalities in the Zamrudpur mishap. All three were labourers at the construction site — among 45 from Lattipur working to put the Metro on track in time, according to villagers.

Barely out of her teens, Pappu’s wife Nitu has just come to her in-laws’ place and sits ashen-faced. Amid sobs, his mother Sita Devi says Pappu had promised to take his wife to Delhi one day. “That day would never come now.”

Eldest of three sons, Pappu was the family’s sole earning member.

Similar is the scene at houses of Amit Yadav and Niranjan Yadav: burst of rage at the authorities amid the mourning.

The duo’s mothers want to see their bodies one last time before cremation at the Ganga ghats here.

The river, though, has emerged as a scourge for the village of around 8,000. Locals blame the Ganga, flowing barely a kilometre from the village and eroding cultivable land every year, for making almost a third of the local youths to migrate to cities like Delhi, Ludhiana and Surat in search of livelihood.

In the last 40 years, villagers say, annual floods have eroded more than 600 bighas of cultivable land. And when the water recedes, it leaves behind sand that cannot grow anything.

To Delhi, with dreams

Niranjan’s father Awadesh Yadav, 47, says lack of cultivable land made him pull out his son from school after Class VIII. The family, he says, needed the money: “But there was no work here, so he went to Delhi.”

Villagers estimate at least 1,000 Lattipur youths work in the Capital, with 45 employed with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) alone.

Niranjan’s uncle Arvind Yadav says the youths who initially got a job with DMRC said the corporation pays better than most organisations. In areas like Lattipur, with unemployment staring youths at every street corner, that spread like wildfire and more made a beeline for work with DMRC, Arvind says. “Once the chain was built, migration continued — even we began enjoying it since money suddenly started flowing in to the village.”

According to him, barely two out of every ten villagers can be called “well-placed”, with a job either in the Army, or schools and banks. The village, he points out, does not have a “full pucca” house.

Though Lattipur has a high school and colleges in neighbouring Bhagalpur, few continue their education beyond matriculation. Pappu Yadav was in fact among the few who cleared Intermediate from the village.

Though the village elders blame almost everyone — from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to “our MP” Shahnawaz Hussain, and local authorities to DMRC officials — Sunday’s accident has not deterred Lattipur youths from still dreaming of work outside. Many in fact are open to working with DMRC. “We have to leave the village some day — staying here will mean only playing cards and wasting our life,” Class X student Nilesh says.link

Lack of water hits paddy transplantation in Bihar

Mustafa Khan and Balram Lal, both farmers, scan the skies every day for signs of rain. And most days they are left disappointed. With the state recording a deficit of more than 50 percent in rainfall so far, Khan and Lal, like hundreds of thousands of farmers in Bihar, have one grave worry: how will they transplant paddy seedlings if there is no water in the fields?

“We are losing hope. It’s almost the month of Sawan (July 16-Aug 16) and lack of rains is bound to hit paddy transplantation,” said Lal, who lives in Maoist-hit Aurangabad district, about 100 km from here.

“Every day we pray for heavy rains, it is the only hope for us.”

According to Animesh Chanda, director of the meteorological office here, Bihar received 118.2 mm rainfall against its requirement of 246.5 mm from June 1 to July 7. “It recorded a deficit of 52 percent,” he added.

Chanda said the monsoon was delayed by two weeks in Bihar and rainfall was likely o be below normal.

To make matters worse, farmers said that unlike in the past, there is no water in the canals for irrigation. “We are lucky our village falls under canal irrigation but this year the canals are dry,” Khan said.

A large part of central Bihar is irrigated by water from the Sone river, brought through canals.

Another farmer, Maheshwar Ram, said huge quantities of paddy seedlings transplanted last month have wilted in the scorching heat.

A few farmers have managed to save paddy seeds sown early this month by pumping ground water.

Officials in the agriculture department said less than 10 percent of transplantation of paddy seedlings has been completed.

The state government targeted paddy cultivation on 3.55 million hectares this year. “Till date, transplantation has been reported on about 300,000 hectares,” one official said.

Last month, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced that farmers would be given diesel at subsidised rates under a contingency plan to cope with the drought-like situation. link

Two lynched in Gopalganj and Aurangabad districts over theft, molestation charges

Two men, one accused of molesting a girl and the other a suspected thief, were lynched by mobs in Bihar's Gopalganj and Aurangabad districts, police said on Tuesday.

A man, identified only as Shivnath, was beaten to death on Monday evening in Shahpur village in Gopalganj by family members and neighbours after a girl alleged that he had tried to molest her.

"Shivnath was caught when he was trying to escape after a girl cried that he tried to molest her. Family members and neighbours beat him to death him with bamboo sticks and iron rods," a police official said.

Relatives of the victim lodged a case with the police, naming seven people as the accused. Two people have been arrested, police said.

In the second case, a 25-year-old man was lynched on Monday by a mob near Anugrah Narain Road Station in Aurangabad district on charges of theft. The victim has not been identified by the police.

A case has been lodged against the unidentified people who lynched him, an official said.

In rural Bihar, street "justice" is becoming increasingly common. Over 50 cases of lynching were reported from the State over the last four months.

In one of the worst cases of lynching in Bihar, 10 people from the underprivileged Kueri community were thrashed to death in Vaishali district over an alleged theft in September 2007. Later, a high-level probe found that the men were not thieves as the villagers had suspected. link