Sunday, 14 August 2011

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

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

Bihar coming up with India’s first Jute park

Posted: 14 Aug 2011 05:36 AM PDT

Bihar is again honoured to make the first Jute park in the country.Then first jute park named Punrasar Jute Park is coming up at Maranga in Purnia district at a cost of Rs 600 crore. The seven unit jute park will mop up jute from jute farms in the hinterland of the Kosi region in north-east Bihar for production of jute yarn.

The products and finished goods will be marketed across the country. This will check export of jute from the farms in the Kosi belt to jute mills in other states.

First unit of the jute park at Maranga, the production-cum-training centre with 20 metric tonne per day jute yarn production capacity, will become operational in three months. The plant and machinery for the production-cum-training centre has been imported from China, said Sunil Chaudhary, a representative of Punrasar Jute Park Ltd, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) promoted by an industrialist from Kolkata, P C Choraria.

A joint venture of the Punrasar Jute Park Ltd and the state government, the park which would have five per cent stake as it has provided about 45 acres of land in Maranga industrial area in Purnia town through the Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA). BIADA executive director, Bhogendra Lal, on Thursday said Rs 7.25 crore had already been invested in developing the jute park. He said Rs 44.5 crore would be invested in infrastructure development of the park.

The jute park with its seven units will provide direct and indirect employment to around 20,000 people, Chaudhary said adding that SPV promoter P C Choraria has been successfully running the Rameshwar jute mill in Samastipur district for which he had received award from the Bihar government for good production of jute yarn. He also runs a couple of jute mills in West Bengal, Chaudhary said.

The next to come up would be its anchor unit with 150 metric tonne per day jute yarn production capacity, said Chaudhary. Jute from the farms in Araria, Katihar and Purnia districts will be supplied to th park, he said.

Other five units of Punrasar Jute Park would be for production of jute furnishing materials, jute shopping bags, handicrafts, jute bags, jute matting and a common facility unit for dyeing, bleaching, sewing and pressing, he said.

The closure of the Katihar jute mill over two decades back, which was the only one in the the Kosi region at that time, led to export of jute to other states. Jute farming had started to decline after that, he said adding that agriculture production commissioner A K Sinha had held several high level meetings to encourage intensive jute farming by facilitating quality seeds and modern agriculture equipment for increasing farm yield to jute growers.

Rare documents of freedom struggle showcased in Patna

Posted: 14 Aug 2011 03:32 AM PDT

Various important documents relating to freedom struggle including 90 banned leaflets, pamphlets and handwritten letters written during freedom struggle (1922-1947) has been put on display here on the Bihar State Archives premises till August 30.

The display of these rare archival materials would be a part of the 65th Independence Day celebrations. The pamphlets such as “Desh Mitra , Khatta Mitha Chatni, Azadi ke Nuskhe (all 1930) Vandemataram, mother’s honour at stake, ‘Zalimo Kaa Zaalim’, ‘Angrezo kaa phoda’, ‘Mahatma Gandhi Pratap’ (all 1923) will be on display at the exhibition.

The political special file of 1923 mentions the lodging of a case against Sri Krishna Sinha and others during staging drama “Bharat Dudasha”. Each such banned pamphlets describe a lesser known facts about the freedom movement in Bihar.

Details about arrest of Anand Kumar Chakravorty, Kumud Vikas Rai, Surendra Nath Niyogi — authors of “Tarun Shakti” – are mentioned in the pamphlets.

Several objectionable articles written in various journals and newspapers were banned during freedom struggle in which “Navin Bharat”, “Mahavir”, “Yogi”, and “Purnia Mirror” are important.

Bihar state archives director Vijoy Kumar told TOI that there were many more such rare documents stored in the archives. All these documents can throw fresh light on the writings of the freedom struggle in Bihar. “These documents are not studied and researched. It needs proper documentation to keep our struggle alive”, Kumar said.

Some of the pamphlets are coded with different names in order to hide there contents. Bizarre names of pamphlets like “Kunti Viyog”, “Bihari Bandar Nacho”, “Nilirag Bhumi se”, “Zakhmi Jigar”, “jail ki Chaat”, “Vijay Sundari”, “Azadi kaa Chirag” and “Jago Bharatvaasi’ are a few which will be added to the list.

All these pamphlets contain important information about the plans during the freedom movement, said a source.

The list of such books, newspapers and journals are long. These should be documented for further research, the source added. Bihar’s cabinet secretary Ravi Kant will formally inaugurate exhibition on Friday.

Organic farming to be the future of farming in Bihar

Posted: 14 Aug 2011 02:32 AM PDT

According to ASSOCHAM, the organic farming in Bihar can raise income of farmers and lead to wealth accumulation of over Rs 1,000 crore besides generating exports worth Rs 500 crore.Talking to reporters, ASSOCHAM Secretary General D S Rawat said organic farming also has the potential to generate over 20 lakh jobs in the state.

“Adoption of organic farming can increase net per capita income of the farmer in the state by a whopping 250 per cent to over Rs 4,445 in next five years,” Rawat said.

It will also arrest the migration of people from Bihar to other states in search of jobs.

At least 35 per cent of cultivable land can be converted into organic farms in next five years, thereby converting seven per cent of cultivable land annually into organic farming, he said.

Of the total 135 products in organic product portfolio, India exports 86 products worth 100 million dollars to the global market which currently stands at around 60 billion dollars and is growing by five billion dollars annually.

Bihar is an ideal state for organic farming as it is home to unique commodities such as jute, litchi and cosmetic raw materials like herbals, aromatic plants and makhana, besides, the state has the potential of being India’s export hub for certified organic food to different world markets, he said.

Biharis cannot live without Khaini

Posted: 13 Aug 2011 10:29 PM PDT

A survey has reported that every second adult in Bihar is addicted to smokeless tobacco product ‘khaini’.
“Altogether 63 per cent males and 35 per cent females in Bihar use smokeless tobacco,” the survey by the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS India) says.

“Every second adult in Bihar uses smokeless tobacco and its prevalence in the state is the highest among all states in India,” it said.

Among the six geographical regions of the north, east, central, north east, west and south in the country, the prevalence of tobacco use in any form and that of smokeless tobacco is the highest in the eastern region.

The survey shows that tobacco use starts among adults in the state between the ages 20 and 34, while daily tobacco use starts on an average at the age 18.8 years.

The mean age of initiation of smoking and smokeless tobacco is 20-34 is and 18.8 years respectively.Every third smoker aged between 20 and 34 had started using tobacco daily before attaining the age of 18, it says.

Tobacco users, especially users of smokeless tobacco, rarely quit once they start using it.

One in three daily smokers can quit smoking successfully, but in the case of smokeless tobacco only one in 16 could kick the habit, the survey says. Nearly three in five smokers and users of smokeless tobacco wanted to quit tobacco in the past 12 months prior to the survey.

Among them 48 per cent were smokers and 35 using smokeless tobacco, it says.
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