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

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• Investors in bihar assured of full support from State
• Organisations in Patna oppose Right to Education Act
• Freedays to ensure hygiene in villages
• Villages over 2000 population to get a bank branch
• Grooms in Bihar seeking Generators as dowry
• Ladies Special buses in the City to have women conductor as well

Investors in bihar assured of full support from State Posted: 19 May 2011 06:34 PM PDT PATNA: Minister for industries Renu Kumari Kushwaha has assured investors that the government would take care of all their practical problems. She said the government was committed to open food parks in the state. Of the 227 proposals, the industries department has given nod to 57 industrial units to open food processing units in different parts of the state. In order to understand the problems being faced by investors, the industries department convened an interactive session here on Tuesday, in which 10 investors participated. Principal secretary C K Mishrasaid that the purpose of this meeting was to understand their practical difficulties and how the government could address their problems. Investors complained that though the officials of industries department were very cooperative, they were facing problems at the ground level as the DMs and SDOs were not so cooperative. One of the investors said that BIADA had allotted land in several pieces which were not contiguous. Another investor said that power transmission line of 33 kVA passed through the land allotted to him. Mishra said all these problems would be looked into, so that food processing units could be made operational at the earliest. The minister said the government has received investment proposals worth Rs 1.99 lakh crore in the state.

Organisations in Patna oppose Right to Education Act Posted: 19 May 2011 09:32 AM PDT PATNA: The Bihar Public School and Children Welfare Association filed a writ petition in Patna High Court on Tuesday against the Union government challenging the implementation of Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009. The petitioners have stated that by implementing the Act, there would be a considerable decline in the quality of education in the state.

Freedays to ensure hygiene in villages Posted: 19 May 2011 07:30 AM PDT PATNA: The ministry of health and family welfare,Government of India, has approved a new scheme for ensuring easy access to sanitary napkins as part of promotion of menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls in the age group of 10 to 19 years in rural areas. The scheme is aimed at ensuring that adolescent girls in rural areas have adequate knowledge about menstrual hygiene and use of sanitary napkins. The girls will be provided a pack of six sanitary napkins under the National Rural Health Mission`s brand `Freedays`. It will be sold at a price of Rs 6 per pack by the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers. The scheme would be operational from July. In Bihar, this scheme will be launched in 10 districts, namely Rohtas, Kaimur, Aurangabad, Bhojpur, Vaishali, Siwan, Gaya, Buxar, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga. It will benefit about 27.87 lakh adolescent girls. To ensure that the scheme`s benefit actually reaches the beneficiaries, ASHA workers will be given an incentive of Re 1 on sale of each pack and a free pack of sanitary napkins per month. “They will also undertake field study,” Dr M P Sharma, state project officer, Bihar State Health Society told TOI, adding “easy access and convenient pricing are the strategies adopted by the ministry for increasing usage of safe and hygiene practices”. These napkins will be procured by the Union government and sent to respective districts, from where primary health centres will procure them for distribution to health sub-centres. These will be then sent to local ANMs and distributed through ASHA workers. In the first phase, the scheme will cover 25% of the population — about 1.5 crore girls in the age group of 10 to 19 years — in 152 districts of 20 states. The government is launching this scheme as part of the Adolescent Reproductive Sexual Health under Reproductive Child Health Programme I

Villages over 2000 population to get a bank branch Posted: 19 May 2011 04:28 AM PDT PATNA: There is good news for villages having a population of 2,000 as deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday said the state government would urge nationalized banks to open branches in such villages across the state by the end of current fiscal. Modi told media that different banks had opened 800 new branches in the state in the past three years, while the Reserve Bank of India has given licences to set up 148 new branches. In the financial year 2010-11, the banks had disbursed loans to the tune of Rs 25,552 crores, which was 46% more than the previous year, he added. He said the banks have set up a target of distributing loans to the tune of Rs 43,200 crore in 2011-12 in the state. He said that agriculture loan to the tune of Rs 10,667 crore had been distributed in 2010-11, 49% more than the previous year. Modi said that banks had been asked to distribute loans by constituting joint liability groups to ward off the need of guarantor. He said the state government was contemplating to constitute Kisan Club in every panchayat. “Farmers repaying their loans on time would be given agriculture loans at three per cent interest rate,” Modi said, urging the farmers to take advantage of the benefit. He said that Kisan Credit Cards would be distributed among the farmers during Krishi Utsav. The deputy CM said that banks had been asked to provide more loans under the Agriculture Mechanisation Project. He said that during State Level Bankers’ meet, the state government would urge the Union government to lower interest rates on education loan and make it more liberal.

Grooms in Bihar seeking Generators as dowry Posted: 19 May 2011 01:52 AM PDT Patna: Families of prospective grooms in power-starved Bihar are seeking generator sets as dowry in the marriage season as the entire state has been reeling from the effects of severe power cuts this summer. The heat wave has made life miserable in this hot and humid summer. In the past few days, temperature has shot up to 45° Celsius, forcing the state government to close all schools across Bihar from Monday. Government-run schools in the state were supposed to close for the holidays after May 20 but the scorching heat forced the authorities to announce early closure of all schools across the state to ensure children do not suffer. Reports in the local media said the continuing power crisis across the state has become so acute that families of grooms are seeking generator sets as dowry to ensure their ceiling fans or desert coolers function and their houses remain illuminated. In many cases, brides have refused to marry boys from rural areas, complaining there is no electricity there. Siddheswar Prasad of Gaya in south Bihar felt the heat when the marriage he had fixed after much effort with a youth of Masaurhi block in rural Patna was rejected by his stubborn daughter. Her grouse was that she could not live in her in-law’s house when there was hardly two to three hours of power in the rural area. Reports said the would-be groom, Sanjay Kumar, tried hard to persuade the girl to change her mind but to no avail. Chitranjan Sah of Mithapur locality in Patna is facing a similar situation. He is searching for a groom for his daughter in Patna area as his daughter does not want to stay outside the state capital, where the power is abundantly available as compared to rural areas.

Ladies Special buses in the City to have women conductor as well Posted: 19 May 2011 12:24 AM PDT PATNA: The ‘ladies special’ buses introduced as part of the 70-strong fleet of new city buses on Sunday by the chief minister Nitish Kumar, are really special, for they are meant not only for women but have women conductors as well. In all, eight ‘ladies special’ buses have as many as 16 young women conductors, working in two shifts of eight hours – from 5.30am to 1.30pm and 1.30pm to 9.30pm. “We will soon exceed the number of women conductors to 30, as we would be running a total of 12 ‘ladies special’ buses,” said Praveen Kumar Paul, senior manager, Eden Transport. The government has started city bus services in PPP mode with Eden Transport. The job of running the bus services has been outsourced to Eden Transport. These bus conductors have received kudos from their families for breaking the myth that running buses is a male preserve. “I have joined this job to be economically independent,” said 21-year-old Moni Praveen who is a matriculate, the minimum educational requirement for this job. She stays with her parents. Her father owns a pan shop. “I came to know about the job through a newspaper. After interview, I got the job,” Moni said. “My parents are proud that I am working as a woman bus conductor. Initially, I was confused whether to join this job or not. But then, my parents gave their support to me to join the job,” she said. Soni Siddiqui, 21, who has passed Inter from J D Women’s College, is proud that now she can support her family financially. “My family feels that the job is a decent one and I am safe.” “From the security point of view, an emergency alarm button has been provided in the buses, and with CCTVs installed in them, the control room keeps an eye all the time,” she added. Besides, the women bus conductors have received special training for crisis management. “Those who work in the second shift get the facility of being dropped at home,” Soni said. Aarju Praveen, a 23-year-old married bus conductor who stays with her in-laws said, “We get a fixed monthly salary of Rs 5,000, Rs 3,000 per month for refreshments and four per cent commission on every ticket.” She gets home by 2pm. Till then her mother-in-law takes care of her three-year-old son. “For a better future of my son, I have to manage,” Aarju said. “When passengers appreciate our work by saying that because of us they feel secure, I get immense job satisfaction.” Another bus conductor, Priya Bhushan, 26, had been working as a field worker in a private mobile company for the last seven years. “A government job gives the feeling of a more secure future. This job is perfect for me, as by the time my son reaches home I too get free.” “In the last two days, we have received very positive responses from our passengers. I feel like we our running our own buses,” Priya said.

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