Monday 2 May 2011

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News

State Agri growth rate to be 11.6 pc in 3 years

Posted: 02 May 2011 06:08 PM PDT

New Delhi, May 1 (PTI) Hailing Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for setting up the first of a kind special cabinet on agriculture, agri expert Mangala Rai has said farm sector growth rate in Bihar can double from 5.8 per cent to 11.6 per cent in the next three years.
“I do not see any reason why agricultural growth rate of Bihar can”t be doubled from 5.8 per cent at present in the next three years, provided all the logistics thought of for integrated growth of agri there are properly harnessed,” Rai, former Director General of ICAR and who has been appointed as Agriculture Advisor to the Bihar CM, told PTI.
Through improving irrigation system, judicious use of fertiliser and making available quality seeds to farmers, the average productivity of staple foodgrain crops like wheat and rice could be easily doubled to 4 tonnes per hectare in the near future, he said.
Rai, who had made a comprehensive presentation on speeding farm growth in the eastern state at the special cabinet on April 26 last, said there was huge possibility of increasing production of veggies and fruits in the state.
He also mentioned the possibility of harnessing potential in the field of fishery, livestocks and poultry in Bihar.
Chaired by the CM, the historic cabinet meeting on agriculture was attended by Deputy Chief Minister S K Modi, besides 17 other ministers of different departments, including water resources, irrigation, energy, rural works, sugarcane industry, animal husbandry and disaster management to draw an agriculture model for the state.
Agriculture department is the nodal department.
The meeting decided to set up 14 committees on Water, cooperative, agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, disaster management, soil conservation, research, bio-tech, information technology and, market storage and processing.
“These committees have been told to send recommendations before the next special cabinet on agriculture on June 15, which will discuss them comprehensively,” he added.
A world-renowned agri expert, Rai has served as President of the prestigious National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, which is a premier body of over 460 eminent agricultural scientists in India and abroad including 5 World Food laureates.
He has also worked in the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet and on the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. .

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Deadlock over the location of Central University hangs its future

Posted: 02 May 2011 11:08 AM PDT

The prolonged stand-off between the Centre and the Bihar government over the location of a central university in the state has cast a big question mark over the fate of the proposed project.

Almost three years have elapsed since the Union ministry for human resource development (HRD) decided to set up a central university in Bihar, but no progress has been made so far.

The state government had selected East Champaran district as the location of the university in Bihar. Chief minister Nitish Kumar had finalised it because of certain reasons, the most important being its association with the freedom struggle.

It was from Champaran that Mahatma Gandhi had launched his famous satyagraha movement against the British Raj.

Nitish apparently thinks that a central university at Motihari, the district headquarters of East Champaran, will be a tribute to the Mahatma in view of his association with the place. Besides, he thinks that setting up of a central university at a place far away from the state capital augurs well for the inclusive growth of the underdeveloped state. He insists that Motihari is ideally located for the purpose and voices his reservation against opening each and every important institution in and around Patna. He also says that the people of East Champaran are willing to give away their land at three places for the university.

The Centre has a different take on that, though. Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal, who was on a visit to Patna to lay the foundation stone of the new campus of the Indian Institute of Technology at Bihta near the state capital recently, does not share Nitish’s enthusiasm for Champaran as a great location for the university. In fact, his ministry has rejected Motihari and asked the Bihar government to suggest alternate locations.

Interestingly, the Union ministry had initially given its nod to East Champaran but its factfinding team later found out that the district did not have adequate infrastructure. Sibal says that the importance of Gandhi’s association with Champaran cannot be undermined but the place today lacks basic facilities like good schools for the children of the faculty, cheaper health care and adequate entertainment avenues.

He says that the good prospective faculty members desist from going to such places.

The minister has also argued that the Centre should have some say in selection of the location because it funds the central university. He has now asked Nitish to be flexible on the location issue.

Nitish, however, has made it clear in no uncertain terms that his government will rather wait for the day when the Centre gives its nod to Motihari. He says that infrastructure could be developed around the place to meet the requirements of the new university. As a result, the state government’s ” Motiharior- nowhere else” approach has put everything on hold.

The deadlock has raised pertinent question over who should make the final selection of such projects. Can a region be left to languish in the morass of underdevelopment just because it has no infrastructure to boast of? Should the governments refrain from setting up prestigious institutions in such places? Should the Centre have the power to reject the venue proposed by the state government just because it provides funds to run the university? Should it be the sole discretion of the state government to select the location since it understands the needs of different regions better than the Centre? Nitish and Sibal must ponder over these issues and work in tandem to set up the central university in the state at the earliest.

Bihar does not have any central university but the adjoining Uttar Pradesh has had four for several years. Motihari or elsewhere, Bihar must have a central university and the sooner the better.

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Repoll at 13 booth in Bihar

Posted: 02 May 2011 03:34 AM PDT

The repoll will be held at Katihar, West Champaran, Araria, Madhubani, Vaishali, Patna and Rohtas districts on May 20, the state election commissioner J K Dutta told reporters in Patna.

The poll panel reviewed the third phase of panchayat elections and ordered repoll at 13 polling stations amid
reports of booth rigging and other electoral malpractices from there which were found true during investigation, he said.

 

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Bihar to have shift courts instead of evening courts

Posted: 01 May 2011 11:32 PM PDT

PATNA: The Patna high court has decided to abolish evening courts and instead introduce shift court from 12.30 to 2.30 pm, according to chairman, Bihar State Bar Council, Baleshwar Prasad Sharma.
Sharma said the evening courts had been shifted to day hours after the morning court hours during summer in all the district courts. A decision to this effect was taken by the standing committee of Patna high court on April 19, which was communicated to the Bihar State Bar Council on Saturday. Sharma said during summer, the district courts are held from 7 am to 12 noon, so the high court has decided to shift the two-hour evening courts to 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm.
A letter of the registrar general of Patna high court informed the Bihar State Bar Council of the decision and added that the standing committee would further examine the feasibility of shifting these two-hour courts to morning hours from 8 am to 10 am from July 1 when the district civil courts would work from 10.30 am. Sharma said the letter would be placed before its general body meeting. He told TOI the council has agreed to the standing committee’s decision.
It may be recalled that the evening courts were started from December 6 and the lawyers had been boycotting it from that date at the call of the state bar council.PATNA: The Patna high court has decided to abolish evening courts and instead introduce shift court from 12.30 to 2.30 pm, according to chairman, Bihar State Bar Council, Baleshwar Prasad Sharma.
Sharma said the evening courts had been shifted to day hours after the morning court hours during summer in all the district courts. A decision to this effect was taken by the standing committee of Patna high court on April 19, which was communicated to the Bihar State Bar Council on Saturday. Sharma said during summer, the district courts are held from 7 am to 12 noon, so the high court has decided to shift the two-hour evening courts to 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm.
A letter of the registrar general of Patna high court informed the Bihar State Bar Council of the decision and added that the standing committee would further examine the feasibility of shifting these two-hour courts to morning hours from 8 am to 10 am from July 1 when the district civil courts would work from 10.30 am. Sharma said the letter would be placed before its general body meeting. He told TOI the council has agreed to the standing committee’s decision.
It may be recalled that the evening courts were started from December 6 and the lawyers had been boycotting it from that date at the call of the state bar council.

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