Tuesday 5 July 2011

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

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

Bihar to setup more embankments to check flood

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 02:43 PM PDT

Patna, July 5 (IANS) Bihar plans to construct more embankments to control floods and protect millions of people from being uprooted, a minister said Tuesday.
'Construction of embankments is the only solution at present to get rid of floods in Bihar. It is the best available measure against flood protection,' Bihar Water Resources Development Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary told IANS.
At a time when fear of devastating floods is back, the state government plans to construct 1,600 km of embankments in the next five years.
'An action plan is being prepared by the department to construct more embankments to provide protection to millions of people living in flood prone-districts,' Choudhary said.
He said that according to the plan, an additional 26 lakh hectares would be protected if proposed embankments are constructed.
The minister said that till date the state government has constructed 3,629 km of embankments to protect the lives and property of people in over 30 lakh hectares of land out of a total of 68.8 lakh hectare in flood-prone areas.
During the floods in 2007, about 37 embankments were breached followed by the devastating flood in 2008 when the Kosi river breached its embankments, officials said.
The state government took measures for strengthening the embankments in 2009 but three were breached, while in 2010 only one embankment was breached.
After two consecutive years of drought, the fear of floods is back in Bihar with incessant rains and heavy water discharge into the Kosi river from Nepal.
However, Choudhary said all embankments were safe and there was no need to panic. 'The government is fully ready to face any eventuality if the water level in rivers
poses a threat.'
But he conceded that many villages in flood-prone districts face threats due to the increased water levels.
Reports suggested that the authorities have asked hundreds of people to shift to safer places following the rising water level of the Kosi. The state government has asked engineers and district officials to keep a 24-hour vigil.
Choudhary said the eastern Kosi embankment, which had breached in 2008, flooding five districts of northern Bihar, was totally safe. 'We are taking care of it. There is no need to panic.'
In 2008, over three million people were rendered homeless in Bihar when the Kosi river breached its bank upstream in Nepal and changed course. It was said to be the worst flood in the state in the last 50 years.
According to the water resources department, a lot of water has been discharged into the Kosi in the last one week after heavy rains in Nepal as well as in Bihar.
Two days ago, the Bagmati river breached its embankment in Muzaffarpur district, while the rising waters in the Gandak and Kosi rivers are also posing a serious threat.
All the inundated villages are in the flood-prone districts of Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Purnia, Araria, Saharsa, Madhepura and Bagaha, officials said.

Bihar’s education efforts praised by Union HRD minister

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 02:41 PM PDT

New Delhi: Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal was all praises for the Bihar government Monday for its steps in the field of education.

Speaking after conferring an honorary Doctor of Literature degree to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, the minister, however, said the number of teachers needed to be improved in Bihar.

“I recently visited Bihar and I was both heartened and disheartened. Heartened because of the measures taken by state government in the field of education. I saw scores of schools with hundreds of students in every class, and 60 percent of these were girls,” Sibal said.

“People are realising how important girl’s education is. But I was disheartened to see only one teacher for those students,” he said.

The HRD minister said that technical advances like optical fibres will help in bringing the equity desired in education.

“We will need a network of optical fibres which will be completed in two years. Technological advances will be the vehicle through which we can ensure that the best teachers can reach up to the remotest villages,” he said.

Speaking on education, Amartya Sen said the problem of Indian education was both of quantity as well as quality.

“School education in India suffers both insufficient coverage and low standards. This is having a heavy cost on the economy as education affects every aspect of development,” Sen said.

“We need to broaden our education base radically,” Sen said.

The veteran who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998, was conferred an honorary Doctor of Literature degree by

Amartya Sen to public his report on Bihar

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 11:17 PM PDT

PATNA: Nobel laureate Professor Amartya K Sen, Lamont university professor at the Harvard University, USA, will release the much-awaited report on “Elementary Education in Bihar: Progress and Challenges” here on Tuesday. The report has been jointly prepared by the Pratichi (India) Trust and the Centre for Economic Policy and Public Finance (CEPPF), Patna.

These two organizations, which have been engaged in contributing to enhancement of elementary education through meaningful research works, carried out a study in Bihar during July-September, 2010 with the main objective of preparing an operational profile of primary and upper primary schools in Bihar in terms of their resource base as well as reach and quality of their services. The study identified the organisational, social and infrastructural constraints plaguing the elementary education system.

The 88-page report would be released at a function which will be presided over by former JNU professor Anjan Mukherji. Sen could not release the draft report in February due to his indisposition. During his three-day stay in Bihar, Sen will also hold a meeting with the mentor group of the proposed new Nalanda International University.

The study was conducted in five districts of Bihar – Bhojpur, Bhagalpur, Gopalganj, Madhubani and Katihar. In each district, six villages were chosen for collecting data on village characteristics, schools (primary and upper primary) and household educational practices. In all, the study is based on data in 30 villages, 31 schools and 900 households.

It recommends, among other things, that gram panchayats should also be instructed to monitor the functioning of local schools. Another important and urgent policy intervention could be a committed move towards enhancing adult literacy, particularly adult female literacy, which could certainly give a boost to translating the parental aspiration into actual achievements.

The report notes that the NDA government in Bihar was re-elected for another term in 2010. Its performance in the previous term has paid them valuable political benefits and one, therefore, hopes they will make further efforts to strengthen the elementary schooling system in Bihar and free the state of the evils of illiteracy, the report says.

It is hoped that this report will be useful for generating the much required public discussion and debate on the issue of elementary education in the state.

According to its findings, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS), which was operational since 1995 by way of distribution of dry ration, was converted in 2005 to a real Mid-Day Meal Scheme to serve cooked food in primary schools. The MDMS was later extended to upper primary schools in April, 2008. However, implementation of this programme is yet to be fully satisfactory, the report says.

According to the study, to promote elementary education further, the state government has introduced yet another scheme in 2005-06. It provides for free uniform to all the students in standards III-V (by way of cash payment of Rs. 500 per student per year) and to only girl students in standards VI-VIII (Rs. 750 per girl student per year). This scheme has become extremely popular.

The attendance of students is very irregular and their learning achievements are also low. The most important constraint faced by elementary schools is the shortage of teachers, followed by their inadequate infrastructure, the report says.

Bihar says no to VAT on food grains

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 11:15 PM PDT

PATNA: While criticizing the UPA government at the Centre for inflation and spiraling prices of essential commodities, the NDA government claimed it is doing its best to provide some succour to the people. After reducing VAT on diesel, it has notified to make foodgrains free of VAT.

Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said that the VAT on foodgrains like rice, wheat, pulse and flour has been fully withdrawn. “When our government came to power in 2005, the VAT on these commodities was four percent which we reduced it to one percent in 2006. Now in view of the escalating prices of essential commodities, we have decided to do away with VAT on them,” he said. He added that with this relaxation, about 5,000 small and medium traders dealing in foodgrains whose annual turnover is up to Rs 100 crore will be benefited.

Meanwhile, the food and consumer protection department has suggested that the Centre provide cash instead of foodgrains to the ration card holders under the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA). Food and consumer protection minister Shyam Rajak said that this suggestion has been sent to the Centre in response to the state’s opinion sought on the NFSA. The Centre is working on a draft Bill that will be placed before the Empowered Group of Ministers on food. It aims to provide legal right over highly subsidized foodgrains to 68 percent of the country’s population.

Rajak said that due to problem in storing the foodgrains in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India in Bihar, the arrival of the stock for public distribution is delayed for two to three months. “This has resulted in diversion of foodgrains,” he added.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar is a strong advocate for cash incentive to check anomalies and corruption in public distribution system (PDS). Nitish also pleaded it before the Planning Commission and said such schemes introduced in Bihar are bearing good result. He gave the example of bicycle and uniform to school going girls who are given money to purchase them.

Rajak said that Bihar is not alone in making such a demand. Delhi and Andhra Pradesh governments too have made similar suggestions to the Centre. “We have proposed that cash be provided in the name of woman of the household,” he said and added that it has been suggested that a bank account be opened in the name of woman of the beneficiary family and transfer cash in her account. The food and consumer protection minister said that his government has been repeatedly taking up with the Centre the issue of updating the number of beneficiaries under the public distribution system.

“The Centre is providing foodgrains for only 65 lakh people of the state under different schemes whereas the state’s figure of beneficiaries is around 1.5 crore,” Rajak said and added that due to this discrepancy, the state government is providing foodgrains on its own to around 85 lakh left out families.

Bihar witnesses increasing trend of registration

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 11:13 PM PDT

PATNA: After market-based evaluation and revision of prices of chunks of land, both urban and rural, was introduced five years ago in Bihar, the registration department has been augmenting the state’s coffers in arithmetical progression. As a matter of fact, the revenue netted by the registration department in the last fiscal has broken all previous records.

According to registration minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav, the revenue yield of his department has increased by around 120 per cent since the 2005-06 fiscal. “The department has finally shown its potential. It is among the three major revenue yielding departments of the state after commercial taxes and excise departments,” he said.

The revenue yield of the department was Rs 566.36 crore in 2005-06, which increased to Rs 1,246.44 crore in 2010-11 — an increase by 120 per cent. The revenue returns of the department were Rs 540.37 crore in 2006-07, Rs 694.75 crore in 2007-08, Rs 770.65 crore in 2008-09, and Rs 1,148 crore in 2009-10.

Yadav said that an amendment to the Bihar Stamp Duty Act, 1995, which was done in 2006, spurred the growth of the sector that involves transfer of land, both urban and rural, through sale deeds. According to the new provisions, the average minimum price of a chunk of rural land is fixed by the district deputy registrar every second year taking into account the market prices of land in its vicinity, and that of urban land every year.

In keeping with the same, the payable stamp duty on general transfer of land through sale and purchase also gets revised on the higher side, which, in turn, has been yielding revenue to the state’s coffers substantially.

“Besides, we have toned up the functioning of the department through computerization. At present, all the registration offices in the districts are fully computerized,” Yadav said, adding that the department’s computerization programme has already entered the second phase, as digitalization of documents has been started.
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