Thursday, 7 July 2011

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

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

Govt disposes less than 10 percent complaints at Janta Darbar

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 08:22 AM PDT

PATNA: Only 16,000 of the 1.68 lakh complaints received at chief minister Nitish Kumar’s weekly ‘Janata Ke Durbar Mein Mukhyamantri’ have been disposed of. The remaining applications are pending in various government departments.

These figures cover a period of only two-and-a-half years. The programme was introduced by Nitish in April 2006.

As per the information sought under the Right to Information Act, altogether 2,40,731 applications were submitted to the CM from April 20, 2006 till May 23, 2011. Since there didn’t exist a machinery to keep a record of such applications till 2008, there is no information about what happened to the 72,191 applications submitted till December 31, 2008.

The information was procured by RTI activist Shiv Prakash Rai of Buxar. While 29,672 people turned up with written applications in 2006, only 14,646 applications were submitted the next year. The number rose to 27,873 in 2008 and 45,784 in 2009. As assembly elections were held in 2010, the event could not be held for almost four months. Yet, the year saw a total of 67,897 people complaining to the CM at the ‘durbar’. In the last five months this year, 54,859 applications were received.

The CM secretariat’s public information officer has also informed Rai that since the applications are transferred to the departments concerned, the latest information about their status could be availed of from the departments concerned.

Initially, the chief secretary had been asked to monitor the status of these applications. However, an official at the chief secretary’s office said on Thursday that the chief secretary was no longer monitoring the scheme. “A separate public grievance cell looks into this,” the official said.

IITian raises voice against fake ad of Coaching Institutes in Patna

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 06:22 AM PDT

Patna: Once the results of the competitive examinations are declared every year, one just cannot miss the king size advertisements of coaching classes screaming out the names of their successful students in newspapers. But in reality, many of those candidates never visited the institutes going ga ga about them.

Yet, the owners of the training cradles not only dare to claim them as their students but also publish their names and photographs to net more unsuspecting students. The institutes even try to bribe the candidates so that they could use their name.

Harsh Beria, who ranked 4,991st in the IIT-JEE this year, learnt this the hard way and spoke out against Paradise Institute with support of his friends and Students' Oxygen Movement.

Harsh, a St Michael's High School passout, said at a news meet today: "I was shocked to see my name along with the registration number and rank in the newspapers on May 26, the day after the IIT-JEE results were declared. But the picture was of someone else."

He added: "This is absolutely wrong. If we ignore such a thing, our juniors would have to pay for our ignorance. Students would keep falling prey to these coaching institutes and also keep wasting money and time. The coaching institute must apologise for its deed, else I will approach the police."

When The Telegraph called up the director of Paradise Institute, Kumar Ajit, he said the fact that Harsh levelled the charge 40 days after the declaration of the IIT-JEE results was suspicious.

"Rival coaching institutes must be behind all this to malign the reputation of my coaching institute. Besides, first I need to check our records to find out the veracity of Harsh's allegation."

On the late reaction against the institute, Harsh said: "I had been too busy with counselling and admission all these days."

At the news meet, Viraat Tiwari and Rishabh Srivastava, other IIT-JEE candidates and also Harsh's friends, came up to support the cause.

Viraat said: "We have come up to support Harsh's cause and totally agree with whatever he is saying. We will strongly fight against this."

Rishabh said: "On seeing the newspapers, I felt that my friend, Harsh, had undergone a plastic surgery or taken some crash course in the last few days which I did not know of. We are there to support him."

Condemning the alleged act, Binod Singh, the convener of Students' Oxygen Movement, said: "It's a heinous crime which should not have been committed. Students are always the soft target and the coaching institute has taken advantage of this."

Singh said if coaching institutes can do this with one or two students, one could not be sure of the authenticity of the rest.

He said: "If the coaching institute does not apologise for its deed, then we would meet the secretary of the human resource development department and go to the police."

BIT Patna rocking the academia with lucrative job offers

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 02:18 AM PDT

Jobs are raining at Birla Institute of Technology (BIT) this placement season. Several students had the luxury to choose from more than one offer.

This is a huge jump, considering the 91 per cent placement in the previous year. A total of 269 job offers reached the 205 students of the institute this year.

The high percentage leaves BIT students at a much better position as compared to their counterparts of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Patna, that recorded a 75 per cent placement this season.

At NIT, Patna, 265 out of 345 students have received job offers. The institute is hopeful that the percentage would jump in the coming months with several companies planning to visit the campus.

As far as the salaries are concerned, NIT is ahead. While in BIT the highest salary offered was Rs 7.03 lakh per annum, at NIT it was Rs 9.57 lakh.

A number of public sector companies came to NIT to recruit its students, while at BIT mainly private sector companies turned up.

At NIT, the highest salary was offered by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), one of the Maharatna companies of the country. NTPC offered jobs to five NIT students — three from the mechanical engineering department and two from the electrical engineering department.

After NTPC, the highest salary was offered by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), which offered a package of Rs 9 lakh per annum to 15 students from the NIT.

"According to the rules of our institute, we do not entertain companies that offer an annual package of less than Rs 3 lakh," said Sanjeev Sinha, the placement in-charge at NIT Patna, adding that if the rule was changed, the institute would have more companies. Meanwhile, most of the companies that have visited BIT, Patna, are from the IT sector. Infosys has picked up 90 students from various branches in the salary bracket of Rs 3.35 lakh.

Raj Kumar, the placement officer at BIT, Patna, said: "Around 11 companies from the IT sector, including Infosys Technologies and Cognizant, visited the institute this year. Even Cognizant has offered jobs to 81 students for a salary of Rs 3.01 lakh per annum."

ZS Associates, another IT company, has offered Meghna Pathak a job with an annual pay package of Rs 7.03 lakh. Wipro Technologies, another IT sector company, has picked up four students at a salary of Rs 3.25 lakh per year.

Sweta Sanghai, a student of BIT, Patna, who has been offered a job by Aricent Technologies on an annual package of Rs 3.5 lakh, said: "Our institute is new and we are the second batch. In the coming years, the salary offered to the students will keep rising."

Getting Confirmed tickets still a nightmare at Patna Junction

Posted: 06 Jul 2011 10:07 PM PDT

PATNA: A large number of passengers, including college girls studying outside the state, are a harassed lot. Reason: they have been unable to get confirmed tickets in any train going to New Delhi, Mumbai , Chennai, Bangalore and Cochin from Patna. As such these passengers continue to remain stranded in Patna .

Giving vent to their feelings, Neha and Priya — who are students of Delhi-based colleges — said they have been unable to get confirmed berths in any Delhi-bound trains as all sleeper and AC bogies are packed with passengers. The railways is issuing wait listed tickets in Rajdhani Express, Sampoorna Kranati Express, Shramjeevi Express and Magadh Express. “The only option left for us is either to approach touts for confirmed tickets or travel in general bogies. Since we are girls, our sparents would not allow us to travel in general bogies due to risk during journey,” Neha said.

A large number of students who have to go to Bangalore, Chennai and Nagpur have been facing similar problems. “There is either no room or long waiting lists in trains bound for these places. We are being lured by touts at Patna Junction or travel agency offices to get confirmed tickets at a premium,” said and other student, Vinit.

Vinit and his friend Tushar — who are studying outside the state — said although they made several attempts to get confirmed tickets through “Tatkal” service scheme, all their efforts have been in vain. “It is still a big question as to who is actually getting confirmed berths through “Tatkal” service. The railways must ensure simple and easy process to obtain Tatkal tickets, otherwise it is a farce and fraud played on innocent passengers,” Tushar said .

According to sources, although July to August is considered to be the non-peak period for railways, confirmed tickets are still a dream for many people in Patna. A visually impaired scholar and former member of Bihar Public Service Commission, Shivjatan Thakur, alleged that he was denied berth from emergency quota (EQ) recently for unknown reasons. However, those who made “backdoor” approach, got confirmed tickets, he claimed. Similarly Ajit Mehta, Sujit and Kamal voiced their concern at the rampant corruption and touts operating at Patna Junction and other PRS offices, they said .

According to a railway security official, the railways raided a few travel agencies located near Patna Junction and recovered money and tickets booked in fake names. These agencies were charging exorbitant prices for each confirmed ticket from passengers . “Railways will continue to conduct raids at illegal and unauthorized agencies dealing in railway ticket booking,” he said.

There has been huge demand for AC berths in Delhi-bound trains from Patna Junction. As the popular AC Garib Rath has been extended up to Bhagalpur from Patna, there has been enormous rush in Rajdhani Express and Sampoorna Kranti Express trains now. The railways should give a thought to run another AC train from Patna to Delhi. The rake of Sasaram-Delhi AC train which is weekly, could be used at least for two days from Patna to clear rush of passengers, sources said .
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