Molesters to be chargesheeted soon as Police

Following widespread condemnation the Bihar Police headquarters on Monday assured that an immediate charge-sheet would be filed against the three youths who had assaulted an engineering college girl in full public view near the Hartali More on Saturday mid-noon.

The police response came after the trio were granted bail the same evening.

According to the Director General of Police Abhayanand the youths had been booked under Sections that were bailable. The police work as per the law, which was followed in this case too. They were booked under bailable sections and hence got bail. But instructions have been sent to the cops to file a chargesheet in the case immediately. Also, instructions have been given that the police should request the court of the chief judicial magistrate to immediately start a trial in the case, he told a section of media.

Since the main accused, Ashish, is the son of a senior government official the three boys were granted bail the same evening on a personal bail bond of Rs 5,000.

Though the three boys were booked under bailable Sections 354 (use of force against women with intent to outrage modesty) and 504 (intentional insult) of the IPC yet in a similar incident which took place almost at the same place on September 26 the boys involved in assaulting the girl were booked under Section 307 (attempt to murder).

A young girl was pulled out of a moving car and allegedly molested and thrashed by two youths in broad daylight. The police had nabbed one of the boys and slapped a case under Section 307, a non-bailable offence, on the boy, who was forwarded to prison.

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Google: Bihar seeks help for weather forecast

PATNA: Disaster-prone Bihar has sought the help of Google India to provide weather forecasts with the aim of benefiting millions of residents, officials said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, during his meeting with Google India managing director (R&D) Peeyush Ranjan, made the suggestion for providing weather forecasts, an official in his office said early this week.

"After the chief minister suggested that Google India officials think about providing weather forecasts, the state government is likely to submit a proposal in this connection soon," officials said.

They said Bihar has been repeatedly hit by floods and drought that affect millions of people. Google India launched an internet awareness campaign in Bihar Tuesday.

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Bihar: Once corrupt babu's bungalow, now a school

History was made on Thursday in Bihar when a school began functioning in the confiscated palatial building of tainted Indian Administrative Services officer Shiv Shankar Verma.

It is a first not only in Bihar but across India [ Images ] that a school has been opened in the house of a corrupt government babu after it was confiscated.

Bihar Human Resources and Development minister P K Shahi told rediff.com in Patna on Thursday that the school has started functioning in the confiscated house of Verma.

"Finally, the government has turned the confiscated house into a school. The school has opened now," Shahi said.

He said that it was Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's dream to first confiscate the house or property of corrupt officials and turn them into schools for poor children.

"This is a new beginning in Bihar and would be followed by other states and Central government in coming times," Shahi added.

According to HRD officials, the school was declared open by the head of the organising panel of Scheduled Caste committee after a small function .The school mainly caters to Mahadalits.

"The school will benefit children of Musahar, a rat eating Mahadalit community," an official said.

Four days after the Bihar government confiscated a three storeyed building of Verma, a 1981 batch IAS officer accused of corruption, it has been officially turned into a school with name on board.

"Now the chief minister's fight against corruption is showing result. Nitish Kumar's wishes have been fulfilled with opening of a school in Verma's confiscated house," Janata Dal-United president Vashisht Narain Singh said.

Nitish Kumar repeatedly promised during his election campaign last year that his government would take over the houses of corrupt public servants and convert them into schools.

After Verma's house was confiscated, he said it will send a loud and clear message to public servants that buildings and assets purchased using ill-gotten money will not remain with them.

The HRD department has shifted a primary school at Rukunpura in Patna to the confiscated house of Verma.

Ravikant, principal secretary, cabinet coordination department, said the state cabinet Tuesday gave its consent for free of cost transfer of the house of Verma to HRD to relocate any nearby school that has no building of its own.

The state government on Sunday confiscated a house of the suspended IAS officer, making him the first officer to face such an action under the Bihar Special Courts Act, 2010.

Verma, a former minor irrigation secretary, now faces a case of disproportionate assets amounting to Rs.1.44 crore, along with eight other relatives.

He is the first officer to face such an action under the Bihar Special Courts Act, 2010.The act has given power to the state
government which has specific laws about confiscating property made by public servants though ill-gotten money.

Last month, the Patna high court rejected Verma's petition challenging the vigilance court's order to confiscate his house. The high court upheld the special vigilance court's order to confiscate the 'disproportionate assets' of Verma.

Verma was suspended after vigilance sleuths raided his residence and unearthed huge unaccounted assets in 2007.

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70,000 displaced in Katihar district

The flood situation in Katihar district has turned grim with over 70,000 people have been displaced in two worst-hit Manihari and Amdabad blocks.

Katihar district magistrate (DM) Ashwini Datta Ray Thackeray conceded that the overall flood situation, particularly in these two blocks, was grim as over 70,000 flood-hit people were relocated. "We are fully alive to the situation and rendering all possible relief to the displaced persons," she said on Wednesday.

Although the Ganga and Mahananda appear to be receding, the process has been agonizingly slow. The Ganga receded by 9 cm over the last 24 hours, but was still flowing at 21.02 metres above the danger mark on Wednesday, according to Mahananda Project superintending engineer M N Chowdhury. He, however, said the water level of the two rivers showed a downward trend and the spurs were safe.

The reason why the floodwaters have remained stagnant across vast swathe of Katihar is that the Ganga and Mahananda continue to be in spate downstream in Malda district of West Bengal.

Although relief measures have been galvanized on a war footing, the sizeable population from across scores of villages in Manihari, Amdabad, Pranpur, Mansahi and Kursela blocks continued to bear the brunt of floods, according to disaster management officials.

As large number of villages are heavily waterlogged, the movement of people has been hindered. Thousands of people have been either living on embankments or taken shelter in makeshift camps, official sources said.


News Reference: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/70000-displaced-in-Katihar-district/articleshow/9728499.cms

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Bihar House session likely to be stormy

A week-long monsoon session of the Bihar assembly, beginning from Friday, is likely to be stormy with main opposition RJD-LJP combine and the Congress planning to corner Nitish Kumar government on several issues, including the Forbesganj police firing.

Leader of the opposition in the state assembly Abdul Bari Siddiqui said he would hold a meeting with the leaders of opposition, including LJP and Congress, for working out a strategy to grill the government.

Alleging that the state government was a total failure on all fronts, Siddiqui said the opposition would press for a special debate on June 3 Forbesganj police firing, recent death of more than 50 children in mysterious disease in Muzaffarpur, hoarding and blackmarketing of fertilisers and foodgrains, besides the spiraling crime graph.

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300 junior doctors join RJD

Expressing dissatisfaction over their demands not being met by the Nitish Kumar government, about 300 junior doctors from four medical colleges across the State on Sunday joined Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) party, claiming “ it was the only party that could resolve their problems.”

While announcing the constitution of a medical cell within the RJD, party chief Mr. Prasad promised that “if his party was voted back to power, it would ensure the termination of the contract system and regular recruitment of junior doctors.”

President of the Bihar Junior Doctors Association Dhananjay Dwivedi said “around 300 junior doctors from the Patna, Darbhanga, Shri Krishna and Nalanda Medical Colleges” had decided to enter the RJD fold following the “NDA [National Democratic Alliance] government’s failure to terminate the contract system or check the rising number of attacks on junior doctors by the angry kin of patients who died in these hospitals.”

“We believed that as Mr. Kumar was a ‘technical’ man, he would understand our problems. Instead, he failed to ensure the security of junior doctors. About 400 cases of assault by upset relatives have gone unrecorded,” said Mr. Dwivedi, adding that “hospital facilities were woefully inadequate, which often hampered their work.”

Alleging an acute shortage of medicines and live-saving drugs in the hospitals, the doctors further demanded immediate establishment of the Health Professionals Protection Act.

Stating that “Patna Medical College Hospital was the High Court of all Bihar hospitals,” Mr. Prasad said the “doctors were performing operations in an atmosphere loaded with fear.”

“There is no system of restricting agitated relatives of patients. If emergency and Out Patient Departments are crammed with 200 odd relatives who threaten a doctor, then how is he to discharge his duties?” said Mr. Prasad.

Criticising the decline in quality of education in medical colleges, Mr. Prasad said “not a single medical college has been opened during Mr. Kumar’s tenure.”

The State witnessed two major strikes by junior doctors in August and November last year over the issue of the contract system and an increase in their stipends.

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24 security men killed in West Bengal Maoist attack

A daring attack by Maoists on a police camp in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district Monday has left 24 security personnel dead, an official said.

The incident took place at Shilda locality in the district when a group of Maoists opened fire at the camp of the joint security forces deployed to combat the Maoists.

“According to latest information 24 security personnel were killed in the attack,” West Midnapore district magistrate N.S. Nigam told IANS. Many security personnel went missing after the attack.

The attack comes just six days after Home Minister P. Chidambaram held a meeting here with the officials of the four eastern states of Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal to launch an inter-state operation against the left-wing extremists.

An eyewitness said the rebels came on motorbikes and triggered a landmine blast in front of the joint forces’ camp.

“I heard the sound of the blast and came out of the kitchen. I saw bodies lying around the area,” he said.

“A group of around 60 Maoists started a gun battle with the joint forces which continued for quite sometime,” said the eyewitness, who is the cook for the joint forces.

According to sources, there were 51 troopers inside the Shilda police camp, comprising 35 Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) and State Armed Police (SAP) personnel.

Top Maoist leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji has claimed his group - the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist - was behind the attack.

“We launched this attack protesting against the proposed Operation Green Hunt against the Maoists,” Kishenji said, condoling the death of Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) jawans in the attack.

Expressing willingness to participate in dialogue with the government, he said: “We are ready to sit for talks but the union government must stop the joint operation against the Maoists.”

Earlier, state Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh said that some casualties had taken place at Shilda where a joint forces’ camp was attacked by the Maoists.

“There have been some casualties,” he said, declining to confirm the toll.

“We have got information that a group of Maoist rebels attacked a joint forces camp at Shilda locality and also set it afire. We are sending reinforcement to the spot,” state Inspector General of Police (Western range) Kuldip Singh told IANS.

According to local sources, the leftwing ultras came on bikes and ransacked the joint forces’ establishment, took away firearms and later set it ablaze.

The Maoists also planted landmines at Narayanpurchak area - a place close to Shilda, shouted slogans and scattered pamphlets while escaping, police said.

He said no Maoist was injured in the gun battle with the joint forces.

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