Bihar Police Academy(BPA),Rajgirhas received Union Home Minister’s Trophy for best police training institution in eastern zone for 2020-21.
The academy has received the award in the non-gazetted officers category.
The first state-of-the- art police academy in Bihar at Rajgir was built on a sprawling campus of 133.28 acres of land near the building of Universityon Rajgir-Chhabilapurroad with an expenditure of around Rs 290 crore.
The Narendra Modi governments Rs 3.3 lakh crore plan to replace all 25 crore traditional meters in the country with pre-paid meters in the next three years could by far be the smartest move till date to improve the financial Health of discoms (distribution companies).
This increased Average monthly collection per customer by up to 65%. At the same time, the consumption figure per consumer also shot up by up to 42%, indicating the quantum of losses suffered by discoms earlier due to slippage or simply theft.
Though Bihar leads in penetration of pre-paid meters, UP has installed the highest number of smart meters (post-paid category) at more than 11.5 lakh. Bihar is a close second with 11 lakh smart meters installed, Rajasthan 5.5 lakh,Haryana5.3 lakh, Assam 4.1 lakh and Delhi 2.5 lakh.
In the first phase, 10 crore meters are to be replaced in priority areas (high loss, high value consumers) by December 2023. Meters in remaining areas will be replaced by March 2025.
The smart meter scheme aims at strengthening institutional capabilities for modernising discoms, reducing line losses to 12-15% by 2024-25 nationally and bringing the gap between the cost of supply and revenue realised to nil by 2024-25.
There was a time when people from neighbouring Nepal and Bhutan used to come to thePatna Medical CollegeandHospital(PMCH) for treatment, but now even people from humble backgrounds think twice before getting their loved ones admitted despite the improvement in the over the years.
Though the government hospitals, which form barely 30% of the Health facilities in the state, are at the forefront of the fight against the Covid-19 virus yet the pandemic has exposedBihar’s creaky healthcare infrastructure.
In a state where the rural Population has an estimated Rs7000-8000 per capita income, even the poor have to spend around Rs2,000 on health while Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture contributes around 18% to the GDP.”
The health expenditure in Bihar increased from 4.35% of the total expenditure in 2016-17 to 6.08% in 2021-22 while its share in GSDP increased from 1.3% to 1.75% during the same period.
In general, per capita, health expenditure in Bihar is Rs 1,078 crore while total expenditure on Health sector has gone up to Rs13,265 crore in 2021-22 against Rs 5,493 in 2016-17.
Bihar Vidyapeeth, set up by Mahatma Gandhi in 1921 during pre-Independence era, has the potential to become an Education hub to fulfill the needs of youths of the state.
The sprawling 32 acres of Bihar Vidyapeeth land can be used for academic activities to impart regular and career-oriented vocational courses at the degree level to the students, who had attended a function at Bihar Vidyapeeth as chief guest earlier this week.
Senior JD(U) functionary and state Education ministerVijay Kumar Chaudharyon Friday raised a demand for grant ofspecial category status to Biharto rid it of its backwardness.
Inaugurating a two-day national seminar on Raising agricultural productivity and farmers incomes in Bihar, organised byPatliputra School of Economics(PSE) at Aryabhatta Knowledge University here, the minister said despite the fastest annual Growth rate recorded in the country for the last several years, Bihar has been placed at the bottom in the recent report of on the POVERTY-index”>Multidimensional Poverty Index. Incidentally, NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand was also present at the function.
State planning and implementation minister Bijendra Yadav had written to NITI Aayog vice-chairman recently for grant of special status to Bihar.
The education minister said plagued with scanty Resources“>Natural Resources and perennial floods and droughts, Bihar is unable to make desired socio-Economic Development. If the NITI Aayog feels difficulties in meeting the demand for special status to the state, the Centre must allocate its financial assistance to the state in 90:10 ratio to ensure its desired economic growth, he said.
The case clearance rate at across the state dropped to 36.58% in 2020 from 67.73% in 2019 due to Covid-19 pandemic.
As per data available on the Patna High Court website, there was a little change in the number of cases which were instituted in subordinate courts in 2020 from 2019, but the count of the cases disposed came down drastically as either courts were shut or had to work virtually.
Altogether 4.76 lakh cases were instituted in 2020 and just 1.74 lakh could be disposed of. In 2019, 5.98 lakh cases were instituted and 4.05 lakh disposed of. In 2018, 4.93 lakh cases were instituted and 3.61 lakh disposed of, taking the case clearance rate to 73.09%.
The poor case clearance rate increased the pressure on the subordinate courts which forms the backbone of the judicial system.
To ensure the successful implementation of the Family Planning Day, preparations have been completed in the districts. Similarly, under the Pradhan Mantri SurakshitMatritva Abhiyan, arrangements for counselling of pregnant Women will be ensured at all Health facilities on the 9th of every month. The women and their families coming forANC(antenatal care) check-ups will be made aware of the family planning-related measures, the minister said.
ASHAs and Jeevika didis would have an important role in implementing this initiative as they will do the line listing of women of rural and urban areas.
Participants from Bihar are also showcasing their toys in the ongoing virtual event – India Toy Fair.
Some participants have come up with traditional doll making art like Kaniya-Putri which is an important part of folk-culture in the state.
Kaniya-Putri is an old doll making tradition which signifies the importance and prestigious place of Women in the societies of Champaran area of the state.
The event is also an opportunity to revive the old tradition of Bihar, once very popular in the Society.
The pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) is far from satisfactory in the elementary and secondary schools of the state with respect to the right to Education norms. Only about 19% of upper primary schools are having teachers for three core subjects and 30% of secondary schools are having teachers for all the core subjects.
These facts have been revealed by the proceedings of the recent meeting of the project approval board of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan for finalising the annual plan andbudgetof the state for 2023-24. As per data made available, subject PTR at the upper primary level is 112 for language, 150 for mathematics and science, and 204 for social studies.RTEnorms suggest one teacher for every 30 pupil.
Worse is the situation in secondary schools of the state. The PTR at the secondary level is 192 for language, 351 for mathematics, 253 for science and 194 for social studies.
The data furnished by the state education department indicate that there were more than 1.92 lakh vacant posts of teachers in government elementary schools against which only about 80,000 posts have been advertised by theBihar Commission (Bpsc) recently for recruitment of teachers for students of classes 1 to 5. Not a single post of teacher has been advertised for students of classes 6 to 8.
A day after taking stock ofarrangementsat different community kitchen centres in 22 districts, CMNitish Kumar inspected the facilities at six places in the state capital through videoconferencing. The CM asked the officials to ensure that no outsiders, other than people coming to take meals, get entry inside the centres and unnecessary crowd such places.
The six kitchen centres inspected are located at the Bankipore Girls High School, Patna High School, Saidpur canal Rain Basera, NMCH, Rajkiya High School, Mangal Talab, and theCollege of Commerce.
The CM also spoke to some of the beneficiaries about the facilities andqualityoffoodsbeing provided to them.
All the beneficiaries to whom the CM spoke to through videoconferencing lauded the food quality and other arrangements made at the centres.