Source : http://span.state.gov/sept-oct2011/eng/40-41-sree-srinivasan.html

During this visit, he discussed with key Government of India officials and defense industry leaders how the United States and India can work more closely together to ensure security and prosperity in the 21st century.

Deputy Secretary Carter’s meetings followed through on Secretary Panetta’s visit to India last month when the Secretary made clear that we must work to deepen our security partnership – so that our relationship becomes more strategic, more practical, and more collaborative. One of Secretary Panetta’s initiatives that Deputy Secretary Carter discussed in New Delhi was further leading an effort, along with Indian counterparts in the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of External Affairs, to make our respective bureaucratic processes simpler, more responsive, and more effective to increase defense trade and cooperation.

The Deputy Secretary also met with Indian defense industry executives in Hyderabad to discuss practical next steps for streamlining bureaucratic barriers in both the U.S. and India. He toured several promising Indo-U.S. facilities co-producing transport plane and helicopter components.

Nitesh Kumar

Jharkhand has accused its parent state Bihar of keeping it into dark as it has failed to hand over the cadastral maps even though it has been more than 11 years since its formation. In absence of these maps, Jharkhand which lacks territorial knowledge of its land and villages has been unable to implement the centre’s ambitious scheme National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP).

These cadastral maps were established by the East India Company in the 19^th century to demarcate the territories so as to facilitate collection of revenue from the land lords and the kings on basis of the land they owned. The Survey of India(SoI),a Department of the British Government,established in 1767,was fully involved in the collection of these details.Following the recommendation of the 1904 Committee,the British government had empowered the respective states to conduct the cadastral surveys in their own areas of jurisdiction.

Ever since,  the hard copies of cadastral maps of 1905-06,apart from the maps prepared after completion of survey in 1934-35 and the maps made by yet another survey in 1958-61,were supposed to be preserved by the Bihar government’s body  Mudranalaya(Press) at Guljarbagh in Patna.

These cadastral maps numbering 82,119 are called by the state ,to update its land revenue records as well as implement the Centre’s ambitious Rs 125.07 crore NLRMP scheme which envisages to computerize updated land records, automated and automatic mutation, integration between textual and spatial records,inter-connectivity between revenue and registration.

CM Arjun Munda

Speaking to www.jharkhandstatenews.com a senior officer of the land revenue department says ”We are badly hit as all other works related with the land settlement and demarcation of boundaries with neighbouring states have come to a halt” . As per the Bihar Reorganisation Act,2000,”all the land and all the stores,articles and other goods belonging to the existing state of Bihar shall;If within the transferred territory,passed to the State of Jharkhand.” However, the official records obtained by us revealed that Bihar had failed to do the needful irrespective of repeated letters sent to the concerned officials.

Tired of Bihar’s inaction, Jharkhand Chief Secretary SK Choudhary has sought the Centre’s intervention. Meanwhile,  Bihar’s Principal Secretary Chandragupta Harshvardhan evaded question saying Director(Settlement and Survey)Hukum Singh Meena was dealing with the issue. When contacted,  Meena said “I have no idea.In any case,a decision in this regard has to be taken by the government.”

]]> http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/unaware-of-its-boundariesjharkhand-blames-bihar-for-failure-to-handover-the-maps/feed/ 0 http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/cii-plays-a-crucial-role-in-india/ http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/cii-plays-a-crucial-role-in-india/#comments Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:13:53 +0000 StateNewsAdmin http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/?p=1084 Deepa Dutta

“Congratulations to CII on your successes.You play a crucial role in India’s trade and foreign engagement. You help the world get to know and work with India, and vice versa. I became familiar with CII through my association with the Aspen Strategy Group’s U.S.-India Dialogue over the last 14 years, working with the great Tarun Das and Kiran Pasricha, who’ve done such exceptional things for CII and for the U.S.-India relationship.I was an early and strong supporter of the relationship also. So this is a long, long-awaited engagement, which makes it doubly wonderful to be here. I am familiar with India’s charms and culture, and the Indian people are very close to my heart.”

While addressing a session orgainsed by the CII,the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter talked about the strategic setting and said that the U.S.-India relationship is global in scope, like the reach and influence of each of our countries.

Carter said that Indo_US security interests converge across the Indian Ocean region; in Afghanistan, where India has done much for economic development and the ANSF; and on broader regional issues, where we share long-term interests, if not always common approaches, like Syria and Iran.

“I like to think of India and the United States as kindred souls. We share common values as well as common interests, and we share strong bonds in trade and technology, as well as security. President Obama has called the U.S.-India bilateral relationship one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century. And our defense cooperation, the topic of my talk, is a central part of our partnership”,said Carter.

His thought assumes significance not just because he spoke on the Indo-US relationship,but said that practical steps are need of the
hour to improve the two countries’ defense cooperation.”We want to develop a joint vision for U.S.-India defense cooperation. That’s why I’m here, at Secretary Panetta’s request. We want to get to a place where we continuously discover new opportunities to make innovative investments that benefit both countries for generations. The only limit to our cooperation should be our independent strategic decisions – as any two states may differ – not bureaucratic red tape.

The relationship has come a long way in the past decade. Our goal is to make it even stronger. We need to define where we want to go, and then make it possible to get there. We on the U.S. side have no preconceived model for this relationship or for India’s role in this region or in the world. We respect that you will follow your strategic interests. Our relationship will be a unique one, based on trust, sharing, and reliability. It will be shaped by our own strategic decisions and, I hope, by a deep strategic dialogue such as that which Secretary Panetta engaged in, when he was here in June”,Carter said. His address to the CII members and office bearers was welcomed widely as he talked about a rebalance to the Asia-Pacific Region.”Before turning to the specifics of our cooperation, I’d like to start with some strategic context – the backdrop for our cooperation”,he said.

Ashton B. Carter , U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense

Carter said:“The last ten years have had a profound impact on world affairs, affecting the United States but also countries across the
Asia-Pacific region and around the world. We now find ourselves at a strategic inflection point in the United States, with two forces
impinging upon us.

After a decade of conflict, one war has ended, in Iraq; the other, in Afghanistan, has not, but will transition soon to Afghan lead, thanks
to the superb efforts of the men and women in U.S. and coalition forces. We have done exceptionally well there.

But while we have been fighting insurgency and terrorism in the Middle East, the world has not stood still, our friends and enemies have not stood still, and technology has not stood still. The successes we’ve had in Afghanistan, and in counter-terrorism, mean that we can now focus our attention on other opportunities and challenges.

The time has come for us in the United States to look up, and look out, to what the world needs next, and to the security challenges that
will define our future.

We would need to make this transition no matter what, but a second force rises as well. That is the need to keep the United States’
fiscal house in order, as outlined under the Budget Control Act, passed last year by the U.S. Congress. While the U.S. base defense
budget itself will not go down under this plan, neither will it continue to rise as we had planned.

These two forces – of strategic history and fiscal responsibility – led us to design a new defense strategy for the 21st century in a
remarkable process this past winter steered by President Obama and Secretary Panetta. We are building a force for the future, what
Chairman Dempsey calls the Joint Force of 2020. As Secretary Panetta said, it will be an agile, lean, ready, technologically advanced
force, able to conduct full-spectrum operations and defeat any adversary, anywhere, anytime.

A central tenet of our new strategy is our rebalance to the  Asia-Pacific region. The rebalance is reflected in force structure
decisions we make (that is, what we keep and what we cut), in our posture and presence (that is, where we put things), in new
investments we are making in technology and weapons systems, in innovative operational plans and tactics, and in alliances and
partnerships in the region. Importantly, here in India, our rebalance extends to Southeast Asia and South Asia.

The logic of the rebalance is simple: The Asia-Pacific region has enjoyed an environment of peace and stability for more than 60 years,
allowing Japan to rise and prosper, then Korea to rise and prosper, next Southeast Asia to rise and prosper, and now China, in a very
different way than India, to rise and prosper. The wellsprings of that security have not been found within the region itself – there’s
no NATO here. In the absence of an over-arching security structure, the United States military presence has played a pivotal role in
ensuring regional stability. We intend to continue to play that role.

It is good for us, and it is good for everyone in the region. Our rebalance is not about China or the United States or India or any other single country or group of countries: It is about a peaceful Asia-Pacific region, where sovereign states can enjoy the benefits of security and continue to prosper.

In the future, our Asia-Pacific posture will increase relative to other theaters. We intend to have 60 percent of our naval assets in
the Pacific by 2020. We are developing new concepts of rotational presence, with Marines in Australia and four littoral combat ships in
Singapore as well as forward stationing in Guam. We are investing in new platforms and technologies relevant to the region, like the new bomber, new submarine-launched conventional weapons, cyber capabilities, and a host of upgrades in radars, electronic protection, space, and electronic warfare. These and other future-focused investments are another central tenet of our strategy.

Ashton B. Carter

To those who doubt we have the resources to accomplish all this, I would, to the contrary, point out two factors that make it eminently
possible. First, with Iraq behind us and Afghanistan slated to wind down, capacity will be released that can be allocated to the
Asia-Pacific region. Second, within our budget we can and are prioritizing investments relevant to the Asia-Pacific theater rather
than, for example, counterinsurgency where we have put so much effort over the last decade. So the rebalancing is entirely practical.

Finally, central in our new strategy, as in our decades-long historical commitment to the region, we seek to build partnerships
that leverage the unique strengths of our Allies and partners – to confront critical challenges, and meet emerging opportunities. So we
are taking a strategic and comprehensive approach to security cooperation. And as I will describe in greater detail, we are
streamlining our internal processes and security cooperation programs to share and cooperate with our partners better.

Our partnership with India is a key part of our rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region, and, we believe, to the broader security and prosperity of the 21st century. You are an economic power with an increasing military capability; and your leadership in civil discourse and democracy is critical to the political stability of South Asia.

Our military-to-military engagement has increased steadily over the years, to include a robust set of dialogues, exercises, defense trade, and research cooperation.

Our shared challenge in the next era is to find concrete areas to step up our defense cooperation, so that only our imagination and strategic logic, and not administrative barriers, set the pace. That’s why I came with a team of officials who are responsible to Secretary Panetta and me for executing this vision. We need to reinvigorate and commit to maintain a robust set of linkages and working groups that will work every day to enable our cooperation and develop mutual beneficial policies for the future.

We want to knock down any remaining bureaucratic barriers in our defense relationship, and strip away the impediments. And we want to set big goals to achieve.

Today, I want to outline some of the steps the U.S. is taking in this direction, and if I may, some areas where we hope India will improve too.

As a country committed to enduring peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region, India deserves the best military equipment
available. And we are prepared to help. Practically, we want to be India’s highest-quality and most trusted long-term supplier of
technology, in such fields as maritime domain awareness, counter-terrorism, and many others. We are committed to India’s
military modernization. India is a top priority in our export considerations. We trust India and know India is not a re-exporter or
exploiter of our technologies.

We have an export control system to prevent high-end technology from getting to states that shouldn’t have it, but our system can be
confusing, rigid, and controls too many items for the wrong reasons.
We know we need to improve it. We are improving our government’s overall export control system under President Obama’s 2010 Export Control Reform initiative.

But at the same time, Secretary Panetta and I are committed to reforming the Department of Defense’s internal processes. India has
been very frank in expressing its concerns with U.S. export controls and technology security policies. We are taking real steps to address India’s concerns.

For example, we moved DRDO and ISRO off the Commerce Department Entity List. We can conduct research and co-develop technologies together –like batteries, and micro-UAVs – good initial steps, with much more to come. And an overwhelming and increasing majority of munitions license requests have been approved quickly under direct commercial sales, and this will continue.

In addition to increasing sheer bureaucratic speed, we are being more strategic about export decisions. We are making decisions more
anticipatory, looking at what partners are likely to want in the future, and beginning our thinking earlier. In a great new
initiative, we are building exportability into our systems from the start so it doesn’t consume time and money to do it later. Next, we
are putting priority sales on a special fast track. All these steps should be felt here in New Delhi. The combination of these and other
efforts will help us respond more rapidly to India’s requests for U.S.  equipment and systems – particularly for more advanced  echnologies.

At the same time, we want to maintain confidence that our technologies will be protected. India is concerned about protecting technology too – we know that. We have a U.S.-India Senior Technology Security Group to address the genuine security issues that exist in our world, but it needs to be more active.

Secondly, I want to report to you that we in the U.S. are taking steps to improve our Foreign Military Sales system, or FMS, also. This is
in both of our countries’ interests. India was our second largest FMS customer in 2011, with $4.5 billion in total FMS sales. And we
delivered six C-130Js on time. We think our defense technology is the best quality on the market. Some partners choose price over value.

Buying American, whether through Direct Commercial Sales or Foreign Military Sales, will get India exceptionally high-quality technology, a high degree of transparency, and no corruption (this is mandated by our legal system).

Sometimes it appears that India favors DCS, and this is fine, but might overlook some advantages of FMS. A government-to-government agreement through Foreign Military Sales offers competitive pricing, only slightly more than DCS. These costs go to DoD, which affords protections you cannot get from industry alone and addresses sustainment needs over the long-term. As I said many times when I was acquisition executive of DoD, lifecycle costs are frequently hidden and ignored in acquisition decisions.

To sum up on FMS, we are making our Foreign Military Sales system as easy to work with as possible. But for each sale, India should choose which route is in its interests, commercial or governmental. We will continue to work to improve both. Next, and importantly, we are prepared to adapt our system to the unique needs of India and its Defence Procurement Procedure, or DPP.

We aim to clarify our acquisition system, which isn’t always easy to interpret. I used to be the Under Secretary of Defense for
Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. There was a chart on my wall, outlining the 250 steps it takes to move a program from development to delivery. It read like hieroglyphics. One of my team decided that a wallet sized card would make it easier to read.

We are making our acquisition process more export-friendly. We have a new fund that allows us to procure long-lead, high demand items so we will have them on hand in anticipation of partner requests. We now have a cadre of acquisition experts to send to other countries to define their requests for sales and streamline our response. They should help India significantly.

Finally, and most importantly, we want to move beyond defense trade and towards cooperative research and development and co-production with India. I’m a scientist, and I know this is a critical part. I am going to Hyderabad tomorrow, where Tata Advanced Systems Limited and Lockheed will begin producing parts for the C-130J. From now on, every C-130J around the world will contain parts made in Hyderabad.

This is a great first step for co-production. It highlights what can be achieved when we unleash the potential of our private industries.
This is just the beginning. Our horizons can and should expand further. The question is: Where does India want to expand and grow?

Indian bureaucracies, like ours, are adapting for the future. Our bureaucracies, however, were built during the Cold War. More
recently, India introduced the Defense Procurement Procedure, which is designed to protect against corruption, by reducing prices and complexity reflecting this legacy. Now, however, a higher-end technology India seeks to develop a higher-end defense industry.

Likewise, in the Cold War, the U.S. bureaucracy was designed to protect a wide swath of technology. With the commercialization of the
global marketplace, we now recognize that defense technology controls should be more focused. We want to cooperate with you on high-value technologies.

To get to where we both want to be, India can make changes too, to increase U.S. investment. If India raises its Foreign Direct
Investment ceiling to international standards, it would increase commercial incentives to invest.

Second, offsets can be tremendously helpful to growing industry capabilities – if you have the right companies, and the right
absorptive capacity. If offsets are calibrated correctly, it works.  But if offset requirements are too onerous or too narrow, they deter a
company’s interest. For companies to participate, our arrangements must make good economic sense as well as good strategic sense.

Those are just two points where change could be a real help to Indian-American defense cooperation.”

Conclusion

The point is that on both sides we need to change, reform, and push ourselves to get to a place where U.S.-India defense relations are
limited only by our thinking, not our capacity to cooperate. That’s what Secretary Panetta and National Security Advisor Menon charged when they met in June.

I’m looking forward to visiting India’s Technology Corridor tomorrow. There we will all be reminded of what is happening in the overall world of technology and industry. There, cooperation is the norm. The leaders of industry globally, such as those in this room, know it.
Sometimes, we in the security community lag behind them in our ability to cooperate and advance technology. But the wisest of our industrial leaders, including CII, also understand that without security, none of the other good things in life are possible – family, prosperity, progress, let alone business.

So in gatherings like this, and in practical ways like those I have come to India to advance, they help show us the way. For that,
Secretary Panetta and I are grateful. Thank you very much.

]]> http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/cii-plays-a-crucial-role-in-india/feed/ 0 http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/jharkhand-has-great-expectations-from-new-president-of-indiasays-cm-munda/ http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/jharkhand-has-great-expectations-from-new-president-of-indiasays-cm-munda/#comments Sun, 22 Jul 2012 19:16:43 +0000 StateNewsAdmin http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/?p=1075

Top brass of this state-chief minister Arjun Munda,JMM chief Shibu Soren and two Deputy CMs-Hemant Soren and Sudesh Mahato-greeted the victory of the UPA presidential candidate and former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee as President of India.

“We congratulate him on his splendid victory.Jharkhand has great expectations from him”,said Munda who had voted for Mukherjee’s rival PA Sangma.Identical sentiments were shared by Sorens and Mahato.

Mukherjee got the magic figures (around 5.18 lakh worth of votes) to become new President of India. He got the required number during the ongoing counting of votes at Parliament House here on Sunday.

Mukherjee got the magic figure during the counting of votes of Maharashtra. Though counting of votes of 15 more states are still awaited, it will only have academic value.

As expected, the UPA constituents and its key supporting parties like SP, BSP, RJD and others had supported Mukherjee. Besides, he also got the support of opposition parties like Shiv Senaand JD(U).

Mukherjee defeated the BJP-backed presidential candidate P A Sangma. The former NCP leader Sangma got his votes mainly from the MPs belong to BJP, BJD, SAD and AIADMK. Among MLAs, he got votes mostly in BJP-ruled states like Goa, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Interestingly, the BJP-ruled Karnataka witnessed cross-voting during Presidential poll. Ongoing counting shows that over a dozen BJP MLAs might have voted in favour of Pranab Mukherjee who got 117 votes. Sangma got 103 votes in the state.

Mukherjee got the overwhelming support of Parliamentarians (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs) in the President’s election securing a vote value of 3,73,116. He got the remaining vote value (1.36lakh) to reach the magic number (majority mark of 5.18) lakh) from the MLAs who cast their votes in his favour.

Sangma, on the other hand, managed to get a vote value of only 1,45,848 in the counting of votes of MPs. His vote value increased to over 2.2 lakh when votes of MLAs of BJP-ruled states counted.

 A total of 748 MPs voted in the election on July 19. Of the total votes, Mukherjee got 527 votes while Sangma got 206. Fifteen votes including that of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav were invalid.

Counting of ballots began amidst tight security in Parliament House here in the presence of authorised representatives of both Mukherjee and Sangma at 11am. First trend came around 1pm after counting of votes of all MPs.

Authorised representatives if both the Presidential candidates inspected the seals of the ballot boxes and the counting began after ascertaining that they were not tampered with.

As many as 95 per cent of the 4,896 electors — 776 MPs and 4,120 MLAs — had exercised their franchise on Thursday at the polling centres set up in Parliament House and 30 other states and Union territories with assemblies.

All the ballot boxes from the states had reached Parliament House by Saturday and were kept in a strong room.

The vote of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had been declared invalid by the Election Commission on the ground that he violated the code of secrecy by revealing his ballot. Yadav had initially voted for Sangma and then tore the ballot paper when he realised his mistake.

Lalu Prasad Yadav

RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav is in the news again.This time he chose the issue of displacement to lash out on the Arjun Munda government in Jharkhand.

‘This government is anti poor.It has been displacing people in the garb of anti encroachment drive”,said Yadav.

Though the anti encroachment drive was undertaken by the Munda government in response to Jharkhand High Court’s directive,Lalu did not mention a word about the court.Instead he said that the state government has been evicting the poor on the pretext of encroachment.

Referring to the last year’s drive in Ranchi,Dhanbad and other places in Jharkhand and the recent July 4 clash between the police and the villagers in Nagri in protest against land acquisition for construction of educational institutions in the village.

Aware of the divide between Munda and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha in the BJP,Lalu took the side of the latter and praised Sinha for opposing the encroachment drive in Ranchi.”The BJP government led by Munda had made the anti encroachment drive a regular feature.It is a regular cause of concern for the poor”,said Lalu.

Nearly two decades after the fodder scam, the government has announced that Horses and dogs will be brought under the ambit of the proposed plan to rear them in the animal husbandary department (AHD)’s farms for the police. Further, the plan would also include sale of horses and dogs in the open market.

Earlier in 1990’s more than 250 personnel of the AHD had siphoned of crores of rupees for breeding fictitious poultry animals and purchasing medicines and fodder for them.  This move by the AHD comes even before the accused in the fodder scan including former Bihar CM Jagannath Mishra and Lalu Prasad Yadav have been brought to justice.

The plan, which starts with AHD setting up its first horse breeding farm in Saraikela near Kharsawan has Rs 60 Lakh to its credit in the current fiscal year out of the 3 crores earmarked for breeding dogs during 12^th five year plan. After the horses are reared and brought up in the farm, they would be purchased for raising units of mounted forces who will be deployed in the Naxal infested areas.

This plan which proposes rearing of high breed dogs likeLabradorand German Shepherd will enable the AHD compete with private players who are presently meeting these demands for the army. In addition, the department is also gearing up to set up “Pet Clinics” in eight districts includingRanchiand Saraikela with a budget of Rs 1.6 crore for these clinics this year.

In response to the Maoist attacks on a major portion of the South Eastern Railway’s stretch, the Union Railway Ministry has inducted 1500 specially trained commandos into its RPF. The commandos have been trained in jungle warfare by the army in its Lucknow camp and were primarily deployed in East Singhbhum and West Singhbhum in Jharkhand, Rourkela in Orissa and Bankura, Midnapur and Puruli-Jungle Mahal in West Bengal in March.

SE Railways’ IG Ajay Kumar Singh had expressed confidence in this move when he said “As the commandos are mentally and physically trained to use latest weapons, they will be able to provide security to passengers in any emergency situation”
To counter the Maoists’ automatic weapons, these soldiers are equipped with automatic weapons and bullet proof jackets unlike the obsolete 3.3 rifles carried by the Jawans of RPF. The troops were specially trained to carry out search and rescue operations in times of emergency along the Maoist infested 1200 Km of the 1500 Km SE railway stretch. A salon operates 24×7, to rush the commandos to ground zero.

This security measure came into effect as the number of Maoist attacks had been surmounting rapidly and 202 of the 292 SE railway’s stations are deemed “sensitive”. In a period of 2006-2008 alone, there were 54 attacks on the railway stations and 97 killed. From 2008-2011, the number of deceased escalated to 379, with the Jungle Mahal area being the site of 322 of these deaths.

Ranchi Divisional Superintendent AK Das said, “With these commandos, we can make our tracks and passengers more secure. Moreover, in times of rescue operations, we will not have to requisition the services of the Army”

A separate squad of woman commandos is also being raised for the same purpose.

ArnavMukherjee(21) hanged himself to death inside his room in BIT on Friday. According to reports, the fifth year student in his last moments was listening to Bob Dylon’s song-“The Times They Are AChangin’ and wrote: “Sorry Mom and Dad for taking this extreme step.” DinkarSingh,a friend of Arnav says, “Though Arnav was a below average student in  class,he never showed his frustration.”

This was the 5th case of suicide in BIT since, 20^th Oct, 2005. On Saturday, two more students of BIT namely Mala Singh and Anuj Kumar Mehta of Gossenor College committed suicide.

There have been over 145 suicides in Jharkhand since January 1. The number of suicides is highest in Jamshedpur which is one of the four industrial towns of Jharkhand, although there is no answer as to why Jamshedpur, a town with 80% literacy is confronting such a problem. Since January 1, the number of suicides recorded was 30 in Dhanbad, 11 in Bokaro, 144 in Jamshedpur and 36 in Ranchi.

The Govt. run Mental Hospital’s Doctor, Amol Ranjan said, “These cases are common in medical and engineering colleges because of the load of the course and high expectations of the students and parents.”

Similarly, Dr. Usha Rai, a psychologist who has studied 18 cases of suicide by students of this state since 2010 argued that most of the suicide cases –a pan India phenomenon-among the students had occurred due to the parents who looked the other way and said that students need counseling by their parents as friends.

On the other hand, the Police spokesperson and IG RK Mallick said that, “Many suicides committed by students are linked to their failed love affairs.”

The Govt. run Mental Hospital’s Doctor, AmolRanjan said, “These cases are common in medical and engineering colleges because of the load of the course and high expectations of the students and parents.”

 Similarly, Dr. UshaRai, a psychologist who has studied 18 cases of suicide by students of this state since 2010, argued that most of the suicide cases –a pan India phenomenon-among the students had occurred due to the parents who looked the other way round. He tipped by commenting that the students need counseling by their parents as friends.

 On the other hand, the Police spokesperson and IG RK Mallick said that, “Many suicides committed by the students are linked to their failed love affairs.”

]]> http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/why-jharkhand-is-in-grip-of-suicide/feed/ 0 http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/not-cycleneed-money-to-buy-itsay-beneficiaries/ http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/not-cycleneed-money-to-buy-itsay-beneficiaries/#comments Mon, 02 Jul 2012 18:40:10 +0000 StateNewsAdmin http://www.jharkhandstatenews.com/?p=505 Divya Tripathi

SandhyaKumari reached the school late with an injured knee due to a bent in the wheel rim of her bicycle on 20th May.Two days later,SangitaShukla had to drag her bicycle from LapungChowk to a repair shop because the chain had backed out.

SudhirVerma,alawyer,said in an interview,“It’s quite shocking to think about that this humble cycle carries the risk of life.”He further added that the cycle distributed to the students were substandard and of poor quality.

It was 2002 when the scheme was introduced in the state. Six years before, Bihar came up with the same aiming to provide mobility to girl students of Class VI and above. Plus, it was also done to check dropout rates among them.

Unlike Bihar,where every beneficiary was given money in 2008 to buy it,in Jharkhand, it was bought by the State Govt. and distributed to students free of cost stating that if cash was given to the beneficiaries,the parents may buy alcohol instead of bicycles.

The centralized purchasing of cycles was made through floating of bids and   tender awards to the company who bade the lowest.The welfare,human resources and tribal welfare of the State Govt. had sanctioned Rs. 68.42 crore to purchase bicycles in the last fiscal year.In the 1st phase,1.80 lakh bicycles,each at a cost of Rs. 2489,were supplied across the state.

 The Jharkhand Rajya Cycle BikretaSangh, Secretary said that paying graft only gets you the contract,thus, compromise has to be made vis-à-vis quality.

 After many complaints lodged in Ramgarh,the Deputy Commissioner,Am

itabh Kaushal ordered an enquiry where it was found that in his district a total of 5529 cycles were supplied where 7563 tyres were of ‘two ply’ when the department’s specification mentioned ‘seven ply’.The difference in cost of each tyre’s seven and two ply was `50.

Though,similar complaints were made in Pakur,Sahebgunj and Palamau the State Govt. has not taken any move to fix the problem.