Eight ALS ambulances deployed to transport AES patients in Bihar: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan

Source: zeenews.india.com

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said that eight additional Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances have been deployed to transport Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) patients in the affected districts of Bihar. He added that the government officials have also started house-to-house active case finding campaign in order to check the outbreak of deadly viral disease. “8 additional Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances deployed to transport AES (Acute Encephalitis Syndrome)/JE (Japanese Encephalitis) patients in the affected districts. House to house active case finding campaign started,” Harsh Vardhan was quoted as saying by ANI.

It is to be noted that the AES has claimed the lives of over 140 children in Bihar, with over 100 children losing their lives at Sri Krishna Medical College & Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur alone. The Union Health Minister said that a team of experts from Indian Council of Medical Research has been deployed at SKMCH hospital in order to make the virology lab operational as soon as possible. Harsh Vardhan noted that multi-disciplinary team deployed earlier in Muzaffarpur is reviewing all the case records of AES patients, who were admitted and treated since the outbreak of deadly disease this year.

“ICMR team of experts has been deployed at SKMCH hospital, Muzaffarpur for making the virology lab operational at the earliest. Multi-disciplinary team deployed earlier is reviewing all the case records of AES patients, admitted and treated in 2019,” said Harsh Vardhan.

It may be recalled that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday visited SKMCH and gave directions to convert the government-run hospital into a 2500-bed facility. Kumar also issued orders saying 1500 new beds for the hospital should be arranged immediately and a ‘dharmshala’ should be build for the relatives and families of the those who are admitted in SKMCH.

Earlier on Thursday, RJD leader Misa Bharti said that no leader from her party will attend the dinner called by Prime Minister today because of deaths of children in Muzaffarpur due to AES. Misa said that medicines and equipment can be bought from the money which the government is going to spent in organising this dinner for parliamentarians.

Encephalitis is a viral disease, which causes mild flu-like symptoms such as high fever, convulsions and headaches and has been claiming lives in the district for the past few weeks.

Jharkhand wins Sub-Junior Girls National Football C’ship final

Source: business-standard.com

Jharkhand defeated Arunachal Pradesh by 4-0 to clinch the Sub-Junior Girls’ National Football Championship (NFC) at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Thursday

Soni Munda and Basanti Lakra scored a brace each to help Jharkhand to their first national championship victory this season. Earlier this year, the state had also made it to the finals of the Junior Girls’ NFC in Kolhapur where they lost to Himachal Pradesh.

Jharkhand got off to a quick start in the first half itself as they looked to use the width of the pitch to stretch the Arunachal defence. It took them only 15 minutes to break the deadlock. Forward Soni Munda made the perfect run in between the two Arunachal centrebacks, as she was played into the box before she placed it past the keeper and into the net.

Arunachal tried to get their game going but the Jharkhand defence kept cutting them off in the final third. Soon, Jharkhand doubled their lead through Basanti Lakra, who only had to tap it into the empty net after Arunachal keeper Bumpasai Manyu collided with one of the attackers.

The Jharkhand defence was at the top of its game on the day as they neutralised the threat posed by the Arunachal duo of Simran Zeeba and Tallo Ana. The former, who is the captain of the North-eastern side, had even released the latter, who is the top scorer of the tournament, with an aerial through ball towards the end of the first half, but it was expertly cut out by the defence.

Jharkhand captain Salina Kumari came into her own in the second half, chasing down lost causes which led to the third goal of the evening. The left winger hounded after a stray ball that was somewhat equidistant between the two Arunachal centre backs and the goalkeeper. She managed to get to the ball before the onrushing keeper and cut past her to expose an empty goal.

While the angle was too tight for Salina, she simply squared it across the face of the goal for Lakra to tap it into an empty net and score her second of the game. Arunachal did try to get some of their counter-attacks going through captain Simran Zeeba but the North-eastern side’s wingers Zila Kamchi and Bamang Yaro were played too narrow and were often crowded out by the Jharkhand midfield and defence.

The highest scorer of the tournament, Tallo Ana, was heavily marked and often had to drop deep into the midfield, in order to find space, which meant that Arunachal missed her goalscoring instinct up front.

Arunachal head coach Kipa Bharat brought in Gumku Rani, while Ana operated in the hole. This freed up some space for the latter, who had the perfect opportunity to pull one back. With a little over 10 minutes of regulation time left on the clock, Rani played Ana through on goal, but the latter’s out-step shot lacked any venom, as Jharkhand keeper Jyotsna Bara slid in to claim the ball.

This push from Arunachal Pradesh came too late as they ran out of time. With just a few minutes of regulation time left, Soni Munda scored her brace, as she slipped the ball past the Arunachal keeper to make it four. There was no coming back from that, and Jharkhand ran away with their first National Football Championship title of the season.

AES outbreak puts focus on ailing healthcare infrastructure in Bihar

Source: livemint.com

NEW DELHI: The rising death toll of children suffering from acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district not only points to a health crisis, but also the crippling healthcare infrastructure in the state.

According to the latest data available with the ministry of health and family welfare, about 79.5% of the 1,719 villages in Muzaffarpur district do not have a public healthcare facility. There are only 630 public healthcare facilities in Muzaffarpur, the data reveals.

“What can easily be managed at a primary health centre level, is reaching Muzaffarpur at a critical stage causing deaths. Since there is no primary health infrastructure nearby and no health experts to tell these families the preventive measures, the problem arises,” said a senior health ministry official, requesting anonymity.

Experts also said that in view of the children’s deaths and the number of new cases being reported every day, the district level infrastructure is about to collapse.

“Encephalitis cases have always been witnessed in areas which are economically disadvantaged and have rudimentary health infrastructure at the primary care level. Health infrastructure is a major issue given the high mortality in Bihar. The easy solution to this disease is balanced diet in each meal,” the official said.

“Even if children show early signs, regular glucose consumption can solve the problem. The early warning signals that should be provided to villagers also seem to be absent,” he added.

The official said malnutrition, compounded by heat and humidity, unusually high this year, is the major cause for the high death toll.

According to the census of 2011, Bihar is the third most populous state in India, with around 40% of its population below the poverty line. The major health and demographic indicators of the state, such as infant mortality rate, maternal mortality ratio, and total fertility rate, are substantially higher than the all-India average, and reflect the poor health status of the people. The state has a shortage of 1,210 sub-centres, 131 primary health centres (PHCs), and 389 community health centres (CHCs).

So far, 167 children have died in Bihar, with Muzaffarpur recording 117 deaths. Other districts include Vaishali (19), Motihari (12), Begusarai (8), Samastipur (8), and one each in Arrah, Sheohar and Purnia.

“Blame it on the scarcity of health facilities or unawareness among masses, patients from almost all the villages in Muzaffarpur are coming to us in critical stages, which is increasing the death toll. Private hospitals are unable to handle the pressure,” said Sunil Shahi, medical superintendent, Sri Krishna Medical College, Muzaffarpur, which is handling a majority of the cases.

Interestingly, Muzaffarpur city is part of the centre’s smart cities’ list. According to a recent report by the Smart Cities Mission of Housing and Urban affairs, the doctor-patient ratio at Muzaffarpur is as low as 80:100,000 patients. The report said there are four large hospitals in the city, 46 nursing homes and 175 medicine shops. The city provides some access to healthcare for its residents, but healthcare facilities are “overburdened and far from many residents”.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India 2018 report said improved healthcare facilities could not be provided because of project delays. “Completion of 75 CHCs was delayed by one to 33 months. Further, 11 CHCs was incomplete even after the delay of one to 36 months, due to non-availability of dispute-free land and slow execution of work. Consequently, there was a delay in the completion of 86 CHCs, which delayed the intended objective of providing improved healthcare facilities.”

Postcard to Gaya: The killer heatwave revives memories of our faithful, much-loved Saifuddin

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

What connects me to a distant Bihari cluster where a heat wave claimed 61 lives last weekend? It’s a four generation debt of gratitude. Saifuddin has surfaced to my consciousness. He’s always been in its mothballed folds though he died nearly 26 years ago. How could he not be, considering that he came into our family just weeks   before I did, and went on to supervise the  passage to adulthood of my own two sons?  A callow village lad, he’d been recruited to serve my grandfather.

The dormant memories haemorrhaged my brain because one of those three reeling   districts had been implanted there since i was 12. Every month, Saifu would request, ‘Bachi-baba, pata likh dijiye’. And I’d neatly write the address on his postcard: Village Karanja, Post Jakhim, Dist Gaya, Bihar. But, as far as we were concerned, ours was his only home, and his devotion confirmed this. He had risen to Cook, but he was also our park-taker, school/ college lunch-bringer, earthy idiom-supplier: ‘Jiska bandar wohi nachayega’ he’d scoff at my clumsy onion-chopping. He even became my ‘dowry’.

Alarmed over domestic demands skewing my career, Dad despatched him on the Howrah Mail. My protests against such ‘apron strings’, quickly turned to daily thanksgiving for this talisman against perfidious Mumbai maids. Et al. Bawling No 1 Son would quieten as soon as Saifu took him in his arms. Through the boys’ acne and ecstasy, he filled in for Absentee Parents. He berated No 1’s girlfriends for phoning during his siesta, and No 2 for fussing over his clothes ( ‘Coallage jata, ke party mein?’ ). He was such a stabiliser that all fuses blew during his summer sojourn to  ‘muluk’,  and everyone lit up when he returned, darker,  thinner, but – so we liked to think – equally happy to be back.

We selfishly put off his retirement, but finally surendered to his real family. The sons he barely knew had gone off to jobs, and a male elder was needed to look after the left-behind wives in Village Karanja. We got a postcard of his passing a year later.  It was on No 1 Son’s 20th birthday, and now there was no Saifu to comfort his silent bawling.

Smart City, AIIMS, 500-bed Dumka hospital get environmental clearance

Source: hindustantimes.com

The Jharkhand government’s five big-ticket projects, including Smart City, AIIMS and 500-bed Dumka hospital, got the much-awaited environmental clearance (EC) from the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), officials said on Wednesday.

SEIAA chairman SEH Kazmi said, the environmental clearance for five building construction projects -civic tower, convention centre, Rabindra Bhawan in Ranchi, AIIMS Deoghar and 500-bed hospital building in Dumka- was given in SEIAA’s 74th meeting held on Tuesday.

Construction work of multistorey civic tower and convention centre under Ranchi Smart City scheme were stopped for want of environmental clearance around three months back.

The Centre had picked Ranchi under its ambitious Smart City project in May 2016. Jharkhand is developing country’s first Greenfield smart city project on an area of 656 acres of land, acquired by the state government from Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) Limited.

Vice-president, Venkaiah Naidu on September 9 in 2017 laid the foundation stones of three major projects such as convention centre, urban civic tower (UCT) and Jharkhand urban planning management institute (JUPMI)-worth around Rs 700 crore. Barring JUPMI, two other projects were waiting for the required EC.

Chief executive officer (CEO) of Ranchi Smart City Corporation Limited (RSCCL), Amit Kumar said, “With getting clearance, mobilisation of building materials and labour force have been started from Wednesday. Now, the projects are expected to progress with its schedule.”

However, the project proposals were given clearance with certain conditions. “We have decided to grant environmental clearance to the project proposals with conditions recommended by the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) subject to if remaining plots of the projects are found to be ‘Jungle Jhari (forest bush)’ in future, the project proponent will have to abide by the provisions of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980,” said SEIAA member secretary Kamlesh Pandey.

Meanwhile, the upcoming All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which is coming up at Devipur in Deoghar, was also granted the clearance. Foundation of the institute on 272 acres of land was laid in May last year. The construction work of the building is in progress.

Teachers’ recruitment process for AIIMS has already begun. A recruitment notice by AIIMS Patna was issued recently for appointment of eight professors, 11 additional professors, 13 associate professors and 30 assistant professors. If sources in the health department are to be believed, the session of the institute will begin from August this year with 50 seats of MBBS.

Similarly, SEIAA also granted environmental clearance to 500bed hospital coming up in Dumka district. Besides, the Rs 155-crore Rabindra Bhawan, proposed to be a cultural hub of Ranchi, also got the clearance for its speeding construction.


Top 5 Must-Visit Historic Monuments in North India

Source: india.com

India is a country with rich history in every nook and cranny. And the best way to step into the ancient world is by visiting the terrific monuments dotting the country’s length and breadth. However, these are some of the top ones in North India that you mustn’t miss any at cost.

Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi

Constructed in mixed styles of Indian and Persian architecture, Humayun’s Tomb is one of the most beautiful heritage monuments existing in India. Interestingly, this is what inspired the Taj Mahal to be built in Agra. Humayun’s Tomb was built by the wife of Humayun to commemorate his death in the 15th century.

Fatehpur Sikri, Agra

While many would say that the Taj Mahal is a must-visit, the royal city of Fatehpur Sikri is an extraordinary experience unto itself. From palaces, public buildings, mosques, quarters for the king, army and the servants, there’s a lot to see here. Keep an eye out for the gorgeous carved columns and decorated pillars, all built in the 16th-century.

Hawa Mahal, Jaipur

Hawa Mahal or the ‘Palace of Winds’ is an interesting looking structure; it looks almost like the honeycomb of a beehive with its 953 intricate windows. Built by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh, Hawa Mahal is known as the tallest building in the world that isn’t built on any foundation. The palace stands firm due to its pyramidal shape.

Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya

One of the four holy grounds of Buddhism, Mahabodhi Temple is where the Buddha attained enlightenment while meditating under a fig tree. Built by Ashoka in the 3rd century BC, the temple holds a massive statue of Buddha. Interestingly, it is believed that this spot where Buddha attained enlightenment will be the last to disappear when the world ends and the first to reappear when the world is created again.

Gwalior Fort, Gwalior

Believed to have been constructed in the 6th-century by the Mughal Emporer Babur, the Gwalior Fort is often described as a pearl among Indian fortresses. This is where you’ll find the second oldest reference to the number zero. It’s a must visit if you’re in the iconic city of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.

Ground Zero | Bihar AES deaths: A hundred deaths, and no answers

Source:- thehindu.com

Cases of acute encephalitis syndrome have seen a spike in Muzaffarpur this year, already claiming more than a hundred lives. Jacob Koshy reports on the appalling state of health care in Bihar, even as the debate on what is causing the deaths rages on

For three days, Bihari Mahato and Shyam Babu Saha’s families have shared a hospital bed. The two daily-wage labourers, who have had to give up work for three days, haven’t exchanged a word, though they have much in common. Both have a boy and a girl each. And their children are battling for life.

Sundar, Mahato’s three-and-a-half-year-old son, is naked, emaciated, delirious and has a distended stomach. Himanshi, six months old and in a striped shirt and shorts, looks bigger and healthier than Sundar. She sleeps longer — fitfully, her mother Vimla says. Both families are from different districts of Bihar. Mahato is from Muzaffarpur and Saha is from Sitamarhi district. Their children were suddenly taken ill. When the children were convulsing and feverish, they were rushed to the Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur. The doctors noted that their blood sugar had dropped precipitously.

Both children are being given dextrose saline (a sugar solution often administered intravenously), but their parents are nervous. “The fever has subsided but it keeps returning,” says Saha. “The doctors aren’t paying us much attention.” But that’s a quibble given that many other ailing children are sprawled out on mattresses on the floor. Amidst peeling plaster, strewn banana peels, stomping doctors, nurses, journalists and television crew, the children’s ward at SKMCH is symptomatic of the confusion and panic that has gripped Muzaffarpur since early June.

The floor above the general ward is home to the Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Each of the five ICUs has eight beds. Not one of the beds has fewer than three children hooked to bleeping monitors and intravenous lines. Unusually for an ICU, there’s little restriction on non-hospital staff shuttling in and out, but unlike the squalid paediatric wards below, there are no patients sprawled on the floor. The floor is clean, the air-conditioners work, the nurses are extra vigilant, and yet here’s where death lurks around the corner.

Season of trouble

There is a protocol for doctors. As soon as children are wheeled in, they are monitored for fever, convulsions and signs of confusion or loss of consciousness. “What I’ve seen is that several children are brought too late. Unfortunately we lose them,” says J.P. Mandal, a resident doctor at SKMCH. Between June 1 and 17, 312 children were admitted to the hospital under the umbrella diagnosis of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES). According to the Bihar health department, 85 died. The bulk of the dead, 48, were children aged three to seven. Twenty-nine children were less than three years of age. As of June 21, 104 of the 424 children admitted since January 1 had died. Encephalitis, which refers to an inflammation in the brain due to a viral or bacterial attack, causes fever and almost never a drop in blood sugar. In the current epidemic, as well as in previous ones in Muzaffarpur, the doctors have marked cases of and deaths by hypoglycaemia (drop in blood sugar), which is unusual.

While Bihar loses hundreds of children to AES every year, there were sharp spikes in 2012 and 2014, when 395 and 372 children, respectively, lost their lives. Through the years, AES cases have been reported from several districts in Bihar: Gaya, Patna, Aurangabad, Saran, East Champaran, Sitamarhi and Vaishali. Government figures show that the peak years of 2012 and 2014 saw Muzaffarpur account for 35-40% of hospital admissions. While this year’s incidences and deaths are fewer in comparison, the season of trouble is far from over. The outbreak in 2012 took place between May and November. In 2014, it was from May to July. There’s no saying how long the current outbreak will last. A common refrain among district administration officials and some doctors is that the yearly outbreak ceases in intensity soon after the monsoon rains begin in Bihar. Why is that? Nobody ventures an explanation.

Sanjay Kumar, the State’s top civil servant in charge of health, says he cannot quite put a finger on a “single, determining factor” that is responsible for 2019 turning out to be a bad year. It could be the ongoing heatwave — several parts of Patna, Gaya and even Muzaffarpur have recorded temperatures in excess of 4-5°C over what’s normal for this time of the year. At least 80 people have succumbed to the heatwave. “The added heat and humidity could have made young children particularly susceptible to dehydration,” he reckons. “It could also be an infectious disease. It could also be because of children eating litchis.”

Kumar says all the children who are admitted belong to the lowest socio-economic rung; there are no instances of infection in cities or even semi-urban localities. He emphasises that the government had been prepared this year too, like in the past, for the outbreak. It stocked up and supplied oral rehydration solution, ensured that medicine and equipment were provided at medical colleges and district health centres, and conducted public awareness campaigns about the imminent outbreak. However, he admits that the district’s key referral hospital, SKMCH, wasn’t equipped to deal with the deluge of patients. “This year will be a turning point. The bed capacity will be increased to 1,500 and we will have a virology lab [to better investigate vitals of patients and determine disease causes].”

Debating the litchi link

Arun Shah, a paediatrician and private practitioner who has been working in the city since 1984, insists that the spike in AES cases and in fatalities is a result of malnourished children suffering brain damage after eating litchis, particularly unripe or overripe ones. In a 2014 paper, Shah and virologist T. Jacob John had argued that the children in Shah’s clinic in Muzaffarpur were found to have extremely low blood sugar levels and signs of brain damage. While viral or bacterial infections that cause encephalitis (an inflammation of brain cells due to an infection) were well known in Muzaffarpur and neighbouring districts, many of them were taking sick and dying due to encephalopathy (brain damage, in this case, due to an environmental toxin). In 2016, a detailed investigation, published in The Lancet Global Health by the National Centre for Disease Control, India, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found “confirmation” that litchis contained a chemical called methylene cyclopropyl glycine (MCPG). These are naturally occurring toxins that cause hypoglycaemia and metabolic derangement in children.

When a child is malnourished, her body, having exhausted its reserves of glucose from the digestive tract and the liver, typically turns to fatty acids in biochemical desperation to supply blood sugar to the brain. MCPG, the theory goes, thwarts this mechanism. This can send the brain into hypoglycaemic shock triggering convulsions and, if unaddressed, even death. “But please don’t blame litchis,” stresses Shah. “It is the pride of Muzaffarpur.”

At a press conference two years ago, to underline that the litchi fruit was only a triggering factor and sickened only malnourished children, Shah and John ate a bowlful of the fruit in front of television cameras to emphasise that it was malnutrition, and not the fruit, that was the dominant cause of the disease. Shah is unambiguous that the children are suffering because the government didn’t do enough. The recently concluded Lok Sabha election distracted the government from adequately preparing for the outbreak, he says. In 2016, he was part of a government-constituted committee that prescribed guidelines: Children shouldn’t be allowed to skip their evening meal, they should avoid stepping out in the heat, and local public healthcare centres must stock up on anti-convulsion drugs as well as dextrose. These were adhered to in 2017 and 2018. And that’s why there were relatively fewer reports of AES, he argues.

While encephalitis outbreaks in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur were due to other causes, and children from Muzaffarpur and neighbouring districts have battled viruses such as the Japanese encephalitis virus, the large-scale litchi cultivation in Muzaffarpur, which contributes about 40% of the State’s litchi production, “can’t be ignored as a triggering factor,” he points out.

At SKMCH, several parents of the ailing children are categorical that their children did not eat litchis. The authors of The Lancet study found that two-thirds of children who were sick had eaten litchis. “We work in the fields and there are litchi orchards aplenty where we live,” says Indal Paswan, whose two-and-a-half-year-old son is prostrate on a hospital bed. “But this boy isn’t capable of plucking fruit on his own. We do feed him some fruit as well as other food but we don’t starve him.”

Mandal is insistent that there is a virus or some biological agent that is responsible for the recurrent outbreaks. He scoffs at suggestions of the litchi’s complicity. Children who were brought to the hospital were “poor but not classically malnourished,” he says. If malnutrition and litchi consumption were the causes, then there ought to have been a fairly constant number of deaths every year. This has not been observed, he says. “A peak and an ebb in cases and deaths is what we see. And that’s more typical of a biological agent.”

That no virus or bacteria has been isolated yet in Muzaffarpur is because the hospital lacks adequate facilities to collect tissue and blood samples from patients and preserve them adequately for examination. “I’m confident that at some point this will be found and there will be no mystery,” Mandal says. The focus of treatment, he adds, is to ensure that convulsions are brought under control and blood sugar levels are restored.

What Shah and Mandal do agree on is that the vast majority of deaths could have been prevented if the children had made it to a hospital on time. The most important medicines were easily available, and most of the primary health care centres were well stocked and equipped to deal with AES cases.

No time to grieve

Yet, four-year-old Mohammed Jahid lost his life. Until he fell sick, Jahid had spent his days playing with his older siblings and cousins in the village of Bishnupur Chand, Musahari. His home was a single room thatched hut that did not have a toilet. His and his cousins’ houses lay at the edge of an orchard that had several rows of tall, stout litchi trees. In June, there were only a few fruits that clung to the trees. Most had been plucked and carted away for sale by the owner of the orchard who lives in Patna. “He didn’t show any signs of illness. He had a fever for two days,” recounts Jahid’s aunt, Asha Khatoon. “We took him to a private doctor nearby.” One night, Jahid became delirious, and his father Mohammed Idris rushed to get an autorickshaw to take him to a hospital. He didn’t find one immediately as the roads had been dug up. When they made it to SKMCH, Jahid was immediately taken to the ICU, but he didn’t survive beyond three hours. A day after burying Jahid, Idris was away to find work as a daily-wage labourer. There were still two boys, two girls and a wife to feed.


Chakma Assn: Lending voice to a community in distress

Source:- deccanchronicle.com

As they are Buddhists they faced religious persecution in Bangladesh and fled the hill tract in 1964-1965.

Bengaluru: The Chakmas are ethnic people settled in Chittagong hill tracts, and are predominantly located in Bangladesh, and Mizoram, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh in India.

As they are Buddhists they faced religious persecution in Bangladesh and fled the hill tract in 1964-1965. The Indian government gave them asylum in India and set up relief camps in Arunachal Pradesh.

It has been more than five decades since they have settled in India, but they often face hostility from the local population in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, as they fear the influx of Chakmas may change the demography of the region.

In order to secure the rights of the tribe and to lend a helping hand to the community settled in Karnataka, the Chakma Students’ Association of Karnataka was formed in 2014.

The NGO has been running on donations and has become a temple for more than 400 people settled in the city from the community.

“In the weekly or monthly gatherings at the Cubbon Park or the Mahabodhi temple, we discuss the issues concerning the tribe. The entire idea took birth because in a cosmopolitan city like Bengaluru there was no student body that could have looked for Chakmas,” says Abhish Chakma, president of the association.

The association lends a helping hand to the Chakma students from Bangladesh as well.

In a tragic incident on December 31, 2016, a student from Tripura succumbed to injuries after he fell from a building in the city.

“We sent his body to his hometown through flight. At that stage, a lot of people came forward to help. We not only keep our culture alive in Bengaluru, but also protest against the injustice meted out to us in the North East,” he added.

To instill the sense of unity, the association has been celebrating their festivals like Bizu and even organises sports activities.

Abhish is grateful to the city police for being considerate towards the demands and struggle of the Chakmas.

“Apart from providing venues like Town Hall and Freedom Park for our protest, they ensured security for us. The state government has also supported North East festivals and we hope that this affection continues,” he remarked.

A few years ago, the association through the state government sent a memorandum highlighting the plight of the tribe in the Arunachal Pradesh to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the foreign ministry also.

“Our script and language are not recognised in the Public Service Commission exams. Our schools were burnt in Mizoram. In 2015, the rules were amended to give preference to the Zo-ethnic students. We are deprived of technical education and the government jobs. We are treated as second class citizens,” Abhish lamented.

He wants to make the association strong and expects that the government would pay heed to their voice that was often stifled.

Bihar B.Ed 2019 CET Spot Counselling result declared

Source:- scroll.in

The Spot counselling result was initially scheduled to be declared on June 20th but was later changed to June 21st.

Nalanda Open University has released the Bihar B.Ed. 2019 CET Spot Counselling result today, June 21st, at 6.00 pm. Candidates who have registered to participate in the Spot Counselling can check the official website, biharcetbed.com, to see if they have been allocated a seat.

Nalanda Open University had conducted the registration process and choice filling for the spot counselling from June 18th to June 20th. The spot counselling choice filling was scheduled from June 18th to June 19th but a day’s extension was given for that, and thus the spot counselling result was also delayed by a day.

For Spot Round Counselling, candidates can checklist of vacant seats at various colleges in this link. Rules around spot counselling can be accessed in this link. The Spot Counselling result can be accessed in this direct link.

Bihar B.Ed CET examination and counselling process is being conducted by Nalanda University. Nalanda University conducted the CET for admissions to B.Ed programme offered for regular students in various colleges and universities in the state of Bihar. The exam was conducted on March 10th and now the results was declared on March 20th, 2019.

There are around 350 colleges who will be conducting admissions for their programmes through this entrance exam. The list of colleges can be accessed in this link.

Will Nitish Kumar go down as the ‘Kushasan Babu’ of Bihar?

Source:- nationalheraldindia.com

He was hailed as ‘Sushasan Babu’ or a good administrator not too long ago. But nothing seems to be working for him as lawlessness and a rush of deaths of children in Muzaffarpur expose his govt

Nitish Kumar is one of the greatest hoaxes going around in Indian politics. He turns ‘secular’ when it suits him. The very next day you might find him sleeping with the BJP without batting an eyelid. He even does not mind stabbing a political partner in the back if it suits him to survive in power. He did it with Laloo Prasad Yadav twice and even ditched Narendra Modi once. He is a survivor whose politics revolves around surviving in power.

When it suited Nitish to take on Laloo Prasad, he marketed himself as Susashan babu or a good administrator. Bihar was then sick and tired of the Laloo-Rabri misrule. It was a period when kidnappings and pot-holed roads of Bihar were making national headlines. The upper-caste establishment, both in Patna as well as Delhi, too, wanted to get rid of Laloo Prasad who had turned too big for his boots for the system.

Fodder scam came handy for the system to replace Laloo. Yet someone was needed to fill Laloo’s vacuum. Nitish was ready to play ball with anti-Laloo forces. But he needed a label to market himself that he did with media-support which sold him as Susashan babu. Nitish who had lambasted BJP for the Babri mosque demolition both inside and outside the Parliament jumped to form an alliance with saffron forces in Bihar to come to power in 2005. Ambitious Nitish was now Bihar chief minister taking on Laloo Prasad who was his one-time close friend as well as political comrade in arms.

It suited both the establishment and the media to project Nitish as an excellent administrator, rather as Bihari messaiah, who put Bihar back onto rails after Laloo’s mayhem in the state. Nitish, to be fair to him, did manage to improve Bihar roads. He also succeeded in putting down kidnappings that had instilled a sense of insecurity among Biharis during Laloo and Rabri Devi’s rule. Nitish Kumar was now hailed as the Susasan Babu not only in Patna but Delhi as well.

Nitish had smooth sailing both in Bihar and outside. He was happy with his alliance with the BJP in Bihar. But politics took a major shift with the rise of Narendra Modi in national politics in 2014. Modi took the country by storm and came to power with a comfortable majority to form the government in Delhi. It was the period when the Congress and its allies were down in the dumps. The Anna Hazare movement had destroyed the ‘secular’ camp’s credibility across the country.

Nitish now sensed a vacuum hitting the anti-Modi secular camp. He now started distancing himself from Modi and the BJP. Ambitious Nitish even started projecting himself as the ‘secular’ national alternative to Modi. He was now rubbing shoulders with the likes of Rahul Gandhi and Sita Ram Yechuri in Delhi while he had already tied up with one-time ‘corrupt’ Laloo to continue in power in Bihar.

But Modi being a much smarter political player than the likes of Nitish Kumar, the Prime Minister forced him to surrender to the BJP in Bihar and finally acknowledge Modi as a tall national leader. Of course, he ditched Laloo Yadav again. There was nothing strange about it as it comes naturally to him to ditch partners when they are down in the dump.

Political opportunism however comes with an expiry date. Because, as the saying goes, you can fool some people for some time but not all the people all the time. Nitish was neither a good administrator nor a principled politician ever. Look how the Bihar administration has crumbled with just one wave of Encephalitis that has turned Muzaffarpur into a killing field for poor children who are dying like rats.

Now even the media reports suggest that Muzaffarpur hospitals are a shame on modern health services. This breakdown of health services has not taken place overnight. It was all there when media marketed Nitish as Susahan Babu.

The only difference is that now Nitish has already served his utility of taking on Laloo and destroy him. Nitish neither has any vision to be a mass leader like Laloo Prasad Yadav nor does he seem to have much administrative skill.

He is essentially a rank opportunist who survives by switching sides whenever it suits him. But all shades of opportunists ultimately hit the dead end sooner or later. Nitish Kumar’s dead end seems to be nigh. Unfortunately, he may go down as Kusashan Babu rather than Sushasan Babu of Bihar