Posts Tagged ‘Patna’
Written by admin on 10 May 2012
Patna, May 10 (IANS) Normal life was hit in many parts of Bihar Thursday by a day-long strike called by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) to protest the killing of a village head and the subsequent police lathicharge on the protesters demanding probe into the case, officials said.
More than 500 CPI-ML activists, including party general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, were detained for disturbing peace when they were enforcing strike, police said.
Bhattacharya led a procession of hundreds of party activists in Patna, shouting slogans against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and demanding justice for Sonhathu village head Devendra Singh alias Chhotu, who was shot dead near Dhamni village of Haspura block in Aurangabad district on April 29.
“Our strike received overwhelming support. It was a success because people are fed up of deteriorating law and order… there is anger against Nitish Kumar’s government,” Bhattacharya told news persons minutes before his detention.
The CPI-ML’s daylong strike was supported by opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Communist Party of India.
According to railway officials, the protesters forcibly stopped trains in Darbhanga, Ara, Gaya, Samastipur, Vaishali, Begusarai, Bhagalpur, and Jehanabad districts, disrupting the services.
Police officials said that CPI-ML activists blocked national highways in over a dozen districts that severely hit road traffic.
In Patna, the strike evoked mixed response with shops and business establishments remaining closed in some localities, though banks and other financial institutions were open.
Most central and state government offices wore a deserted look because of poor attendance.
The opposition parties CPI-ML and RJD had strongly protested the incident May 2 during which police burst teargas shells, fired shots in the air and lathicharged the protesters who were demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the case.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad had visited the slain village head’s home and addressed a public meeting in Dhamni village May 6.
Tags: Bihar, Patna
Posted in Business, National | No Comments »
Written by admin on 09 May 2012
Patna, May 9(IANS) A man was beaten to death in Bihar’s Katihar district Wednesday when he confronted three men who were harassing his sister, police said.
Mohd Raza, in his late 20s, was beaten to death in front of his sister at a place about 180 km from here.
Police arrested one of the accused after residents blocked a road to protest the murder.
Tags: Patna
Posted in Asia, India | No Comments »
Written by admin on 09 May 2012
Patna, May 9 (IANS) Bhojpuri folk songs that have been entertaining people in Bihar for years will now be used to spread awareness about the kala azar disease, a recurring epidemic that takes hundreds of lives in the state each year and afflicts thousands of poor people.
The state government has roped in singer-actor Manoj Tiwari for the initiative.
“The state government has given the go ahead to use folk songs to create awareness about prevention of the deadly kala azar in rural areas,” a health department official told IANS.
Over 23,000 kala azar cases were reported in 31 of Bihar’s 38 districts in 2011. The disease, transmitted by the sand fly, has killed over three dozen people so far this year and claimed over 70 lives last year, officials said.
Over 750 people have died of kala azar in the past five years. The authorities in Bihar aim to eradicate the disease by 2015.
The official said the government has roped in singer-actor Tiwari – known for his Bhojpuri hits – for the initiative.
“Folk songs will be recorded in his voice soon. Tiwari will sing folk songs to help government agencies against kala azar,” the official said.
“I will sing folk songs in Bhojpuri to create awareness on how to prevent the disease that is caused by poor living conditions and lack of sanitation,” Tiwari said.
He said kala azar will be main theme of folk songs composed and sung by him.
Kala azar, medically called visceral leishmaniasis, is known as the poor man’s disease because it affects the poorest.
The sand fly, which transmits the disease, multiplies in the cow dung that villagers use to plaster their shanties or as cow dung cakes for fuel. The flies survive on the sap in banana and bamboo groves and on decomposed cow dung heaps.
The disease is characterised by fever, weight loss, swelling of the spleen and liver and can lead to cardiovascular complications, resulting in death. Experts say poor living standards and unhygienic conditions make members of the Mushahar community, who are Dalits, easy prey.
The worst kala azar-hit areas of Bihar are the northern districts of Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Sheohar and East and West Champaran. Around 90 percent of the world’s kala azar cases are found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sudan.
(Imran Khan can be contacted at imran.k@ians.in)
Tags: Bihar, Patna
Posted in Entertainment, National | No Comments »
Written by admin on 08 May 2012
Patna, May 8 (IANS) Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday strongly protested the way Karnataka Police arrested a terrorist suspect from Darbhanga district in Bihar without informing the state police, and said he would raise the issue with the central government.
“It is not proper to arrest a suspect without informing local police. The law of the land should be followed. We will raise this issue before the concerned department of the central government,” Kumar told newspersons here.
Kumar termed the Karnataka Police action as violation of establish rule. “I have sought a report from Bihar police chief on it, we will send the report to the union home ministry,” Kumar said.
Bihar police chief Abhyanand has also lodged a strong protest with his Karnataka counterpart, he said.
Bangalore Crime Branch officials arrested Kafil Akhtar, a suspected member of banned outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), in connection with the Chinnaswami Stadium blast case of 2010, from a village in Darbhanga, about 200 km from here.
Darbhanga Superintendent of Police (SP) Garima Malik said that local police were not informed by Karnataka police about the arrest.
The Darbhanga police came to know about the arrest from Akhtar’s family members, Malik said.
Tags: Bihar, Patna
Posted in National, Politics | No Comments »
Written by admin on 07 May 2012
Patna, May 7 (IANS) Criminals shot dead a businessman here Monday morning, but police quickly arrested two men suspected to be involved in the crime.
Saket Kumar Gupta, a cousin of senior police officer Ashok Kumar Gupta, was killed near a park. He was returning home after his morning walk.
The incident has shocked businessmen and traders. Residents of the area blocked roads in protest against the killing.
In last two months nearly half a dozen businessmen have been killed in the state.
Tags: Patna
Posted in National | No Comments »
Written by admin on 06 May 2012
Patna, May 6 (IANS) A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar warmly greeted his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi at a meeting in New Delhi, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Sunday attacked the former for “betraying his people”.
“It is nothing but a political drama. Nitish Kumar is betraying people over his stand against Modi,” Prasad told reporters here.
Nitish Kumar, a Janata Dal-United leader, had opposed Modi, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, when he wanted to come to Bihar to campaign for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and the 2010 assembly polls.
He had even returned the flood relief fund Gujarat gave to Bihar in 2008.
Prasad said it was Nitish Kumar’s strategy to keep distance from Modi to maintain a secular image.
“But the fact is that he and Modi enjoy a good relationship as was evident when a smiling Nitish Kumar met Modi and shook his hand like an old friend (at a meeting of chief ministers) in Delhi.”
Tags: Bihar, Patna
Posted in National, Politics | No Comments »
