BIHAR

Amid allegations of ineffective implementation of the law and recent hooch tragedies inBihar, the State Government is planning to amend the legislation to make it less stringent, a senior official said.

A person who is caught drunk for the first time may not be arrested but let off after payment of a fine on the spot, said the official privy to the matter. A person repeatedly violating the norms of liquor prohibition law would be liable to face a jail term.

An amendment bill is likely to be tabled in the next session of the assembly in February.

The state cabinet approved the proposal of the general administration department (GAD) to extend the deadline for completing the exercise of caste-based headcount in the state by three months to May, 2023.

The cabinet, during the day, also approved a budgetary allocation of Rs 2.44 crore for developing a site and an app for the headcount. The GAD is the nodal authority for the survey, said a senior official of the state secretariat.

The caste-based headcount was to be completed by February next year, but the deadline was extended as the will conduct the electoral roll revision exercise during this period and there will also be Matriculation and Intermediate exams early next year.

In a bid to dissuade illegal wild bird trade, the Gaya forest division has developed Jai Prakash Udyan in Bodh Gaya as abutterflyrearing centre and promoting awareness among the tourists and the tourist guides by providing Services of butterfly release. The park is adjacent to the world heritage Mahabodhi Mahavihara.

The habitat will have designated plots for establishment and maintenance of the Resources required for butterflies. Altogether 18,327 square feet area has been selected for intense plantation and remaining part of the park is to be used for isolated and sporadic strategic plantation. More than 4,000 Plants of 55 species will be used to set up the habitat in and around the park throughout the year.

The centre will felicitate the breeding of prominent species of butterfly, including lemon emigrant, common jay, Indian jezebel, blue mormon, common rose, plain tier, blue tiger, plains cupid, psyche, common crow, common leopard, striped tiger, common ciliate blue, commander and grass demon.

In the Buddhist texts, the Bodhi tree is known as the tree of awakening under which Lord Buddha attained enlightenment. The tree is scientifically known as Ficus religiasa, which has an ancient connection with butterflies. Common crow, which is a regular visitor to Jai Prakash Udyan, uses the sacred tree to complete its life cycle.

The Centre for Endangered Language Studies (CELS) atIITPatna is doing a pioneering job for the conservation of endangered languages ofBiharand its adjoining regions.

Working under the department of humanities and social studies, the Centre has carried out a number of meaningful studies in a very short span of its establishment, the Covid-19 pandemic notwithstanding.

CELS head Sweta Sinha said that an annual project sponsored by the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) and awarded to the Centre to create a contextualized disaster mitigation framework rooted in the indigenous knowledge system of Bihar has been successfully completed and the findings of the study have already been published in premier research journals.

Nepal has signed an MoU with India to prepare a detailed project report for the proposed $3.15 billion RAILWAY line linking Kathmandu with the Indian border town of Raxaul, a statement said on Friday.

This proposed rail line is seen as counter to China’s bid to expand the railway upto Kathmandu.

The broad-gauge line will give the Nepali capital a direct connection with the Indian railway Network, enabling non-stop train travel to all Indian cities.

The train link to Raxaul, which will be 136 to 198 km long, is seen as New Delhi’s attempt to counter Chinese influence in Nepal. According to the understanding, India will finish the detailed project report within 18 months of the commencement of the agreement, and Nepal will facilitate the process. The Indian government will bear the cost of preparing it.

The Indian side has proposed to build four lines to connect Raxaul with Kathmandu. The construction is expected to take five years after clearance of the land from the Nepal side.

State Resources“>Water Resources ministerSanjay Kumar Jhamade the averment on his official twitter handle, sharing a newspaper report that put Bihar among the top four states of the country in terms of availability oftap waterto rural households.

The report was based on data provided by the website of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), an ambitious project of the Narendra Modi government launched two years back which aims at providing tap water to all rural households by 2024.

According to the JJM data, Bihar, often accused of administrative lethargy, accounts for 1.46 crore water connections out of 4.73 crore for the entire country, placing it well above the national Average of 41.57 per cent since the launch of the mission in 2019.

Only Goa andTelanganawith a 100 per cent success rate besidesHaryana(99.25 per cent) have performed better than Bihar.

Besides, the Union territories of , Puducherry, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have provided water connections to cent per cent households, according to the JJM website.

The JJM website shows that it has been a giant leap for Bihar, one of the most populous states in the country, where only 1.84 per cent households had access to tap water as on August 15, 2019. Since then, a staggering number of over 1.46 crore water connections have been added.
Jha, however, insisted that much of the state’s spectacular success was owing to Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal scheme of the Bihar chief minister which predated the Centre’s JJM.

According to Jha, the scheme was launched in September 2016 and was responsible for ensuring availability of tap water in mostrural areasof the state.

The rejected the Congress demand for restoration ofold pension scheme(OPS) for its employees on the pattern of the Congress-ruled states like Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh as well as Jharkhand where the it is a partner in the Hemant Soren government.
Replying to a non-government resolution of Congress MLA Ajay Kumar Singh inBiharVidhan Sabha on the last day of the monsoon session, states finance and parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said, The Bihar government neither has a plan to reconsider the demand for restoration of the oldpensionscheme nor feels its necessity.

Around 2.5 lakh permanent employees and officers of the state government have been demanding restoration of the OPS in lieu of the NPS, which was introduced first at the Centre with effect from April 1, 2004 during the regime of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The state Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture department has pulled up its socks to speed up distribution of seeds and help farmers in kharif season. The early arrival of southwest monsoon inBiharhas made the condition favourable for the farmers to sow paddy seeds.

The department has set the target to distribute 1.13 lakh quintals of paddy seeds, including 10,000 quintals of hybrid seeds (DRRH3, DRRH2, 27P31 and Arize) and the remaining of open pollinated variety seeds (IR-64, Swarna MTU-7029 and Sabour Shree). Under its Home delivery scheme, the districts have distributed seeds to 56,000 farmers against 1.60 lakh registration.

The agriculture experts feel the farmers in Bihar would get good output in this kharif season due to early arrival of monsoon, widespread rain and early sowing of paddy seeds.