Page 59 - Bihar

Bihar: Railway track illegally sold to scrap dealer; 2 RPF staff suspended

Two Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel have been suspended after a scrap scam case of a missing railway track came to the fore in Samastipur Railway Division of Bihar

Kushwaha not JD(U) parliamentary board chief any more: Party president

JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan on Monday asserted that disgruntled leader Upendra Kushwaha has ceased to be the chairman of the party's parliamentary board. Lalan said Kushwaha was, now, "only a JDU MLC" though the former Union minister could get "re-nominated" to the top party post, subject to "continuance and commitment" (agar party mein rahenge, man se rahenge). "Only the national president was elected at the party's national executive meet held in December. No other office-bearer has since been appointed. So, Kushwaha is, technically, not the parliamentary board chief now," said Lalan. Notably, Kushwaha had been holding the top party post since March, 2021, when he returned to the JD(U) merging his Rashtriya Lok Samata Party. Welcoming him into the party, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the supreme leader, had in a rare gesture announced forthwith that Kushwaha shall be the chairman of the parliamentary board. Lalan's averment comes close on the hee

JD(U) suffered after allying with BJP in 2017, says Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday asserted that the JD(U)'s realignment with the BJP half a decade ago, which came to an abrupt end last year, had been to the detriment of his party. The JD(U) leader was replying to queries from journalists in Banka district, which he visited as part of the Samadhan Yatra' mass outreach programme. He was asked about the open letter to the party cadre from disgruntled parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha, who has convened a two-day meeting next week to discuss the gradual erosion of support base of the JD(U) and anxieties over a rumoured deal with the RJD, its current ally. A visibly peeved Kumar sought to remind Kushwaha that the latter has been always rewarded by the party despite having ditched it repeatedly and if he keeps airing his grievances in public then it will be construed as he has other plans for himself. When asked whether he thought Kushwaha was forcing his hand at the BJP's behest, Kumar replied cryptically, You can d

Bihar: 2 PFI members arrested for conspiring to carry out targeted killings

Two members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) were arrested in a case related to a conspiracy by the banned group to carry out targeted killings in Bihar, a spokesperson of the NIA said on Sunday. Tanveer Raza alias "Barkati" and Mohammad Abid alias "Aryan", both residents of Bahadurpur village, were arrested from Motihari in Bihar on Saturday following raids at eight locations, the spokesperson said. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said the arrest duo had arranged weapons and ammunition to carry out targeted killings. Earlier, four persons were arrested in the case and several incriminating articles and documents related to the PFI were seized. "With these arrests, a PFI module planning targeted killings and disrupting communal harmony has been unearthed and busted," the spokesperson said. The agency said the case was initially registered on July 12 last year at Police Station Phulwarisharif in Patna and re-registered by the NIA 10 days later. "The raids and arrests we

G20 meeting in Patna slated in early March postponed to June: Official

A G20 meeting in Patna which was earlier slated to take place early March has now been planned to be held in June, according to a senior official. India assumed the presidency of the influential bloc on December 1. Over 200 meetings are planned to be hosted at 55 locations across the country. "A meeting of G20 was earlier scheduled to be held in the first week of March. But, the date has now been changed, and it is planned to be held sometime in June," a senior official of the Bihar government told PTI. The G20 meeting in Patna is to be held on the labour track, and several delegates are expected to take part in it. Meanwhile, various state government departments and district administration are gearing up for the key event in the Bihar capital, sources said. The venue for the meeting in Patna has not been decided yet, they said. The Bihar art and culture department has been made the nodal agency for the G20 event, and plans are afoot to give the delegates a pleasant experience du

Nitish should stop making people of Bihar suffer: Ravi Shankar Prasad

"The people of Bihar have decided to vote for BJP, and riding on that we will win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and 2025 Vidhan Sabha elections by big margins," he added

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Centre cutting its share in funding education: Bihar FM Vijay Choudhary

Likewise in Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), earlier the Centre has reduced its share to 60% from the earlier's 100%

Ganga water scheme to soon meet drinking water needs in Nawada: Nitish

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said that his government, under its Ganga Water Supply Scheme (GWSS), will soon provide treated flood waters to households of Nawada district. Talking to reporters here, during his ongoing 'Samadhan Yatra', Kumar said the project will meet the drinking water needs of the district. "Work to provide treated flood waters of river Ganga to households in Nawada district is underway on a war footing. It will be completed in the next few months. People of Nawada will soon get sacred Ganga water at home," he underlined. Notably, the CM had launched the scheme, worth Rs 4,175 crore, in Gaya and Rajgir in November last year. The scheme was approved in a special cabinet meeting held in Gaya in December 2019.

Bihar inks MoU with FSI for TOF field survey to promote agroforestry

To encourage tree plantation on farmland along with crops to help farmers get additional income, Bihar government in association with FSI has decided to conduct 'Trees Outside Forest' (TOF) field survey to identify the dominant tree species that are growing outside the recorded forest areas (RFA) in the state, an official said. As per the Forest Survey of India (FSI) India state of Forest Report, 2021, Bihar has registered an increase of 3.79 per cent in growing stock in RFA and 0.58 per cent in TOF respectively, the official said. "The overall tree cover has also increased in the state from 2,003 sq km in 2019 to 2,341 sq km in 2021. The FSI survey was conducted by using remote sensing based forest cover mapping of all patches of more than one hectare within and outside the RFA. Now, we want a comprehensive TOF survey based on field inspection", Ashutosh, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, told PTI. He said, "Through this survey, we would be able to identify the dominant tree .

Akhilesh Yadav lauds Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on initiating caste survey

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday lauded Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for initiating the caste survey saying that the British too had thought in 1931 about the move, which alone could ensure the development of all castes. Talking to reporters at Janeshwar Mishra Park, named after the party member and former MP, Yadav said, "The caste survey is not made today. The British had thought that a caste survey should be done in 1931. The rights of the constitution can be given to different castes and communities only when their count is known." "I appreciate and congratulate Bihar Chief Minister for this," he said, after paying his tributes to Mishra. He said that his party has been demanding such a survey for long, and that he too had during his election rallies promised to initiate it within three months of formation of government. About his recent Telengana visit, Yadav said he had gone there at the invitation of Telangana Chief Minister, who had invited several other

Vande Bharat train pelted with stones in Bihar's Katihar district: Official

In yet another incident of its kind in Bihar, the Vande Bharat Express was pelted with stones while passing through Katihar district, a railway official said on Saturday

SC declines to entertain petitions against caste-based census in Bihar

The petitions sought a direction from the apex court to quash the Bihar government's notification to conduct caste-based census

Bihar politics: Upendra Kushwaha missing from JD-U posters in Patna

"Poster" politics in Bihar is a regular affair and every party is uses it as a tool to target leaders of opposing parties as well as within the party

Steps being taken for sustainable devpt of fisheries sector in Bihar: CM

Interacting with reporters during his Sadbhavna Yatra in Kulharia block in Bhojpur district, he said Bihar is working towards achieving self-sufficiency in fish cultivation

3 wickets have fallen in 3 months: Pashupati Paras on 'Mahagatbandhan' govt

Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras took a jibe at the grand alliance govt in Bihar, claiming that "three of its wickets had fallen in three months"

Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait to meet farmers in Buxar today

'I am going to Chausa in Buxar district in support of our farmer brothers and sisters. They were brutally assaulted by the local police on the night of January 11'

High arsenic concentration in groundwater of 18 districts in Bihar: Study

High arsenic concentration has been found in groundwater in 18 districts of Bihar, as well as its correlation with incidences of gallbladder cancer at these places, according to a new study, a senior official said. People in these districts are drinking water with arsenic concentration greater than the World Health Organisation's permissible limit of 10 microgram per litre, he said. The study by experts has found that out of the 38 districts, 18 have high arsenic contamination in groundwater. The worst-affected districts are Buxar, Bhojpur and Bhagalpur. The highest arsenic contamination (1906 ug/L) in groundwater is in Buxar, Ashok Kumar Ghosh, Chairman of the Bihar State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB), told PTI. Now, arsenic as a possible risk factor for gallbladder cancer has been found in the study. Public health intervention in the form of removing arsenic from drinking water is the need of the hour in the endemic regions of Bihar and Assam. Tackling arsenic pollution may help

Learnt a lot about politics from him: Rahul condoles demise of Sharad Yadav

Gandhi paid his respects to Yadav at the veteran politician's residence here and was seen consoling the bereaved family members

President Murmu condoles demise of veteran JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav

Yadav, a veteran politician and former JD(U) chief, died on Thursday at a private hospital in Gurugram