http://http://thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=379495&catid=36
Manoj Chaurasia / The Statesman
PATNA: The Nitish Kumar government has, for the first time, hired two private helicopters to launch a massive aerial plantation drive atop the steep mountains, hills and hillocks across the state, apparently alarmed at the fast-depleting green cover.
The government believes that aerial plantation will not only increase the forest cover but will also help maintain the ecological balance across the state, which suffers from the dual tragedy of floods and droughts.
Two Bell-407 helicopters, hired from Arrow Aircraft Company, have carried out aerial spraying of many different tree seeds over the now bare Rajgir hills, located in central Bihar’s Nalanda district. It is the home district of chief minister Mr Nitish Kumar.
According to an official, a total of 1,250 kg seeds of many medicinal, fruit-bearing and wood-giving trees, and also several varieties of important grass have been airdropped from these helicopters in the Rajgir hill range.
Officials say the air-dropped seeds will germinate after rains, and grow into trees, increasing the green cover.
“Planting seeds on the hills by traditional methods is quite difficult as the hills are steep, and they are now fast losing their green cover. The government has therefore hired helicopters to launch a massive forestation drive,” said Bihar’s deputy chief minister, Mr Sushil Kumar Modi, who is also in charge of the Environment and Forest Ministry.
The drive, he said, was launched on a trial basis and once it gives encouraging results, the aerial spraying of seeds will be carried out in many more such areas.
Chief minister Mr Kumar is to kickstart his party’s much-publicised “Green Bihar” campaign tomorrow, from his native village Kalyan Bigha in Nalanda district.
Under the drive, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) plans to plant at least 50 lakh saplings across the state in the next few months.
The party has linked its membership drive with the plantation campaign, making it mandatory for every person joining the JD-U to plant at least one sapling at his village and help increase the green cover.
“The plantation drive and the party membership drive will go on side by side…and, we have plans to get at least 50 lakh members this time”, said state JD-U chief Mr Vashishtha Narayan Singh.
To ensure the “Green Bihar” campaign is a success, the JD-U organised a formal training camp at its party office on Monday, during which the party leaders, office bearers and workers were provided tips by experts as to how, where and which kinds of the saplings should be planted in different seasons.
According to an official report, 9.89 per cent of Bihar is forested; the government wants to increase this to 15 per cent in the next five years. In order to achieve this task, the state government has adopted various measures involving rural families, school children, NGOs and eco-clubs.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Pleasing the Piper
http://thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=379209&catid=39
8 August 2011
Satiated with advertisements, many Bihar newspapers and magazines ~ some of which exist only on paper ~ toe the government line, almost unmindful of the growing public anger. Manoj Chaurasia reports
WHEN Britain’s 168-year-old News of the World tabloid finally shut down on 10 July this year, even its “farewell edition” sold an amazing 4.5 million copies. The important question here is why a newspaper owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch folded up. The reason was put down to the anger aroused in readers by reports that this “best-seller” had hacked the phones of a murdered girl, the relatives of dead soldiers and hundreds of celebrities, politicians and royals and, in a sense, just forgot basic media ethics to keep its circulation moving.
One may agree or disagree, but the most common perception in Bihar these days is that many of the newspapers published from this state also seem to be following in the footprints of now-dead British newspapers to some extent, almost unmindful of the building public anger. Readers are angry over the way “government announcements” — and not the issues of the common people and the Opposition — find “good coverage” and how local dailies and magazines, quite a good number of which are nearly non-existent, feast on government advertisements. The general perception among readers is that the local media is hugely obliged to accept government advertisements that carry the ruling disposition’s agenda while it is supposed to allot space for the common good.
The state media was exposed in a case filed on 3 June 2011 with regard to the Forbesganj police firing in which four members of the Muslim community were killed while protesting against the blocking of their decades-old rights of passage by an upcoming maize starch and liquid glucose factory being set up Auro Sundaram International Ltd at Forbesganj in Araria district. Except for a few, most newspapers underplayed the firing story and, worse, did not think it fit to carry the reports of the many fact-finding teams, including the one led by the National Commission for Minority chairman, that visited the villages to record grievances.
Reports now say the Press Council of India is considering complaints against several Hindi and Urdu newspapers published from Bihar for being “non-objective” in reporting the police firing. The PCI is said to have received several complaints from Bihar regarding the “anti-people and pro-state attitude” of several newspapers. The major charge has come from Bihar Media Watch, an NGO that, in its report to the PCI, has accused Hindi and English newspapers of being “pro-state” with regard to the firing story, stating, “It’s painful to submit that no newspapers published from Patna carried the heart-rending picture of the incident showing a policeman jumping over the body of a seriously injured victim who immediately died”. It has further accused the media of violating the “basic moral ethics” and “minimum code of conduct of journalism”, saying that even the NCM chairman’s visit did not make news in many newspapers.
“This news (the visit by the NCM chairman) was not published in the largest-selling Hindi newspaper, Hindustan, while Prabhat Khabar made a mockery of it by publishing the news on page 16 in the classified column consisting of 20 words. So far (as) Dainik Jagran is concerned, it did not even consider this news worth publishing,” said the BMW complaint. Its punch line read, “Initially, the visit by (the) NCM did not find coverage in Hindustan, but on the return of the NCM back to Delhi, the newspaper made comments on its front page editorial, ‘Do Tuk’, on 24 June 2011, giving it a communal colour, which shows newspaper’s pro-state and biased attitude.”
In the current controversy over the allotment of industrial land to some “powerful” people with political connections, the media’s role has assumed precedence over the relatives of ministers, lawmakers and bureaucrats who are alleged to be beneficiaries of the government’s “largesse”, as has been alleged by the Opposition. The government could be right in giving a “clean chit” to the beneficiaries on the ground that “established norms” were followed in making land allotments to the persons in question, but this also raises doubt. How could certain media houses, including one led by a film celebrity, have managed to get industrial plots in the state? The obvious question that follows is: How could these media houses write against the government when they indulge in making hay while the sun shines?
The local media has also been accused of carrying forward the ruling NDA government’s “agenda” of seeking special category status for Bihar. One of the Hindi newspapers went to the extent of launching a signature campaign among its readers and visitors while another used this as a page one flier just a day after the Mumbai serial blasts that consumed most of the front page space in other dailies. During elections as well, most of the local media were accused of crossing the basic “Laxman Rekha” by giving “extra” coverage to the NDA coalition and then projecting its grand victory in the exit polls.
What has apparently compelled the local media to go “pro-state” is the attraction of advertisements being liberally distributed, irrespective of circulation status. According to a report procured by Purander Sawaran, a Right to Information activist, from the office of the Information and Public Relations Department, government of Bihar, the state gave advertisements worth more than Rs 28.47 crore in the last financial year (from 1 April 2010 to 28 March 2011). Of this, a huge share of over Rs 10.12 crore went to Hindustan while Rs 5 crore worth of ads went to Dainik Jagaran. The irony here is that a fairly good amount of advertisement money went to Urdu dailies and other local papers, many of which exist on paper only. This apparently was the reason why even the Urdu media maintained a mysterious silence when the Forbesganj police firing took place.
Funnier still was that some of the papers and magazines walked away with a heavy chunk of advertisements although few readers are familiar with their names and their existence. Some of these are Desh-Videsh (Bhagalpur), Mosallah and Halat-e-Bihar (Samastipur) and Nai Baat (Bhagalpur), although they claim their circulation runs into the thousands.
Says Ajay Kumar, editor of bihartimes.com, a news portal, “This seems to be the strategy adopted by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar. In the last six years it has given so much to the media houses in the name of advertisements that they cannot open their mouths to say anything. It is another thing that someone may ask: Is the media in Bihar as immature as a child and can be hoodwinked into silence by a mouthful of candy?”
The writer is The Statesman’s Patna-based Special
Representative
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Lalu declares war on Nitish govt
http://http//thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=379036&catid=36
Manoj Chaurasia / Patna:
After lying low for some time, RJD chief Mr Lalu Prasad today declared a war on the ruling Nitish Kumar government in Bihar while leading party’s “Maha Dharna” before the statue of Jai Prakash Narayan in Patna.
Trying hard to reorganise the almost disintegrated and demoralised RJD force, it was here at this site that Mr Prasad had taken oath as the 25th chief minister of Bihar 21 years back on 10 March 1990, giving a go-by to established convention of attending the swearing-in ceremony at the Raj Bhawan.
Thousands of workers, leaders and senior party officials cheered as Mr Prasad led them from the front, launching an scathing attack on the ruling NDA government in Bihar. The Maha Dharna was organised against alleged rampant corruption prevailing in the government and its failures on all front.
It was for the first time in the past eight months that the RJD has attempted to mount a campaign against the Nitish government.
“Corruption is flourishing in the government, law and order situation is at its worst and the basic amenities have simply gone missing… It’s total blackout in the whole of state as there is no power. Where is the government?” he thundered while addressing party activists.
Alleging large-scale financial discrepancies in reconciling AC/DC (abstract contingency and detailed contingency) bills and huge irregularities in the allotment of industrial lands to the relatives of ministers, legislators and senior bureaucrats, Mr Prasad sought a CBI probe into the matter.
Manoj Chaurasia / Patna:
After lying low for some time, RJD chief Mr Lalu Prasad today declared a war on the ruling Nitish Kumar government in Bihar while leading party’s “Maha Dharna” before the statue of Jai Prakash Narayan in Patna.
Trying hard to reorganise the almost disintegrated and demoralised RJD force, it was here at this site that Mr Prasad had taken oath as the 25th chief minister of Bihar 21 years back on 10 March 1990, giving a go-by to established convention of attending the swearing-in ceremony at the Raj Bhawan.
Thousands of workers, leaders and senior party officials cheered as Mr Prasad led them from the front, launching an scathing attack on the ruling NDA government in Bihar. The Maha Dharna was organised against alleged rampant corruption prevailing in the government and its failures on all front.
It was for the first time in the past eight months that the RJD has attempted to mount a campaign against the Nitish government.
“Corruption is flourishing in the government, law and order situation is at its worst and the basic amenities have simply gone missing… It’s total blackout in the whole of state as there is no power. Where is the government?” he thundered while addressing party activists.
Alleging large-scale financial discrepancies in reconciling AC/DC (abstract contingency and detailed contingency) bills and huge irregularities in the allotment of industrial lands to the relatives of ministers, legislators and senior bureaucrats, Mr Prasad sought a CBI probe into the matter.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Bihar's big boys join battle afresh
Manoj Chaurasia / Patna
They are at it again! RJD chief Mr Lalu Prasad and Bihar chief minister Mr Nitish Kumar are once again engaged in a verbal duel, albeit via media, and, in the process, churning out some “quotable quotes”.
It all began last week when the vintage Mr Prasad, while breaking his six-month self-imposed silence on the functioning of the present regime, gave a clarion call to his party men to oust the “scam-ridden” Nitish Kumar government in Bihar saying the government had lost the moral authority to remain in power.
He advised his party men to tour every village across the state and also undertake a protest march in the state capital in October to expose the corrupt government. “Everyday there's a scam surfacing in Bihar,” he alleged.
Not to be left behind, his arch-rival and Bihar chief minister, Mr Kumar, lost no time in reacting to Mr Prasad’s remarks. He said: “Laluji will never reform himself and, as such, there has been no change in him even after his electoral rout. Instead of apprising the masses of our ‘failures’, he must ask them why he was defeated.”
Within hours, the witty RJD chief reacted to his rival's statement in his own trademark style, saying, “He (Mr Kumar) is a mom ka sher (wax lion) who thinks he is safely ensconced in an iron cage and cannot be reached… His roar will soon be silenced”.
Now, it was Mr Kumar's turn: Mocking at his rival’s remarks, the chief minister said it was the duty of the Opposition to highlight the “failures” of the government but Mr Prasad comes (to Patna) and suddenly vanishes from the scene before the people could know he was here.
“Laluji aate hain, phir antardhyan ho jate hain…” Mr Prasad, it may be noted here, is at present in New Delhi attending the monsoon session of Parliament.
No reaction has come from Mr Prasad who is away in Delhi but one of his close confidants and state party chief Mr Ramchandra Purve said that Mr Prasad would lead an RJD mahadharna to be held at Patna’s JP roundabout on Saturday (6 August) to protest against the government’s failures.
“The Nitish Kumar government is a total failure on all fronts, and scams, corruption, loot, murder, rape, kidnappings are the order of the day now… The RJD will not be a mute spectator to all these,” cautioned Mr Purve.
The last time they were seen locked in bitter war of words was during the October-November Assembly election when both the leaders had turned to poetry to lash out at each other.
However, as the RJD was badly defeated in the elections, the RJD chief hurriedly shifted to New Delhi to discharge the duty as a Lok Sabha member and then announced to give a “six-month time” to the government to do its work before he trains his gun at the ruling regime. sns
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They are at it again! RJD chief Mr Lalu Prasad and Bihar chief minister Mr Nitish Kumar are once again engaged in a verbal duel, albeit via media, and, in the process, churning out some “quotable quotes”.
It all began last week when the vintage Mr Prasad, while breaking his six-month self-imposed silence on the functioning of the present regime, gave a clarion call to his party men to oust the “scam-ridden” Nitish Kumar government in Bihar saying the government had lost the moral authority to remain in power.
He advised his party men to tour every village across the state and also undertake a protest march in the state capital in October to expose the corrupt government. “Everyday there's a scam surfacing in Bihar,” he alleged.
Not to be left behind, his arch-rival and Bihar chief minister, Mr Kumar, lost no time in reacting to Mr Prasad’s remarks. He said: “Laluji will never reform himself and, as such, there has been no change in him even after his electoral rout. Instead of apprising the masses of our ‘failures’, he must ask them why he was defeated.”
Within hours, the witty RJD chief reacted to his rival's statement in his own trademark style, saying, “He (Mr Kumar) is a mom ka sher (wax lion) who thinks he is safely ensconced in an iron cage and cannot be reached… His roar will soon be silenced”.
Now, it was Mr Kumar's turn: Mocking at his rival’s remarks, the chief minister said it was the duty of the Opposition to highlight the “failures” of the government but Mr Prasad comes (to Patna) and suddenly vanishes from the scene before the people could know he was here.
“Laluji aate hain, phir antardhyan ho jate hain…” Mr Prasad, it may be noted here, is at present in New Delhi attending the monsoon session of Parliament.
No reaction has come from Mr Prasad who is away in Delhi but one of his close confidants and state party chief Mr Ramchandra Purve said that Mr Prasad would lead an RJD mahadharna to be held at Patna’s JP roundabout on Saturday (6 August) to protest against the government’s failures.
“The Nitish Kumar government is a total failure on all fronts, and scams, corruption, loot, murder, rape, kidnappings are the order of the day now… The RJD will not be a mute spectator to all these,” cautioned Mr Purve.
The last time they were seen locked in bitter war of words was during the October-November Assembly election when both the leaders had turned to poetry to lash out at each other.
However, as the RJD was badly defeated in the elections, the RJD chief hurriedly shifted to New Delhi to discharge the duty as a Lok Sabha member and then announced to give a “six-month time” to the government to do its work before he trains his gun at the ruling regime. sns
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