Dozens killed by train

At least 37 people have died after being hit by an express train while crossing the tracks in the Indian state of Bihar.
An angry crowd is said to have beaten the driver and set two coaches on fire after the train came to a stop.
The people killed were mostly Hindu pilgrims on their way to a local temple.

man held for allegedly trying to poison handpump

A man was held on Saturday for allegedly trying to poison handpump in a school in a village under Parasbigha police station area in Bihar's Jehanabad district, a police officer said.

The villagers found man, later identified as Munna Ansari, moving in a suspicious manner in the primary school premise in Godiha village and beat him up mercilessly by suspecting that he was there allegedly to poison handpump, the superintendent of solice (SP) Shayali Dhurat said.

Dhurat said that she and the District Magistrate Md. Sohail rushed to the village with police force after being informed about the incident and rescued the man from clutches of angry villagers who were refusing to hand him over to cops.

Apparently determined to teach Ansari a lesson, the villagers pelted stones on the police force in which two police officers, identified as Parasbigha SHO Samrat Singh and Shakurabad SHO Vinod Kumar, sustained injuries, she said.

The police lathicharged on the mob before safely rescuing him from the custody of the villagers, Dhurat said.

She said that Ansari, a native of Ghughri village under Jamalpur police station area of Khagaria district, has been taken to a hospital for medical check up and his belongings were being searched to find out whether he was carrying chemicals or related materials with him.

Dhurat confirmed that some eatables like Sattu (floured gram) and guava have been recovered from the suspect's possession.

It may be mentioned that incidents of suspected poisoning of handpumps in schools have taken place in several districts with hundreds of students taking ill in the past fortnight prompting the state government to order a probe.

55 girl students taken ill in Bihar after drinking water in school

Fifty-five girl students were today taken ill after drinking water from hand pump in a government girls' school in Tharhar village in Bihar's Sitamarhi district.

The girls studying in Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalaya fainted soon after drinking water from a hand pump, Block Education Officer (BEO) Shahjanand said.

While 48 sick girls have been taken to the Primary Health Centre (PHC) at Runnisaidpur block, the remaining seven were rushed to the Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur, he said.

The condition of those girls undergoing treatment at the PHC was said to be stable, Shahjanand stated.

It could be a suspected case of poisoning, sources said.

Senior district officials reached the school to probe the matter.

Eleven students of a government school fell ill after drinking contaminated water during their midday meal in Bihar's Saran district yesterday just a day after 150 others reported sick after eating at school in Jamui and Arwal districts.

Twenty three students of Dharmasati Gandaman primary school in Saran district had died after eating poisonous midday meal on July 16.

Bihar midday meal tragedy

The principal of the government school in Saran district where 23 children died after eating contaminated midday meal is on the run.

It has emerged that the free food served to children in the school did not undergo any quality check.

Meena Devi, the principal of the school, is absconding along with her husband and the police are conducting raids at their possible hideouts, Saran district magistrate Abhijit Sinha said.

The grocery from where the items for the midday meal were brought belonged to Meena's husband, it has been stated.

The principal, against whom an FIR has been lodged, has already been suspended by the state administration.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the tragedy rose to 23 after it came to the knowledge of the district administration on Thursday that one child was buried by family members without keeping the authorities informed.

24 children and a woman cook Manju Devi were under treatment at the Patna Medical College and Hospital.

No arrests have been made two days after the incident, as a mass grave outside the primary school at Dharmasati Gandavan village where the dead were buried bore mute testimony to the tragedy.

"This school will not run ... we will not allow it," said Rakeshwar Mahato who lost his granddaughter in the tragedy. "This is where our children were murdered," he said, defending the decision to bury the children just outside the school premises as a mark of protest by the families.

Amardeep Sinha, principal secretary, Bihar said the case seemed to be one of "poisoning of food" and not "food poisoning."

He said the State Forensic Science Laborotary (SLFL) was conducting investigations and their report would be out by Friday.

State education minister PK Sahi had said on Wednesday a preliminary investigation suggested that the food served to the children contained an organophosphate used as an insecticide on rice and wheat crops. He also alleged there was a political conspiracy to destabilise the Nitish Kuamr government.

Bihar's director of midday meal programme R Lakshamanan said inquiries into the Saran tragedy showed that standing orders like quality check of food and its maintenance by teachers and cooks were not observed at the school.

As the tragedy created a scare, he admitted that in many schools children are refusing to take food packets provided to them under the programme.

The midday meal scheme, a flagship programme of the central government, covers 70,000 schools of Bihar providing food to 1.25 crore children.

Minister attacked

Bihar minister Parween Amanullah was attacked and held up for some time by a mob in Vaishali district which was agitating over the midday meal tragedy in the state.

Amanullah, who is the minister for social welfare, was on her way to Muzaffarpur from Patna when the protesters, who had blockaded National Highway 77 near Rai Birendra College, about 5km from Hajipur town, pelted her car with stones, forcing it to halt.

"I was stopped by the mob for nearly 15 minutes before police came and escorted my car to safety ... Stones hit my car while I was sitting inside," Amanullah said.

The minister said she cancelled her programme and returned to Patna after the incident.

Vaishali SP Suresh Chaudhary confirmed the incident. The Bihar government has been under attack by opposition parties over the midday meal tragedy in Saran district which has claimed the lives of 23 children.

RJD, BJP and CPI had separately observed bandh in Saran on Wednesday.

Opposition parties have blamed the state government for the delay in rushing the victims to hospital after they were taken ill upon eating the meal.

Terror strikes Bodh Gaya's Mahabodhi temple

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was left squirming because the low-intensity blasts, triggered by suspected Indian Mujahideen operatives, occurred despite repeated intelligence alerts from central security agencies.

“It does seem like a terror attack... No (terrorist) outfit has claimed responsibility,” Union minister of state for home RPN Singh said about the string of blasts between 5.30 and 5.58am.
 

Buddhists from all over the world visit the temple, which has the Bodhi tree under which Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment. “The holy Bodhi tree is safe and there is no damage to it,” said Bihar director general of police Abhayanand.

The police said four blasts took place inside the Mahabodhi temple complex and three occurred at the Terega monastery, while one each were triggered near an 80-feet-tall Buddha statue and a vacant tourist bus parked close to the temple complex.

The police said two live bombs were defused in the town and a third in a village nearby. According to intelligence sources, Bodh Gaya has been in the crosshairs of Pakistan-based terrorists who want to avenge the violence against Rohingya Muslims in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar.

The improvised explosive devices were set off with timers within a 2 km radius of the 18 sq km town located about 140 km southwest of capital Patna. While IM operations are unknown in these parts, Gaya is the hotbed of Maoist activity in Bihar.

The police said two live bombs were defused in the town and a third in a village nearby. According to intelligence sources, Bodh Gaya has been in the crosshairs of Pakistan-based terrorists who want to avenge the violence against Rohingya Muslims in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar.

The improvised explosive devices were set off with timers within a 2 km radius of the 18 sq km town located about 140 km southwest of capital Patna. While IM operations are unknown in these parts, Gaya is the hotbed of Maoist activity in Bihar.


'Temple, Bodhi Tree safe'

The temple and the Bodhi Tree, under which Lord Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment, did not suffer any damage in the blasts which shook the holy town frequented by Buddhist pilgrims from Sri Lanka, China, Japan and the whole of southeast Asia.

Security has been beefed at the temple and adjoining areas, Director General of Police Abhayanand told reporters, adding CCTV footage was being examined for leads to the terrorists.

The Intelligence Bureau (IB) had alerted the state that two terrorists, brothers originally from Bihar but based abroad in recent years, had entered the state to carry out terror attacks, according to an official aware about the intelligence input.


'IM mey be behind blast'

Last year, the Delhi Police claimed to have foiled a 'fidayeen' attack in the town with the arrest of suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) elements to avenge "atrocities" against Muslims in Myanmar. Security agencies suspect that IM may be behind today's multiple blasts.

"While four blasts took place inside the Mahabodhi Temple complex, three occurred in Karmapa monastery, one each near near the famous 80-ft Buddha statue and at the bus stand near bypass," DIG Magadh range Nayyer Hussnain Khan said.

Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said two live bombs were defused in the town. A third bomb, hidden in a cyclinder, was recovered from a village near Body Gaya hours after the blasts and defused.

The Bihar chief minister demanded deployment of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for security of the shrine.

"The serial blasts deserve strongest condemnation in strongest possible words as the perpetrators targeted the place of religious faith of crores of people with an aim to create fear among them," Nitish Kumar said.

Union home secretary Anil Goswami said in New Delhi that serial explosions inside and outside Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar were a terror attack and NIA and NSG teams have been sent for post-blasts investigations.

Medical admissions in Bihar face MCI axe over resource crunch, faculty shortage

For the students of Bihar, dreams of studying medicine in the state may remain just that, a pipe-dream. The prestigious IGIMS’ admissions for the current year have been disallowed by MCI, the proposal for a medical college in Bettiah has been turned down and the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Bhagalpur is under the scanner owing to resource crunch. Only the medical college in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s home district, Nalanda has got the green signal.

IGIMS Patna which had started its MBBS programme in 2011 and would have admitted its third batch, has been told not to go ahead with the process. The MCI had to stop the admission to its MBBS programme after it found that the institute was short of resident doctors by 53 percent and faculty by 35 percent.

In the case of Bettiah Medical College, the MCI had directed the proposed medical college to come up to the standards set by it. Subsequently, MCI rejected the compliance report presented by the college management in a meeting held on June 18.

The kind of inertia that has gripped medical education in Bihar can be gauged from the fact that the government-run Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Bhagalpur which has been running since 1970 has an intake of only 50 students per year. To add to its woes, MCI is reviewing the college owing to the resource crunch being faced by this college.

The only silver lining in Bihar seems to be the medical college which is coming up at Pavapuri in Nitish Kumar’s Nalanda district. The college has an authorization of 100 medical seats.

Corrupt Bihar top cop's house converted into a school

The Bihar government Wednesday opened a school for mentally challenged children in a house confiscated from former director general of police Narayan Mishra, convicted for amassing wealth through graft, an official said.

The school, named "Chaman" (garden) is the first such in Bihar.

"It is a unique school to impart education to mentally challenged children and it opened in the confiscated house of a top police officer," a district official said.

"More than 50 children will be enrolled in the school," the official said. According to officials, the education imparted in the school will equip the children to lead as normal a life as possible, given their mental state.

Last year, the state government had taken a decision to open the school in the house confiscated from Mishra. The 5,937 sq ft house in Rukunpura locality of the state capital was transferred to the social welfare department.

A vigilance court in 2012 had ordered the confiscation of the property, finding Mishra guilty of amassing wealth far in excess of known sources of income.

It was the first time that a police officer who had been at the helm of the state's police force was tried under the Bihar Special Court Act, 2009.

Mishra had challenged the vigilance court's order in the Patna High Court, but his petition was rejected.

A vigilance case was lodged against Mishra in 2007 for amassing assets including property valued at Rs.1.40 crore in 1984.

Mishra was suspended by the government four years ago.

Till date, the Bihar government has confiscated the houses of an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Shiv Shankar Verma, and a treasury clerk, Girish Kumar.

Proceedings to confiscate properties of some more officials have been initiated.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar last year gave his nod for the prosecution of nearly two dozen officials.