Former inmate of Bihar shelter home raped by 4 men in moving car

Source: dailypioneer.com

A woman, who had been an inmate of the infamous Muzaffarpur shelter home, was allegedly raped by four men in a moving vehicle (car) in Bettiah town of West Champaran district, police said on Sunday.

The Muzaffarpur shelter home had hit the headlines in 2018 after a social audit report highlighted that over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the Government-aided shelter home, run by an NGO.

Bettiah town police station SHO Shashi Bhushan Thakur said the woman was admitted to a Government medical college on Saturday evening and a medical examination was conducted by a team of doctors on Sunday, he said.

It will be confirmed whether she was raped only after getting the medical examination report, he said.

The woman, in her police complaint lodged with the Bettah town police station on Saturday, alleged that four men forcibly took her inside their vehicle (car) while she was passing through the area where she lives on Friday evening, and raped her in a moving vehicle, police said.

The men then dumped the woman in her locality after raping her. All the four men had covered their faces with masks but she could remove the masks and identify them.

While all the four persons belonged to the same family, two of them were brothers, she said. Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the shelter home run by Brajesh Thakur, the chief of a state-funded NGO.

The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by TISS to the state’s social welfare department.

An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur, on May 31, 2018. The state government had on July 26, 2018 handed over the case to the CBI. On February 7, 2019, the Supreme Court ordered authorities to transfer the case from Bihar to a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Saket District Court complex in Delhi, which would conclude the trial within six months by holding preferably day-to-day hearing.

Two Bihar doctors, punished for operating patient’s gall bladder instead of leg, cry foul

Source: hindustantimes.com

Two government doctors in Bihar have been penalised for extricating a patient’s gall bladder instead of performing a surgery on her leg, eight years after the incident. Both the doctors indicted in a departmental inquiry said they would challenge the government order–issued on Friday– in court.

While one of the two doctors has since superannuated, the other is serving in the Bihar health services.

The government has deducted 10 per cent pension of Dr Nand Kishore Mishra, the then assistant professor of surgery at the Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital (SKMCH), Muzaffarpur and stopped three annual increments of Dr Krishna Kumar, the then senior resident of the department of anaesthesiology at the hospital, with retrospective effect, said principal secretary, health Sanjay Kumar.

Kumar said the administrative action will send a clear message to all healthcare providers in Bihar.

Sushila Devi, spouse of Shiv Narayan Prasad of Bahbal Bazar village in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district was to be operated for burn injury in her leg at the SKMCH on September 10, 2011, but the doctors ended up removing her gall bladder.

Dr Mishra said he neither treated Sushila Devi nor operated upon her and was penalised simply because the doctor who performed the surgery was in his unit. He called it a case of mistaken identity due to confusion created by the patient herself, and failure on part of the operation theatre staff and nurse to detect it.

“Dr HN Bharadwaj, the-then associate professor and also the head for SKMCH’s department of surgery and I were doing surgeries in two parallel operation theatres (OTs) on the fateful day. When the OT nurse called out the name of one Kiran Devi, this woman, identified as Sushila Devi, presented herself in front of the OT nurse. When the nurse asked the patient if she was Kiran Devi, she nodded her head in affirmative,” he said.

Asked why the patient had agreed to being identified by a different name, Dr Mishra said, “This may have been out of fear of her surgery getting deferred the third time. Even the anaesthetist claimed the patient nodded in affirmative when he asked her if she was Kiran Devi, who was originally scheduled to be operated for gall bladder stone. I was all this while operating upon another patient with common bile duct problem while another doctor operated upon Sushila Devi’s gall bladder believing her to be Kiran Devi. Since the doctor who did the surgery belonged to my unit, I was held guilty for a surgery I never did.”

Dr Mishra superannuated from the government service last year and claimed he has since not got any pension.

Dr Krishna Kumar, now an associate professor and head, department of anaesthesiology, SKMCH, too, felt he was not at fault.

“A senior resident of surgery department, who brought Sushila Devi to me, but with papers of Kiran Devi requested me to sedate her for surgery of the gall bladder. Even if the patient required surgery of the lower limb and not the gall bladder, my job was only to sedate the patient and ensure there was no complication arising out of anaesthesia. I did my job with sincerity and the patient recovered out of anesthesia and is absolutely hale and hearty. There were two surgeons who should have checked what surgery was to be performed. I am not at fault and will challenge the government order in court,” said Dr Kumar.

Interestingly, the doctor who is alleged to have performed the surgery, a senior resident then, has been let off after he denied having performed the surgery while deposing before the inquiry committee.

Kamla Kumari, the nurse, who called out the patient and brought her to the doctor, has already been penalised with stoppage of her four annual increments. She blamed the patient Sushila Devi for the case of mistaken identity.

Bihar auto driver fined Rs 1,000 for not wearing seat belt

Source: indiatoday.in

Though an auto doesn’t consist of a seat belt, still an auto driver here was imposed with a fine of Rs 1,000 for not wearing one while riding his auto, said a police official.

An auto driver on Saturday had to pay a minimum fine for not wearing a seat-belt while riding in Saraiya, Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

“The auto driver was asked to pay a minimum challan, which was, for not wearing a seat belt as he was an extremely poor man. So, he was asked to pay Rs 1,000 only. In order to impose the minimum penalty amount, he was imposed with the lowest challan amount. This was a mistake but it was done just to impose a minimum penalty on the driver,” said Ajay Kumar Station House Officer (SHO), Saraiya.

Traffic offenders in various states across the nation are consistently being slapped with huge fines since the new Motor Vehicles Act has enhanced the penalties for traffic violations.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had notified the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 last month and it was implemented in many states of India from September 1.

NGMA to unveil art show by Upendra Maharathi

Source: millenniumpost.in

National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, is celebrating the newly renovated Jaipur House with the unveiling of a historic exhibition of more than 1000 works of art, design, and woven objects of art by Chitracharya Upendra Maharathi. Known as an artist, architect designer and weaver par excellence, the show puts the spotlight on his prowess as a rare and unique genius.

The show of paintings, drawings, murals sculptures, woven cloths and chairs all point to the zenith of his creativity. His interest in Buddhism brought forth many designs that were inspired by Buddhist ideology. The installations in the retrospective have been designed by DG, NGMA Adwaita Gadanayak. The Exhibition has been curated by Adwaita Gadanayak and his team.

Maharathi was author of many books too, The Book on bamboo art, ‘Venushilpa’ was among his best works.

Following the tradition of ancient art of sculpture, he designed many noted buildings : Venuban Viharin Rajagriha, Sandarbh Vihar, Ananda Stupa, Prakrit and Jainology Institute at Vaishali, Nava Nalanda Maha Vihar at Nalanda.

Born in Narendrapur village of Puri district in Orissa, in May 1908, Maharathi studied from the Government College of Art, Kolkata, and came out as an artist cum architect.

In later years he came to Patna, Bihar. From 1933 to 1942 he advocated a literary-cultural revival as he worked in the publishing house ‘Pustak Bhandar’, in Laharyasari, Darbhanga. In 1942, he was appointed a special designer in the Department of Industry, Government of Bihar.

In 1954, he visited Japan to attend the UNESCO International conference as representative of India.

The upcoming exhibition will be inaugurated by Prahlad Singh Patel, Union minister of State for Culture and Tourism( IC) on September 17, 6.00 pm, at National Gallery of Modern art New Delhi.

Jharkhand cabinet sanctions creation of 79 posts of senior residents at RIMS

Source: hindustantimes.com

The state cabinet on Saturday sanctioned for creation of 79 posts of senior resident and tutor under medical teacher cadre in various departments of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi.

RIMS, an autonomous institution running a 1500-bedded hospital, has got permission from the medical council of India (MCI) to start post graduation and diploma courses in various departments. The institute has also staked its claim before the MCI to enhance MBBS seats to 250 from current 150.

In order to match the requirement of the teachers for 250 MBBS seats and PG courses, the cabinet sanctioned for the creation of the aforesaid 79 posts.

Taking a step forward to achieve the target of ‘housing for all by 2022’, the cabinet also accorded its nod to relax the norms for construction of buildings under the Prime Minister Urban Housing Scheme’s (PMUHS), Affordable Housing in Partnership.

“According to the decision, buildings up to ground plus six to eight storied can be constructed under the affordable housing in partnership. As per the current standard, building structures under this scheme can’t go above ground plus three,” an official said.

The cabinet also approved for fixation of prices of land that would be acquired by the government for laying underground water, gas and drainage pipelines. Besides, it approved for setting up of “Jharkhand Wing” of the NCC Directorate, Bihar and Jharkhand.

The cabinet also approved expenditure upto Rs 35 crore for fiscal 2019-20 under state’s scheme of three-year organic farming promotion and certification. The government has earmarked a total of Rs 100 crore for fiscals 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 under the scheme.

200-year-old records in Gaya help families trace their ancestors

Source: newsd.in

Gaya, Sep 15 (IANS) Want to perform the salvation rituals (pind-daan) for your ancestors in Bihar’s Gaya during Pitrupaksha (the Hindu month to remember the dead), but don’t know their name? Don’t worry. The priests (pandas) here can help you trace your ancestors back several generations, provided one of them has visited this town to perform the pind-daan of his forefathers.

The pandas keep a geneology record of all the people who come here to perform pind-daan. These ‘panda-pothis’ that go back 250 to 300 years are a reason why some times even foreigners of Indian origin and NRIs turn to these to trace their family history.

“The panda-pothis have a three-tier log system. Under the first, an alphabetical index of the village and region is maintained recording the address of people who visited Gaya from a village/region over more than 250 years and the date they performed the ritual,” said a panda.

The second is the ‘dastakhat’ log, which keeps a record of the signatures of visitors along with their name, their number and page number of the log which keeps other details. The third book contains information about the profession and the current work place of the visitors. This pothi also maintains updated information about where the visitors reside at present,” the panda added.

Gajadhar Lal Panda, President, Tirthvrat Sudharini Sabha told IANS that according to the villagers if details about a visitor’s ancestors are not available, then information is obtained from the current residence mentioned in the third pothi.

“The pothis are kept safe covered in chemical and wrapped in a red cloth. All the log books are kept in the sun before monsoon to keep them dry,” he said.

Representatives of the Gayapal or panda community have permanent set-ups in places around the Falgu river where people perform the pind-daan. They help people arriving in Gaya to perform pind-daan, track down descendants of the purohit who had helped their grandfather and great-grandfather perform the ritual for his forefathers.

Akhilesh Tiwari came from Rajwadih village in Jharkhand and met the descendants of the priest who helped his great-grandfather perform the pind-daan for his ancestors.

With new poll symbol, Nitish to fight BJP in Jharkhand

Source: deccanherald.com

Nitish Kumar may be an ally of the BJP in Bihar but he will be contesting against the BJP Government in Jharkhand headed by Raghuvar Das during the Assembly elections in November this year.

The Election Commission has, however, allotted a new poll symbol to the JD(U) after the party’s existing symbol ‘arrow’ created confusion with the election symbol of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). The JMM has ‘bow and arrow’ as its symbol.

Ever since Nitish decided to contest on all the 81 Assembly seats in neighbouring Jharkhand on its own, the JMM approached the EC to freeze the JD(U) symbol ‘arrow’ as it might confuse the voters in tribal-dominated State. After much deliberations, the EC recently allotted ‘farmer driving a tractor’ symbol to the JD(U).

Nitish earlier this month sounded the poll bugle in Ranchi where he came down heavily on the BJP Government in the State. “It’s around 19 years since Jharkhand was formed after bifurcating Bihar in November 2000. And the mineral-rich tribal State has witnessed virtually no development in the last two decades. On the other hand, ever since I took over the reins of Bihar in 2005, the State’s growth rate has increased by leaps and bounds,” said Nitish lashing out at his Jharkhand counterpart, although he refrained from taking his name.

It’s not only the JMM but Shiv Sena too, which had protested a similar election symbol of the JD(U). The Maharashtra-based party Shiv Sena too has ‘bow and arrow’ as its symbol and it protested to the EC when it came to know that the JD(U) would field its candidates during October 2019 Assembly polls in Maharashtra. “The EC has allotted ‘diesel pump’ as the election symbol to the JD(U) for Maharashtra Assembly polls,” said a ruling party source here in the state capital.

Ever since the JD(U) performed well in Arunachal Pradesh during the May 2019 elections (when it won seven Assembly seats in the N-E State), Nitish, who is also the national president of the JD(U), is in expansion mode of his outfit, aiming to get it a status of national party.