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| Feb 21, 2007 |
Jharkhand cops run out of fuel to chase Maoists
In Jharkhand, where 16 out of the 22 districts are Maoist-infested, police have had to apply brakes on their operations against insurgents for want of funds to buy even fuel for their vehicles.
Officials said the police headquarters here had no money in their account to purchase petrol or diesel. The money allocated for fuel in the budget has already been spent and for the past two months the police stations have had to fend for themselves when it came to travel.
According to a senior police official, the headquarters had sought money from the home department six months ago but the latter was yet to respond, causing the current crunch.
'The police headquarters had sent the file to the home department, seeking money from the first supplementary budget. The first supplementary budget was passed in the monsoon session in September and the second supplementary budget was passed in the winter session in December,' a senior police official told IANS.
'But the home department never bothered to send the file to the finance department,' he added.
'We had sought Rs.100 million for petrol, food and other things for police requirement. But the home department did not think it prudent to move the file. We are unable to supply money to Maoist-dominated districts in the absence of budgetary provisions,' he said.
Jharkhand Director General of Police J.B. Mahapatra admitted that the money meant for petrol and diesel has already been spent. The district police chiefs have to fend for themselves when it comes to fuel requirement now.
Another senior police official involved in anti-militancy operations said: 'According to estimates, Rs.30 million is due to different petrol pump owners. We are unable to pay them. If we take more petrol and diesel from them, they will accuse us of resorting to extortion.'
He added: 'In the past, we were getting money from the supplementary budget. But this year we did not get that.'
Every police station is given 200 litres of petrol for a month. But now even the allocated petrol is not reaching the police stations, the officials claim. The police department will get more money only when the budget is presented in March and passed by the assembly.
The police officials are also demanding an increase in petrol allocation as they invariably run short of fuel.
http://www.indiaenews.com/india/20070221/40293.htm
Industries a bane for Bihar villages
(Gaya) Bihar/ (Jharsuguda) Orissa: 200 kilometers from one of India's poorest districts, Kalahandi, is western Orissa's industrial hub - Sambalpur.
In the vicinity lies Jharsuguda district where many large corporations have either set up units or are buying land. Near a large steel unit is a village where the steel company purchased 400 acres of agricultural and barren land two years ago.
Now villagers claim the company is dumping lose industrial waste here. The impact - a mound of industrial waste now adorns an erstwhile flat area.
And even as the company shows no sign of easing up on dumping industrial waste, the waste is mounting and falling on to the roads, on crops and even in the village's water sources, contaminating the water.
All this allegedly, without farmers even receiving the entire money due to them for the sale of the land.
A few kilometers away, another large corporation purchased agricultural land a year ago and the story is the same here with villagers claiming they are still waiting to be paid for the land.
The sorry tale is repeated in Jharkhand andd Bihar, where villagers have the same sad stories to tell.
About 400 kilometers from Sambalpur is Jharkhand's capital, Ranchi. The inadequate infrastructure in the city is in stark contrast to the clean and green highways around it.
The highway between Ranchi and Bodh Gaya is a pleasant and somewhat surprising reminder of the highways in western India - courtesy the huge influx of Buddhist tourists that fly to Ranchi and then travel to Bodh Gaya by road.
About 10 kilometers away from the city of enlightenment is Gaya where the basic amenities are missing and people are still waiting for roads and electricity.
Without roads, there can be no public transport and apart from the two or three trains daily that connect them to Gaya - a journey which takes seven minutes by train and almost five hours by foot - there is no real concept of public transport here.
And here too - like in many places in India - villagers are resisting selling their fertile lands for an ethanol unit.
http://www.ibnlive.com/printpage.php?id=34026§ion_id=7
Work over, big bill blows
Ranchi, Feb. 20: Jharkhand would appear to be a poor state ruled by extravagant politicians and bureaucrats.
Confirmation comes from the government's resolve to spend Rs 1.59 lakh to ready a badminton court, Rs 3 lakh to fix a bathroom, Rs 4 lakh to lay a pathway in a bungalow and Rs 9 lakh for the repair and renovation of the finance minister's residence.
The details tumbled out of a tender notice issued by the Building Construction Department this week. The notice has drawn attention for various reasons.
Contractors are to submit tenders by March 5. The very next day the tenders will be finalised and the work will have to be completed within the next three weeks.
The unusual and unseemly hurry, confided sources, is to allow the department to withdraw funds before the end of the financial year and regularise contracts which have already been executed in most cases. To that extent, the "eyewash" is a massive fraud on both the people and the Constitution. Most of the work, confided sources, has either been completed or initiated. And the "inflated" bills have either been submitted or will be submitted shortly.
Besides, the financial and administrative irregularity, the tender has exposed the lavish lifestyle of the ministers and the babus.
The chief secretary's residence and residential office is barely four-year-old. But the department appears to have provided Rs 6 lakh for special repairs. In fact, just the bathroom at the residence is sought to be done up at a cost of Rs 3.09 lakh. Similarly, Rs 6 lakh are slated to be spent on the bungalow of Dulal Bhuinya to give it a "face-lift".
The two deputy chief ministers are not far behind. While finance minister Stephen Marandi's bungalow has swallowed Rs 9.25 lakh for "repairs and renovation", a pathway at the bungalow of Sudhir Mahto is estimated to cost Rs 3.95 lakh.
One will not be surprised to learn that less than Rs 50,000 are actually spent on re-adying a badminton court at the residence of the chief justice while contractors estimated the cost to be Rs 1.59 lakh.
The finance minister innocently confirmed today that work on a kitchen and a chamber are going on in his bungalow.
Engineers said contractors enjoy the patronage of the minister, Anosh Ekka. They first do the work, then submit inflated bills and then demand payment, the engineers rued.
Although there are over 11,913 government buildings across the state, the entitlements are not specified. "There is no standard and no specification; no mention of who is entitled to what or how much," said an engineer.
Ministers and secretaries, deputy commissioners and police superintendents, therefore, demand the best quality, lay down their own specifications and insist that the work should begin immediately.
The non-plan budget for 2006-07 was pegged at Rs 118 crore while the plan budget was Rs 70 crore. Repairs and renovation take place under the non-plan budget. "Special repairs are undertaken only when the department fails to carry out routine maintenance,"said RJD legislator and public accounts committee chairman Girinath Singh.
Ekka and the departmental secretary, D.K. Tiwary, however, feigned ignorance and declared that action would be taken against erring engineers, "if it is found that they have flouted rules".
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070221/asp/jamshedpur/story_7420129.asp
Cop killed by criminals in Bihar
BIHARSHARIF: Some unknown criminals killed officer in-charge of Rahui police station Shiv Ram on Monday night near Kadibigha village while he was going to the police station on his motorcycle from Bhaganbigha.
The criminals also looted his service revolver and cellphone after killing but did not touch the gold ring and other items, including cash. The police suspected the killing was the fallout of Shiva's recent action against criminals.
According to the postmortem done in the Police Line, Shiv Ram died due to several bullet shots. The body, however, has been sent to his native place, Betia Chhawani Chawk, for cremation.
The deceased leaves behind his wife, two sons and three daughters. Nalanda SP Amit Kumar rushed to the spot after getting information. No arrest has been made in this connection so far.
Central range AIG Sunil Kumar also reached here to take stock of the situation. The SP said a team under the leadership of DSP Ajeet Kumar Satyarthi has been formed to arrest criminals.
The SP further said an amount of Rs 10,000 has been released for the cremation to the deceased. President of Nalanda Police Association Yogendra Kumar Singh also donated Rs 3,000 to the bereaved family members.The association leaders assured for reasonable compensation to the family.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/Cities/Patna/Cop_killed_by_criminals_in_Bihar
/articleshow/1647448.cms
Below normal NE monsoon bad news on inflation
MUMBAI: Efforts to rein in inflation may suffer yet another setback with the north-east monsoon recorded to be 21% below normal in 2006. This is the lowest recorded rainfall since last five years. Already, several measures initiated by the government to improve supplies have not met with the desired result.
North-east monsoon normally is a major period of rainfall activity during October-December. According to an RBI report, the cumulative rainfall was 21% below normal as compared with 10% above normal, during the corresponding period of the previous year (October- December'05). While rainfall during the initial and terminal months was deficient, the month of November witnessed excess rainfall.
Among the four regions, the at is North-west India, central India, south peninsula and north-east India, rainfall was deficient by 52% in central India comprising Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and 42% deficient in north-east India including Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and other north-eastern states and Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Of these four regions north- east India and south peninsular India - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, Kerala and Lakshadweep — are most dependent on the north-east monsoon. While the normal amount of rainfall over south peninsular India is 268.4mm that of north-east India is 161.5mm. Against this the normal rainfall in central India is 79.9 mm and northwest India 66.7 mm. Central India received just 36.9 mm while north east India received just 92.9 mm rainfall against the normal expectation.
Trade sources estimate deficient rainfall during the north-east monsoon season could somewhat affect the rabi output especially in pulses like tur and gram, oilseeds like rape/mustard and sunflower, foodgrains like maize and rice grown in areas which witnessed deviation from the normal expected rainfall, ie central and north-east India. They are however unequivocal in stating it may not be possible to quantify the extent of damage. Well irrigated regions which are less reliant on these rains could also experience some impact of the shortfall, said an agri economist.
This is despite the fact that total area under rabi crops has increased by 2.6% at 614.92 lakh hectares(ha) over that in 2005-06. The ministry of agriculture reported that less coverage under oilseeds was mainly due to diversion of area from rapesed/mustard to bengal gram in MP and to wheat in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. According to the ministry of agriculture data as on February 9 areas under wheat has increased 6.6% y-o-y (year-on-year) at 281.78 lakh/ ha, rape-mustard area has declined 9.9% at 66.39 lakh ha. The area under gram has gone up 9% y-o-y to 83.72 lakh/ ha.
Another source said that despite scant rainfall over MP, wheat, which witnessed maximum increase in terms of absolute numbers at 5.5 lakh/ha, would not be affected as "it is not much dependent on irrigation and whose needs can be catered for by means of pumpsets, canal irrigation and the like."
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Below_normal_NE_monsoon_bad_news_on_
inflation/articleshow/1647371.cms
Chhattisgarh assembly condemns Samjhauta Express blasts
The Chhattisgarh assembly Tuesday unanimously condemned Monday's bomb blasts by suspected terrorists near Panipat in Haryana that killed 68 people and injured dozens on the Samjhauta Express, the 'friendship train' between India and Pakistan.
Speaker Premprakash Pandey said that blasts in the Pakistan-bound train and killing of innocent civilians was a slur on humanity and had shaken the entire world.
'The House strongly condemns the act of anti-nationals who engineered a cowardice act and we express our solidarity with the families of the deceased,' he said.
The 90-member assembly observed a two-minute silence as a mark of respect to those killed in the blasts. The House was later adjourned for five minutes.
Chief Minister Raman Singh described the train blasts 'a part of international terror conspiracy designed to foment trouble in India'.
'The nation is prepared firmly to deal with such terror acts but Monday's blast conspirators must be exposed,' Singh who heads the 39-month-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state, said.
Congress member and the leader of opposition Mahendra Karma said that trouble makers are very active in India and such elements must be exposed and stamped out from the country.
http://www.indiaenews.com/politics/20070220/40229.htm
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| Hot issues of Today |
- Feb 15, 2007
- Feb 14, 2007
- Feb 13, 2007
- Feb 12, 2007
- Feb 11, 2007
- Feb 10, 2007
- Feb 09, 2007
- Feb 08, 2007
- Feb 07, 2007
- Feb 06, 2007
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