Jharkhand is happy, almost relieved, that railway minister Mamata Banerjee hasn’t disappointed the state this time, having announced three new trains, new tracks and station upgrades, much more than her predecessor Lalu Prasad ever did.

Although some specific regions of the state, Dhanbad-Bokaro zone of Adra division and the Chakradharpur division, were a tad unhappy that no new trains came their way, the new UPA government’s first railway budget managed to create a positive vibe here.

Mamata announced three new trains namely, Ranchi-Howrah Intercity Express, Ranchi-Patna Jan Shatabdi Express and Ranchi-Chindwara Express, thereby fulfilling a long-standing demand of the capital’s residents who wanted a day connection to Calcutta.

This apart, she has extended the Ranchi-Alipurduar Express to Guwahati, thereby ensuring direct connectivity with the Northeast. She also promised three new railway lines — Rajkharswan-Ranchi, Madhuban-Giridih and Ghoramara-Dumka on the Deoghar-Dumka stretch. The Madhuban-Giridih line would be completed by 2009-10, she said.

“We are happy with the budget. Unlike her predecessor, she has not neglected our state,” said Ashok Nagpal, the secretary of the Chhotanagpur Passenger Association.

He was echoing the initial reaction of people of Ranchi and its adjacent areas, especially the business community, who would no longer have to depend on Hatia-Howrah Express, a night train, to travel to Calcutta.

The new train would now allow them to go to Calcutta and return the same day. Till now, businessmen needing to visit Calcutta for trade frequently, would have to keep aside two days for such trips.

Similarly, a new train for Patna was also in demand, and Mamata — not Lalu Prasad — would be remembered for having done that for Jharkhand.

Mamata’s plan of upgrading 150 stations — namely industry destinations and tourist and pilgrimage centres — across the country includes five stations of Jharkhand.

Ranchi, Ghatshila and Jasidih would be developed into “multi-functional” complexes to include shopping facilities, restaurants, bookstalls, PCOs, medicine kiosks, variety stores, budget hotels and underground parking.

While Ranchi and Ghatshila are important from industry and tourism point of view, Jasidih serves a spiritual tourism destination because of its proximity to Baidyanath Dham, Deoghar.

Likewise, Jamshedpur and Gomoh stations were among 309 that would be converted to “ideal stations” to be equipped with better passenger facilities, including drinking water, toilets and dormitories for women.

Also, those travelling on Ranchi-Rajdhani Express and Ranchi-Calcutta Shatabdi Express would be pleasantly surprised as Mamata has promised infotainment on board that would include Internet facilities.

The new railway tracks promised have also been welcomed. “Constructing new railway lines on the Madhuban-Giridih stretch would be a boon for state tourism,” said R.K. Verma, the under secretary of the state tourism department.

Parasnath, near Madhuban, was the most sacred pilgrimage centre for Jains, he explained, adding that the faithful from across the country would now have better access.

On the other hand, elevation of Jasidih into a multi-functional complex would facilitate religious tourism to Baidyanath Dham in Deoghar where over 10 lakh pilgrims congregate very year during the month of Shravan.
Source : The Telegraph

The Giridih district recently got its 26th deputy development commissioner (DDC).

Surprising? Not when one goes through the resume of the new entrant. DDC Khurshid Anwer has been transferred 42 times — including his recent posting in Giridih — in his 30-year career. Since 2000 when Jharkhand was formed, he has been transferred 11 times.

“The nature of my job demands frequent transfers. In fact, it always remains at the back of my mind that at any moment, my transfer letter will arrive and I will have to move to some other place. In 2006, I got transferred from Garhwa within two days,” Anwer said.

So in how many districts has he served? Anwer laughed and said: “Ask me where I have not served! If I am not forgetting, I am yet to be posted in two places — Jamshedpur and Dhanbad.”

This is Anwer’s second stint in Giridih. He had served as the executive magistrate here from 1990-92.

The 1978 batch Bihar administrative service officer (now Jharkhand administrative service), Anwer has seen poverty and Naxalism up close. “I hail from a very poor family at Chatra in Bihar. My first posting was in Gaya district, where I had seen nine massacres carried out by Maoists. I hope my experience will help me handle my job here well,” he added.

Just after joining, Anwer not only conveyed a message to his fellow officers, but also to Naxalites operating in the region. “I am urging the Maoists through the media to let us work in the interior places. If they really want the uplift of the poor, they should not create disturbances,” he said.

“As for the officials, I have told them to pull up their socks within a fortnight and speed up execution of programme under Centre schemes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Indira Awas Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. I conducted a meeting on July 1 and gave them time till July 15 to plug in the loopholes
Source : The Telegraph

Ranchi
At least eight persons were killed and a dozen others injured in lightning strikes at different places in Jharkhand as rains lashed across the state.

The thunderbolt hit four places in Garwah district, killing two and wounding eight others last night, police said here today.

Three persons were killed and two injured when lightning struck at Karodih and Tisri village in Giridih district while three persons died and two were injured when thunderbolt struck them at Rahela and Mohammadganj village in Palamau district yesterday, officials added.

Source:http://www.indopia.in/India-usa-uk-news/latest-news/610679/BreakingNews/1/20/1

The one-time summer getaway of the rich and famous of Bengal is today ruing its transformation into a Maoist stronghold, the gnawing bitterness aggravated by the Centre giving it the short shrift while choosing districts for a pilot project to kick-start development and give the campaign against extremism a social face.

Giving voice to this resentment, 26-year-old right to information activist Prakash Chandra Chandan has written to the state home secretary J.B. Tubid invoking the sunshine law to ask why Giridih had been left out of the 10 districts shortlisted for the Centre’s project.

With an eye on winning over alienated regions under the influence of Maoists, the Centre identified as many as 33 extremist-prone districts across the country and sanctioned for each Rs 10 crore for an integrated development and security scheme in 2007-08.

Initially, Chatra and Palamau were chosen in Jharkhand, but later eight more districts were added, namely Chaibasa, Bokaro, Gumla, Garhwa, Lohardaga, Hazaribagh, West Singhbhum and East Singhbhum.

“We will be sending the plan to the Centre for the districts soon,” said state police spokesman B.B. Pradhan, but had no comment to offer on why Giridih wasn’t included.

Under the development component of the scheme, he said the focus was on employment generation, health, education and power. A fifth focus area would have to be chosen based on local needs. Under the security component, the focus was on construction of roads, bridges, helipads and campsites at remote areas.

“The irony is unmistakable in the Centre’s decision to ignore Giridih, which has seen some of the most daring acts of Maoist violence ever since the inception of Jharkhand,” said Chandan, who feared another Lalgarh-like situation brewing here too.

For instance, former chief minister Babulal Marandi lost his son in a sensational guerrilla operation by Maoists in October 2007 when armed squads raided Chilkhari, killing as many as 20 people.

Today, Giridih is a Naxalite hotbed, with a training hub unearthed at the Parasnath Hills. And Maoists are said to be active in Khetko, Mundro and Pirtand, known as the Uttarakhand of Dumri.

Even government schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme are in a shambles here. In 2008-09, Giridih, according to official records, got Rs 97 crore but spent only Rs 67 crore. Deputy commissioner Vandana Dadel has announced a freeze on salaries of 500 in the NREGS cell after detecting a fraud of Rs 32 crore due to doctored muster rolls at Bagoder.

Ask people’s representatives and they claim helplessness. “Since the last two years, there is no government functioning in Jharkhand. That’s why Giridih, which should have got top priority, wasn’t considered worthy of the Centre’s benevolence,” said Giridih MP Ravindra Pandey, adding he would soon approach the Governor.

“I have raised the issue in the Assembly and personally met DGP V.D. Ram on this,” said Bagoder MLA Vinod Singh.

Chandan feared the state’s bureaucrats were unable to comprehend the seriousness of the issue. Referring to the Bengal government’s operation to flush out Maoists from Lalgarh, he said, “Our officials must understand that Naxalites have taken over Giridih because the district’s prolonged neglect. Without development, there will be several Lalgarhs here.”
Source : The Telegraph

A senior government official and two security personnel were injured when armed Maoists attacked the civil court premises and
freed their 'commander' Babulal Besra here during their two-day bandh called to protest police action in Lalgarh.

Over 50 ultras, armed with sophisticated weapons, raided the court premises, broke open the lock-up and freed Besra, who hails from Giridih in Jharkhand, district magistrate P K Jha said.

They later attacked a police posse that tried to block their way and looted a carbine and two rifles from the policemen, who were outnumbered by the Maoist guerrillas, before escaping, he said.

Deputy development commissioner (Lakhisarai) Rajiv Ranjan sustained minor injuries when chunks of wood flying from the smashed window of his room hit him, the DM said.

Two constables, who suffered splinter injuries, were rushed to the government hospital here for treatment, Jha said.

Meanwhile, the Maoists also blasted a tower of a private telephone service provider in Gaya and a community centre in Aurangabad.

The treasure of a great scientist is waiting for another.

Missile man APJ Abdul Kalam’s scheduled visit to the capital on June 24 has once again fuelled hopes of retrieving a trove of possibly unpublished study papers of Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, the legendary scientist whose remarkable research in the disparate fields of electromagnetic waves and plant life created ripples worldwide.

The wealth that could be worth millions is currently safe in a sinduk (iron locker, in picture), closed since Bose’s demise on November 23, 1937, and followers strongly believe that it should be opened by none other than one of equal stature.

The JC Bose Society of Giridih made two efforts in the past to bring the former Indian President to the Science Centre so that the locker could be opened in his presence, but in vain. Vinod Mondal, the caretaker of the centre who has been guarding the locker for more than a decade, said: “Twice in 2002 (August and December), Kalam’s visit to the Science Centre was finalised, but cancelled at the eleventh hour because of security reasons. Since Kalam did not come, the sinduk was not opened.”

Bose, who breathed his last at Shanti Nivas, later transformed into the Science Centre, invented his crescograph — a device to measure growth in plants — in Giridih and worked on wireless transmission of electromagnetic waves, which was used by Italian great Guglielmo Marconi to invent the radio.

Since his death, the 3ft by 2ft by 1.5ft box has been lying locked. Bose researchers believe it contains unfinished research papers of several other projects that the legend had in mind. “The locker possibly contains valuable works of Bose. It is a national treasure and should be opened only in the presence of someone as deserving as the missile man,” said U.C. Mehta, the principal of Giridih College.

Chapalendu Bhattacharya of JC Bose Society said they had written to several dignitaries about the necessity “to find out what was in the sinduk, but neither the state government nor the Union science and technology ministry has done anything about it”.

Deputy commissioner Vandana Dadel has promised to do her best to send word to Kalam whose, itinerary, as of now, doesn’t include Giridih. But then, the former president is known to be his own man who doesn’t shy away from spontaneous decisions. Who knows?

Source: The Telegraph

To bring a smile on the faces of HIV/AIDS patients, drop-in centres have been opened in four districts of the state, courtesy Jharkhand State AIDS Control Society (JSACS).

In the first phase, the centres have been opened in Hazaribagh, Jamshedpur, Ranchi and Giridih — all tagged as high-risk zones for HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in a National AIDS Control Organisation survey.

The drop-in centres are offering counselling and information on reproductive health to HIV/AIDS victims. Most importantly, it is being run by people affected by HIV/AIDS. There is one drop-in centre in each of the above districts.

In each centre, there will be a counsellor and programme manager where patients who are HIV positive or are suffering from some other sexually transmitted diseases, can drop in and share their problems. The counsellors will help them handle the trauma and suggest ways of dealing with it.

According to the figure collected from the JSACS, the total number of HIV cases has doubled in the state in comparison to last year. The previous year it was 2,000 and now it is 4,041.

More such centres will be opened in next phase.

Renuka Tiwari, the joint director of Information Education and Communication (IEC) of the JSACS, said that these centres are opened under targeted intervention programme and will provide all required support to those affected with the diseases.

“These centres will help the HIV victims to deal with the stigma, situation they are often faced with better. The knowledge that one is affected with disease can be very unnerving and often people cannot handle it. At the drop-in centre we will counsel them so that they can face it and not slip into depression,” Tiwari added.

She added that the counsellors are discussing the problems and chalking out ways for the patients so that they can lead a life with dignity.

The JSACS is also planning to connect the HIV positive patients with livelihood programme by involving them in income generation activities as often it is seen that the patients become reclusive after coming to know about the disease.

“However, we are facing problem in running the centres due to acute shortage of funds,” she rued, adding that from now on they would go in for public private partnership (PPP) so that the centres do not become defunct.
Source : The Telegraph

...called by the Maoists starting Monday 22nd June..amazing the bandh days are outnumbering the regular days ( Editors note )

A huge cache of explosives was found on Sunday at a village in Giridih which the police suspect could have been brought in for use during the Maoists' 48-hour multi-state shutdown beginning Monday. "We have recovered 100 kg explosives hidden in a small bunker opposite a temple at Munro village, about 200 kms from state capital Ranchi," superintendent of police, Asim Vikrant Minz, told reporters here.

These explosives could have been used during the shutdown, claimed Minz. One person has been taken into custody for questioning. The Maoists have called for a bandh in Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and Chhattisgarh to protest against the security forces storming Lalgarh. Eighteen of the 24 districts in Jharkhand are hit by ultra-left extremism.Security has been beefed up at all important locations and a strict vigil is being kept on the border areas, particularly on Jharkhand-Bengal border, he added.

The villagers of Giridih are firm. They will not allow construction of any sponge iron unit in the district as past experience has shown that industrialists do nothing to check the pollution caused by the plants.

After thwarting Shivam group’s sponge iron plant in Udnabad, the villagers are opposing Sundaram Ferrotech Private Limited’s proposed pig iron and hard coke unit in Vishwashdih. They made their grievances known at a public hearing held by Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board at Town Hall today.

Two officials from the board, P.P. Singh and Jitendra Kumar, additional commissioner, Giridih, Gosai Oraon, block development officer Niraj Kumar and circle officer Prabhakar Singh attended the hearing. A representative of Sundaram Ferrotech, Ajay Kumar Chaudhary, was also present.

“The first thing the pollution control board should do is declare the verdict of the public hearings on the spot and not after two or three months,” said Sudipt Kumar Sonu, the JMM district president and a resident of Vishwashdih.

He also raised the issue of pollution of Usri river because of the unplanned factories. “Effluents from the plants have polluted the river water. If corrective steps are not taken, we will lose an important tourist destination.”

Another resident, Dilip Upadhayay, alleged: “Before everything, the present member of the pollution control board, Ravindra Prasad, should be transferred from Hazaribagh. He takes bribes to give no-objection certificates to the plants and have miserably failed to act against pollution.” “If the need arises, we will shut down the plant ourselves,” he warned.

He further said: “If the pollution control board and the administration do not take proper action, we will move the Supreme Court.”
Source : The Telegraph