Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren Keeps Home Portfolio; Rameshwar Oraon Made Finance Minister.

Source – news18.com

Ranchi: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday kept departments of Home, Jail, Personnel, Administrative Reforms & Raj Bhasha among others, as he distributed portfolios among the ministers.

Soren, working president of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), also kept departments of Cabinet Secretariat & Vigilance and other portfolios not allocated to any minister, a notification issued by the Secretariat of Cabinet and Vigilance department said here.

Rameshwar Oraon of the Congress got Planning-cum-Finance, Commercial Taxes, Food, Public Distribution & Consumer Affairs departments.

Alamgir Alam, also a Congress MLA, was given the departments of the Parliamentary Affairs, Rural Development Department (along with Rural Works, Panchayati Raj & NREP-Special Division), the notification said.

Satyanand Bhokta, the lone RJD member in the cabinet, has been given the departments of Labour, Employment & Training.

Champai Soren has been allotted the Scheduled Tribes, the Scheduled Caste & Backward Class Welfare and Transport departments.

Haji Hussain Ansari has been made minister of Minority Welfare and Registration departments.

Joba Manjhi is the new Women, Child Development & Social Security department minister. Jagarnath Mahato has become the minister of School Education & Literacy, Excise & Prohibition departments.

Mithilesh Kumar Thakur has taken over as the minister of Drinking Water & Sanitation. Besides Mahato and Thakur who became ministers for the first time, Soren, Ansari and Manjhi were JMM leaders.

Congress MLA Banna Gupta has been allotted the departments of Health, Medical Education & Family Welfare and Disaster Management. Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Co-operative departments have been allotted to Badal Patralekh who is also from the Congress.

Seven of the 11 ministers were sworn-in on Tuesday. The JMM-Congress-RJD coalition government assumed power in the state on December 29 last year, ousting the BJP-led regime.

Jharkhand Literary Meet to start in February.

Source – telegraphindia.com

Ruskin Bond is expected to enthral audiences once again at the third edition of Jharkhand Literary Meet to be held at Audrey House, the usual venue, in Ranchi on February 1 and 2.

According to a schedule released by Tata Steel, the meet will be inaugurated by Sahitya Akademi Award winning writer Mridula Garg on February 1, who will also speak at a session titled Sharpness of the Pen. Tata Steel According to a schedule released by Tata Steel, the meet will be inaugurated by Sahitya Akademi Award winning writer Mridula Garg on February 1, who will also speak at a session titled Sharpness of the Pen.

The session will be followed by a one titled Rusty Rewind, when Bond, the crowd puller of the second instalment of the meet, will share his “joys of writing Rusty”.

In another session, Beyond the Veil, the same day, writers Hem Borker and Andaleeb Wajid will participate in a discussion on Stereotypes and Pre-conceived Notions About the World Around Us.

Actor couple Pankaj Kapur and Supriya Pathak will share their “filmi safar” in a session titled Badalte Screen, Yaadgar Kirdar. A cultural event Sham-e-Sufiyana will feature Sonam Kalra.

On February 2, author Avik Chanda will speak on a session named Itihas ki Agar Magar and explore if Dara Shikoh could have changed Mughal history. This will be followed by a session, Once Upon a Crime, when Bond, in conversation with lit fest director Malavika Banerjee, will reveal how murder mysteries reflect their times.

There will also be a session on recitation of poems by the poets themselves. The last event of the meet, Dopehri, will be held at Mayuri auditorium of CMPDI in the evening when Kapur will regale the audience with his reading.

“The meet brings leading minds on one platform,” Tata Steel VP (corporate services) Chanakya Choudhury said.

Minor tribal girls become pregnant in residential schools, causes unrest in Jharkhand.

Source – indiatoday.in

As shocking as this may sound, minor tribal girls in Garhwa district of Jharkhand are becoming mothers.

Manjhiaon Kasturba Residential School in Garhwa was set up to educate tribal children. Now, cases of minor girls becoming pregnant have come to light. In the past two years, three such cases have been reported.

Two months ago, a Class 8 girl was reported to be pregnant. An enquiry was initiated and arrests were made. The police in Chhattisgarh are now trying to arrest the warden of the school and a doctor.

It is alleged that the doctor and warden helped the Class 8 girl deliver a baby discreetly.

After this incident came to light, it was reported that the girl had gone to her village where she had an affair with a boy named Chandan and the baby is Chandan’s.

However, sources said that like Muzaffarpur shelter home case, minor tribal girls in Garhwa were forcibly sent to influential people.

As the matter was being probed some 30 km from Manjhiaon, another such case was reported from Kandi Kasturba Residential School.

Chairperson of Kandi Kasturba Residential School Anita Devi said her daughter also studies in the same school and the matter needs high-level probe.

However, in an exclusive conversation with Aaj Tak, Principal Secretary of the department AP Singh said that the school is safe. “The past case is being scrutinised from every angle. The girls go out of school either to visit their hometowns or for some other work but the administration does not interfere with their private life.”

Seven more ministers to be inducted in Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren cabinet.

Source – newindianexpress.com

RANCHI: Seven Ministers will be inducted in the cabinet when the Chief Minister Hemant Soren expands his cabinet for the first time on Tuesday.

The cabinet expansion will take place in Raj Bhavan here on Tuesday at 4 p.m.

Five MLAs from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and two from the Congress will take oath as the cabinet Ministers.

Hemant Soren took oath as Chief Minister on December 29 along with two Congress and one Rashtriya Janata Dal Legislators as the Ministers.

The two Congress Legislators who will take oath on Tuesday include Banna Gupta and Sri Badal.

The five JMM Legislators to take oath are Champai Soren, Haji Hussain Ansari, Jaggarntah Mahto, Jobha Manjhi and Mithilesh Thakur.

The JMM, Congress and RJD alliance had won 30, 16 and one seats in 81-member Assembly respectively.

One more held for Jharkhand massacre, 16 arrested so far.

Source – thehindu.com

One more person has been arrested in connection with the killing of seven people allegedly by ‘Pathalgarhi’ movement supporters at Burugulikera village in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district last week, taking the total number of arrests to 16, police said on Tuesday.

Martin Logma, 27, was arrested on Monday and produced before a local court in Chakradharpur, which sent him to 14-days judicial custody, an official release said.

The other 15 accused, aged between 19 and 60 years, were arrested on Sunday and charged with murder and rioting, among others, it said.

They were produced before the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Chakradharpur on Monday which sent them to 14-days judicial custody, the release said.

Supporters of ‘Pathalgarhi’ movement had allegedly kidnapped the seven villagers of Burugulikera in Guddi block on January 21 and killed them for allegedly opposing their stir. Their mutilated bodies were recovered from a forest, around 4 kilometres from the village the next day.

Proponents of ‘Pathalgarhi’, a tribal movement, want that no laws of the land should apply to the tribal people.

They write tenets on large stones and erect them in their areas of influence.

The killings that took place days after the JMM- Congress-RJD coalition government assumed power in the state on December 29, triggered widespread outrage and Chief Minister Hemant Soren ordered an investigation by a special investigation team (SIT).

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren expands Cabinet, inducts 7 ministers.

Source – tribuneindia.com

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Tuesday expanded his one-month-old Cabinet, inducting seven ministers in the Council of Ministers.

Governor Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly inducted ministers in a simple ceremony at Raj Bhavan here.

Five of the new ministers are from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and two belong to the Congress.

The JMM-Congress-RJD coalition government assumed power in the state on December 29 last year, ousting the BJP-led regime.

Soren inducted Champai Soren, Haji Hussain Ansari, Jagarnath Mahato, Joba Manjhi, Mithilesh Kumar Thakur (all from the JMM), Banna Gupta and Badal Patralekh (both from the Congress).

Mahato and Thakur are first-time ministers and Manjhi had been a minister in previous NDA governments before she joined the JMM. The other four had been ministers in the previous UPA governments.

With five newly inducted ministers belonging to the JMM, the senior ruling party has six members in the council of ministers, including the chief minister, while the Congress has four and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) one.

Now the council of ministers has 11 members, leaving the scope to induct one more minister.

As per the constitutional provisions, Jharkhand can have a maximum of 12 ministers including the chief minister.

The previous Raghubar Das government had run the dispensation with only 11 ministers all through its five-year term.

It was the first expansion after Soren took oath as the 11th chief minister of Jharkhand on December 29, 2019 along with Congress leaders Alamgir Alam and Rameshwar Oraon and Satyanand Bhokta of the RJD.

The expansion of ministry was earlier scheduled to be held on January 24. It was postponed at the request of the chief minister in the wake of the killings of seven villagers in West Singhbhum district.

Uber goes full throttle in Jamshedpur.

Source – telegraphindia.com

App-based taxi service Uber on Tuesday announced the launch of its operations in Jamshedpur, making it the 58th city in India where people can book rides by downloading the Uber app on their smartphones.

The steel city is the second city in Jharkhand, after Ranchi, where the American company has launched its services.

Jamshedpur reported one of the fastest adoptions of the Uber service in comparison to all new Uber city launches in 2019 since the soft launch — with very few cars — of operations here in December last year.

In Ranchi, Uber had launched its services in April last year.

For now, steel city users can only book UberGo, the lowest in the category of rides in terms of quality and size of cars that the company offers.

Ratul Ghosh, head of Uber, East India and Bangladesh, who was present at the launch function at a Bistupur-based hotel, said the company plans to soon launch UberPremier (bigger and better cars than UberGo) and UberIntercity service between Ranchi and Jamshedpur.

“We believe that the introduction of our service in this city will provide riders a reliable and economical travel solution to fully experience the city,” Ghosh said.

“Major areas in and around the city, including Jugsalai, Sonari, Golmuri, Gamharia, Chhota Govindpur to the serene Dimna Lake, are now accessible on UberGo.”

The launch, he added, “will help us in providing convenient mobility options to riders as well as create micro-entrepreneurship opportunities for those who sign up as driver-partners in the steel city”.

Uber has around 600 vehicles in Jharkhand and the intercity service between Jamshedpur and Ranchi is expected to be rolled out by April this year, he said.

Ghosh said that in the past one year, Uber has introduced various safety features such as pin verification for extra security, ride check for proactive help, call anonymity to protect the privacy of riders, background checks of drivers, reminders to check one’s ride before boarding, and 24/7 safety helpline for any urgent assistance during the trip.

Jharkhand to become first state in India to have four sub-capitals.

Source – newindianexpress.com

NEW DELHI: In a first, Jharkhand will soon become the only state in the country to have four sub-capitals along with the state capital Ranchi.

Besides Dumka, which has already been declared as the sub-capital during the regime of Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, Jharkhand will have three new sub-capitals – Medininagar, Chaibasa and Giridih.   

Sources in government claimed that the process for same has already been started and a proposal for making Medininagar, Chaibasa and Giridih as sub-capitals of state has been prepared.   

“The proposal has already been prepared which is waiting for CM’s endorsement following which, it will be sent for the cabinet approval,” said a senior officer.

The objective behind the proposal is to enable uniform development in all divisions of the state which so far, have been lagging behind due to various constraints, he added.   

The official added that creation of sub-capital would bring employment opportunities for the people in the three divisions of Palamu, Kolhan and North Choanagpur.

Coronavirus: High alert in Jharkhand, Bihar; eye on international tourists.

Source – newindianexpress.com

PATNA/ RANCHI: Bihar and Jharkhand both issued alerts over Coronavirus, Sunday, advising its health surveillance units to keep an eye on suspected cases while issuing standard operating procedures to tackle the same.

Bihar shares over 600 km with Nepal-much of the stretch unguarded.

Officials in the state health secretariat said, there is a worry since there is free-flow of tourists into India and Nepal –mainly on the Buddhist circuit-many of them from China and South-East Asian countries.

With Kathamandu and Kapilvastu in Nepal and Sarnath in UP being starting points for the pilgrim route, Bihar ordered high alert along with the Bihar-Nepal border districts of East and West Champaran, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Supaul, Madhubani, Araria and Kishanganj.

Principal Secretary Health, Bihar, Sanjay Kumar said that preventive measures were being taken after a boy in Nepal was diagnosed with the virus.

A standard operating procedure to be followed has also been notified to doctors, he said.

The state has also issued alert to Patna airport for the screening of foreign guests arriving and created a cell under Dr Ragini Mishra for Coronavirus surveillance.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand notified surveillance units in all districts asking doctors to monitor all suspected cases for at least 28 days, while issuing a reporting format for such cases, to a central facility.

The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme units were instructed by Principal Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni to keep a close eye on all entrants.

Jharkhand: 3 weeks on, CM Hemat Soren yet to expand cabinet.

Source – indiatoday.in

On December 29, when Hemant Soren took over as Jharkhand’s 11th chief minister, he allowed three ministers – two from the Congress and one from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to take oath with him. More than three weeks after the swearing-in, Hemant Soren is yet to expand his cabinet too. He has not even allotted potfolios to the three ministers already sworn-n.

According to sources, the most important reason for the delay in cabinet expansion in Jharkhand is that Soren’s ally Congress is insisting on five berths, whereas Hemant Soren is willing to give up only four.

Chief Minister Soren, who is believed to have already discussed the cabinet expansion exercise with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, also has the heavy task of satisfying the aspirations of his own party legislators, besides maintaining a fine balance between tribal and non-tribal claimants of cabinet portfolios.

In the recently concludes Assembly elections, the JMM won 30 seats, which is its highest tally in the assembly since Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in December 2000.

While the Congress is believed to have asked for important portfolios like health, education and rural development, Soren also has to satisfy some of the senior most MLA in his party, majority of whom once worked as close associates of his father Shibu Soren. There are over half-a-dozen JMM legislators who have won the Assembly polls four-five times and are aspiring to be head a key ministry.

Incidentally, Chief Minister Hemant Soren last week postponed his cabinet expansion exercise from set date of January 24 to an unknown date in the future.

Soren, on January 23, had met Governor Draupadi Murmu to schedule the cabinet expansion on January 24. While a time was fixed and preparations were on for the swearing-in, the chief minister once again met the governor in the evening to postpone the scheduled cabinet expansion. Killing of seven tribal persons in West Singhbhum was cited as a reason for the postponement.

Earlier, Soren is believed to have delayed his cabinet expansion exercise till January 15 when kharmas, an inauspicious period in Hindu calendar, ended.

The JMM, the Congress and the RJD won 30, 16 and 1 seat, respectively. With such a majority, Hemant was expected to quickly put his act together, but ironically he has not been able to take any major decisions so far.

The 91st Amendment Act and subsequent insertion of section 1A in Article 164 of the Indian Constitution mandate that the total number of ministers, including the chief minister, in the council of ministers in a state shall not exceed 15 per cent of the total number of members of the legislative assembly of that state. With a legislative assembly of 81 elected members, Jharkhand can have a maximum of 12 ministers, including the chief minister.

A senior Congress leader told India Today TV that the party wants to have five berths in Hemant Cabinet. The Congress leaders have been arguing that since they gave up their claim to the speaker’s post, the JMM should reciprocate and give five berths.

The state leadership has conveyed its position to the Congress central leadership, which is believed to have conveyed the same to Hemant Soren.