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Indian Railways have decided to invite Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the non - core sector for setting up of logistic parks, wagon investment schemes, wagon leasing schemes and also to participate in the setting up of more than 7000 agricultural outlets throughout the country, Lalu said.

It would encourage the introduction of PPP model for setting up of new factories for production of wagons, coaches and locomotives, he added.

The Minister asserted that Indian Railways is going to upgrade 26 major railways stations as world class stations throughout the country including four metropolitan cities.

He also informed that there will be separate departure and arrival facilities for passenger to decongest existing crowds at station complex besides other modernized passenger amenities like world class waiting/rest-rooms, multi-level parking, malls etc.

He stated that for 'turnaround of Indian Railway', the credit goes to its 14 lakh employees who worked with full dedication and made Indian Railways to earn billions despite reduction in passenger fares.

He declared that this great turnaround was achieved without retrenching any employee and without increasing the passenger fare, rather the fares have been reduced.

Outlining in broad terms, Singh said the planning committee would included a number of top bureaucrats, the mayor and deputy mayor of Patna, and Panchayat chiefs and their deputies a recipe that is seen by many as doomed to fail from the very get go.

While the Urban Development Minister went to great pains to describe the core committee that would overlook the ambitious Patna metro plan, he failed to mention the actual plan, how he wants to finance it when there is not even enough money to save Bihar from the annual flood, or what is the timeframe to attain this lofty goal.

With a history of shooting their mouths off before even talking to experts, Bihar ministers have been putting forward many such plans since coming into power with barely anything to show for despite being at the helm of affairs for nearly two and a half years.

Snazzy malls, multiplexes, Mumbai's Marine Drive-type Ganga development schemes, mega tourism projects, flyovers everywhere and other such plans there had been a lot of noise about development but so far either these plans have died even before taking off from the ground or have been hit with snags, a la Kankarbagh drainage and the now infamous Tantia debacle, with blames flying from all sides.

Traffic throughout the city remained sparse as a number of shop-owners, expecting a slow business day, dropped their shutters and went home hoping to catch some relief provided by generators and inverters thanks to prolonged power cuts in many areas.

School children were seen stopping by at road corners to grab a refreshing glass of lemonade or 'amjhora' while youths with a sense of style were rushing to the nearest sunglass shop to find a shade that not only provides some relief to their eyes but also adds some oomph to their personalities. Those who were lucky enough to be the members of one of the elite private clubs chose to fight heat by jumping into cool, inviting swimming pools.

"The banks must play their parts in developing Bihar by 2015 by coming up with schemes for farmers and students at liberal terms because banks are there not just to make money but to define their position as an important player in forward march of the state," Kumar said.

The Chief Minister also admonished the banks to go easy on villagers who, for one reason or another, are unable to fulfill their financial obligations within the stipulated period causing them to fall in a vicious circle of poverty.

Several top government officials including Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Chief Secretary R. J. M. Pillai, Chief Finance Secretary Naveen Kumar, State Bank of India General Manager Sameer Sharan, Reserve Bank of India Regional Director K. K. Bohra, and NABARD General Manager Sandeep Ghosh were also present during the meeting.

The students, who avail this facility, need not pay the interest till they complete their studies. The interest will be borne by the Central Government.

The Human Resources Development Ministry has said that this scheme will be introduced from the academic year to begin in the month of July this year. In order to pay the interest to the Banks on the loan of the students, the Central Government has come forward to earmark a grant of Rs. 4000 crore.

The Union Finance Ministry has approved the proposal of paying interest on educational loans. The Central Government will pay the interest on the loan of the student till six months after completion of studies. The student will have to clear only the loan amount.

For the education loan the banks at present are collecting an interest of 15% to 18%. The Central Government has already had talks with the banks and Financial Organisations. It is also stated that the Centre will not give any guarantee for the loans but will only take the responsibility of paying the interest.

Official sources in the state personnel department said Saturday that the central government asked the Bihar government to probe the matter on a priority basis and submit a report to the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms.

“A confidential letter from the centre has informed the state government that dozens of people from the state got job in various central ministries on the basis of fake SC/ST certificates," an official said.

Taking the issue seriously, the state's personnel department has directed all district magistrates to probe the matter and submit a report soon.

According to sources, in recent months, several people from the state were caught on charges of getting government jobs on fake caste certificates.

The well with filthy water is the main source of water for around 50 households and they blame the government's apathy for the present state of affairs.

They further point out that frogs are in abundance in the water that they drink.

"There is acute water shortage here and we don't have any alternatives," said Virendra Mhamri, a resident.

" We are forced to drink this dirty and smelly water. When the water of this well dries up, we are forced to fetch water from far off villages. Besides, there is a hand pump which is also far away," said Murti Devi, another resident.

Many parts of India suffer severe dry spells and water crisis during the summer months when temperatures soar.

And it is all orchestrated. The emergence of musical groups -popularly referred to as orchestra -has taken the city by storm. From just a couple of shows a month, the groups now perform three-four times-a-week and have bookings for over a month.

Corporate houses were quick to spot the popularity of orchestra groups and engaged them in a series of brand promotion events as well as internal programmes. Some businesses even sponsored the popular orchestra groups.

With the established groups cornered by corporate houses for events that have a niche audience, it is rookie groups or "music arrangers" that whet the appetite of the masses in Patna and outskirts.

A little bit of gyrating dance performances along with the lilting music is enough to enthuse any gathering. The rookie groups are picked up from on-campus events. Sometimes, they comprise individual musicians. At others, they are college students bound by a passion for music.

But most of these groups are short-lived. Lacking a proper platform and with no steady income, many bands have had to split up in the infancy.

"Bihar is being looted by the NDA government in the name of development. The slogan for development has been a far cry", RJD national spokesman Shyam Razak told reporters.

"Either the work of constructing roads in Bihar is stalled or inferior quality of work are being carried out by the agencies engaged by the state government", Razak said.

Even bills of the contractors were being cleared by the state officials without "verifying whether these agencies had completed the tasks assigned to them", he said, alleging that the government cleared bills for expansion and construction of roads under Darbhanga division thrice a year, a fact acknowledged by Chief Minister himself.

Under attack from the opposition for 'failing' to stop sub-standard construction works in Bihar, the NDA government had yesterday scrapped its contract with the Tantiya Construction Company Private Limited (TCCPL), dissatisfied with the work being carried out by it for construction of roads in the state capital.

"The work has been sub-standard and of inferior quality and the project for which the company was assigned by the state government have been inordinately delayed," official sources said.

Despite the state government serving notices on the company 30 times and slapping fines to the tune of Rs 3.56 crore for tardy pace of work, the TCCPL failed to meet the deadline, the sources said.

The department of road construction had earlier served a show-cause notice to the TCCPL seeking to know why it should not be blacklisted for unsatisfactory work.

RJD had alleged that the Nitish Kumar government failed to check corruption and sub-standard work was being carried out by agencies in the state.

TCCPL was assigned jobs for construction and expansion of Birchand Patel Path, Boring road, Harding road, Sahde Mahato Marge, Jagdeo Path, Old Bypass, West Bording Canal Road East Boring Canal Road, Rajendra Path, Mithapur-Khagaul Road, Bailey Road, Exhibition Road and others.

The petition challenged the state government's move to appeal against the Railway Minister's acquittal in a disproportionate assets case filed subsequent to the fodder scam. Both have claimed that since the prosecuting agency was the CBI, the state has no locus standi to ap- peal against the acquittal order.

However, the bench, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrish- nan, did not stay the hearing of the Bihar government's appeal in the Patna High Court.

Before directing Nitish Ku- mar's government to respond, the bench expressed its dis- agreement with the move. "How has the state government come into the picture when the case was investigated and prosecuted by the CBI? The CBI, as a prosecuting agency, can file an appeal. The state has no role to play in the case," it said.

Bihar government counsel Harish Salve accused the CBI of not filing an appeal due to ulterior motives. Solicitor General G.E. Vahanvati defended the agency, saying the CBI was not a political animal. "We have appealed in the Supreme Court because there have been instances where state governments have opposed high court orders to direct CBI investigation in criminal cases. In this case, the Bihar government itself has appealed. The CBI wants to know what it should do in such cases," Vahanvati said.

Salve opposed the appeals saying that the state was entitled to file an appeal under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc). "Whichever agency probes a case, the state government continues to the prosecutor. Therefore, it can appeal against an acquittal even if the CBI is involved," he said.

Announced last year in the budget speech by union finance minister P. Chidambaram, the scheme seeks to arrest the high dropout rate at secondary-level by offering financial support to economically backward students.

About Rs 3,004.04 crore will be spent towards the objective during the 11th five year plan. One lakh scholarships worth Rs 6,000 each, per annum, will be awarded to meritorious class IX students from economically weak sections every year. Monetary support will continue till the students reach secondary stage and complete class XII. Each successful student will thus get Rs 6,000 per year to study in classes IX, X, XI and XII.

Any student with parental income of not more than Rs 1.5 lakh from all sources will be eligible to apply for the scheme, to enable him to study in government, local body and government-aided schools.

After the cabinet meeting today, the finance minister said the purpose of the scheme was to award scholarships to deserving students from financially weaker sections and arrest the dropout at class VIII, besides encouraging students to complete their education up to class XII.

Caught in a dilemma over replacing deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, against whom majority of party MLAs have raised banner revolt in the state, senior BJP leaders are working and holding high-level consultations on the new formula to come out and lend outside support to the government.

Earlier, even after two-hours' of brain storming session of the party's parliamentary board on Wednesday, BJP leaders failed to thrash out the Bihar imbroglio. It was, however, agreed upon that a decision on the issue would be taken after the Karnataka Assembly elections.

In the mean time, the party's central leadership is expected to weigh various options to diffuse the Bihar crisis, keeping in mind the interest of the party. Till now, though all the options are open, the leaders are busy evaluating gain and loss in either removing Modi or coming out of the government.

As per the indications, disgruntled party leaders of Bihar have so far been successful in convincing the central leadership that if Modi continued as the BJP legislature party leader, the party in the state would have to pay heavy price.

They complained that because of soft attitude of Modi, the chief minister has been ignoring the BJP while taking many of the government decisions, on which the party has strong ideological reservations. They argued that many decisions in favour of minority, which Kumar took, were against the principles of the party and exactly on these issue the party had been criticising the Central government. But they are unable to raise their voice, as they are part of the government.

Sources in the party circle revealed that a senior party minister from Bihar informed BJP president Rajnath Singh that if the current state of affairs were allowed to continue, the party would lose its base and would reach to a point of no return.

The minister suggested that the high command might think of taking a decision to come out of the government and lend issue-based support to the state government. This would enable the party to continue its own programme and raise its voice against the wrong decisions of the state government, he said adding that the move would also suit the party in view of the Lok Sabha elections next year.

Confirming that Singh appeared positive on the proposal, sources said, the party president needs senior leader LK Advani's consent before taking a final call.

According to the principal secretary, the urban development department, S Jalja the state government is considering replicating the Delhi Municipal Corporation model for collection of municipal taxes in Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Darbanga, Bhagalpur, Biharsharif and Ara municipal corporations.

A tax collector will not go house-to-house, but is assigned a particular, for example, bank, post office and municipal corporation office, where residents will go and pay their taxes.

She said that the urban development department had asked the corporations to come up with a clear model. The idea is to make the municipal tax collection system more efficient, participative and voluntary.

Jalja said the department had also decided to outsource sanitation work to overcome the crisis of shortage of sanitary workers in urban areas.

But he's not alone. Lakhs of residents of central Bihar are living this way, as the entire region reels under acute water shortage.

The temperature is soaring; taps and wells have gone dry and the rivers have turned into narrow canals. In a waterless land, those surviving are living a nightmare.

"We haven't been able to take a bath for three months now. We have to use a wet washcloth to clean ourselves. Even the government doesn't give us any attention," Chandradev says.

The only respite are the isolated wells, many of which are also drying up fast. Fetching water from these wells could easily mean a six-kilometer long walk.

Now the Nitish Kumar Government has decided to actually arrange the bait (read bribe), and all you have to do is to make the prey accept the money while the vigilance sleuths would do the rest.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has cleared a proposal mooted to this effect by Additional Director General of Police (Vigilance) Neelmani.

"To begin with, we now have an allocation of Rs 20 lakh to reimburse the complainant of the money he pays to the bribe seekers," Neelmani told India Today. "This initiative has been mooted to mitigate the hardship of the genuine complainants who cannot afford to pay the bribe," he said.

"Now, an amount equal to the amount of bribe money would be withdrawn from the special fund and paid to the complainant after each successful trap.

When the trap money is returned by the court on conclusion of the judicial proceedings it would then be deposited in that special fund," he said, adding "Now new rules are in place, and a complainant will get back his money within a fortnight of the trap."  

Earlier, the practice was that the State Vigilance Investigation Bureau, on receiving a complaint about a bribe demand, would ask the complainant to go ahead and pay the graft seeker.

The vigilance sleuths then used to lay trap and arrest the official red-handed. But the trap money, the one that is used to pay bribe was to be arranged by the complainant.

This was sort of deterrent for the complainants because the trap money would become case property-something that cannot be refunded to the complainant until the conclusion of the judicial proceedings.

State Road Construction minister Dr Prem Kumar inspected the works carried out by the company and after holding a discussion with the officials of his department, including its principal secretary R K Singh, ordered rescinding the Rs 150 crore contract it had with TCCPL.

"The works have been sub-standard and of inferior quality and the project for which the company was assigned by the state government have been inordinately delayed," he said.

Despite the state government serving notices to the company 30 times and slapping fine of Rs 3.56 crore for tardy pace of work, the TCCPL failed to meet the deadline, the minister said.

Singh said the state government would soon float fresh tenders of completing the unfinished works. The department of road construction had earlier served a show-cause notice to the TCCPL seeking to know why it should not not be blacklisted for unsatisfactory works.

Main opposition RJD had alleged that the Nitish Kumar government failed to check corruption and sub-standard work being carried out by agencies in the state.

TCCPL was assigned jobs for construction and expansion of roads on Birchand Patel Path, Boring Road, Hardinge Road, Sahdeo Mahato Marg, Jagdeo Path, Old Bypass, West Boring Canal Road, East Boring Canal Road, Rajendra Path, Mithapur-Khagaul Road, Bailey Road, Exhibition Road and others.

This is a well known fact that next to UP, Bihar sends the highest number of students to AMU. Moreover, as Bihar has not been given any central university, by every justification, it has stronger claim.

I would propose to have at least four more centres for AMU Entrance tests. They should be: Patna, Lucknow, Delhi, and Hyderabad.

We have reasons to believe that compared to any other centre for entrance tests, Patna would have attracted largest number of candidates.

Those, who apprehend any unwelcome eventuality in the case of Bihar, with regard to tests, they must know that UPSC ,IIT and any other august bodies [conducting various tests/recruitment exams], don't have such complaints against Bihar.

May one hope, such a glaring regional injustice will be rectified?

regards,
Mohammad Sajjad
Lecturer, History, AMU

The committee said a hike was necessary for IITs to cope with the rising cost of education and running the Institutes, a view also shared by the ministry.

Sources said the new fees structure would be effective from the new academic session. The new fee structure would be applicable to all IITs, including the three new one being set up in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.

The last fee hike in IITs was effected in 1998 and since the cost of education on account of infrastructure and faculties has gone up, the ministry accepted the fee hike proposal, they said.

Even as the Congress was patting itself on the back for getting the controversial bill tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, its two partners from Bihar forced a reality-check, making it clear that their backing on the bill was limited to its introduction. The two parties, while making common cause with JD(U) and the Samajwadi Party on the subject, look set to derail the government's plans to get the bill passed during the monsoon session of Parliament.

``We've two important suggestions, and we'll try to persuade the standing committee to incorporate them in its final report on the bill,'' LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan told newspersons here on Wednesday afternoon. ``The country's population has gone up three-fold since Independence, the strength of the Lok Sabha's should be increased by a third, which would mean increasing the total number of seats by an additional 181. The new seats should be reserved for women, and even within this category, there should be a quota for minorities, Backwards and SCs/STs,'' the LJP chief said.

Officials of the Meteorological Department say that the rains could arrive in Kerala any time between May 20 and 25. The monsoon was expected to hit the state by June 1.

The Met Department also predicted last month that the monsoons are likely to be near normal this year.

NASA, meanwhile, has predicted a bumper crop this year in Bihar and nearby areas. That may spell a bit of good news in the light of the food crisis.

Economic Advisory Council's Chairman C Rangarajan also suggested on Wednesday that inflation might come down to six per cent within three months, due to sufficient procurement of food grains particularly wheat amid cheerful prognostics for an early and healthy monsoon.