Ranchi Group

An estimate drawn up by Ranchi traffic police along with a complete blue print of the 34th National Games puts the total cost of traffic management for the 15 days schedule at Rs 2.50 crore.

The estimate includes cost of 10 speed radars attached to speed breakers, cost of 10 breath analyser, mobile speed breakers, lane dividers and other gizmos, honorarium for NCC cadets and training expenses for them.

Apart from these, the expenses of deploying 500-odd policemen who would on duty round the clock, cost of food for all those managing traffic and other miscellaneous expenditure brought the sum to Rs 2.5 crore.

'We have decided to install CCTV in all puja pandals of Ranchi to keep close watch on the movement of people. We want peaceful celebration and people should enjoy the festival without any fear,' Senior Superintendent of Police M.S.Bhatia said.

The decision to install CCTV was taken in light of rising security threat. Last month, a live bomb was found in Big Bazar of Ranchi. The bomb was defused on time and major incident was averted

The empire strikes back in campus job hunt

A little over a week into the annual placement season for technology institutes and it's the old economy behemoths that are grabbing the best brains leaving behind the hitherto popular IT upstarts.

If at the Indian School of Mines University (ISMU), Dhanbad, industry giants in mining and civil engineering were the top draws for those in the race for jobs, the trend was more or less maintained at the BITs at Sindri and Mesra.

Led by the likes of ArcelorMittal and Schlumberger, at ISMU, Dhanbad the first week of campus placements saw as many as 52 students selected -- and all by companies in the core sectors of mining, energy and basic engineering.

While the Mittals recruited seven students to be posted in Canada with the highest offer of Can $ 5,500 to 6,500 per month (Rs 27 lakh to Rs 33 lakh per annum), world renowned oil and energy giant Schlumberger offered annual packages to the tune of Rs 18 lakh to 10 students.

Other energy sector companies were there too.

Sources in the department said it would be a one-year diploma course and is aimed at equipping tribal students with the nitty-gritty of the BPO industry. Once the students complete the training, they will be on a par with their urban colleagues, said an official of the department. This is the first such initiative undertaken by the department.

The course is specially designed for students from SC/ST or OBC background. All the BPO trainees selected for the programme will be from BPL families. The tribal welfare department will fund the course while city-based institute, Digital Computer, will train students who have at least cleared their Class XII examinations. The department will forge ties with private companies for placement once the students complete their course successfully.

R.K. Ranjan, deputy director of the state tribal welfare department, said the training would be held for six hours every day. "We will provide swipe cards to students to ensure cent per cent attendance in class," he said. The students would also have to secure 50 per cent marks in their written test to qualify.

The department had brought out an advertisement to invite applications for the programme on August 22. "We have already received 100 applications from remote tribal areas of the state. The applicants will sit for a written test on September 5 and 6. This will be followed by an interview," the deputy director said.

There are 40 seats and the department has decided to spend Rs 35,000 to train each student. "We will train 40 students every year. There are many tribal students who are aware what BPO or business process outsourcing is all about. But they have no clue how to go about to bag a BPO job. Our course will help tribal boys and girls to give shape to their dreams. It can be a turning point in their lives," Ranjan said.

He added that the training programme had been designed to ensure that the students pick up communication skills, are able groom themselves and handle different types of customers.

Alarmed by an adverse report sent by a member of the Games steering committee, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is sending a top official for a recce of the infrastructure facilities in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad before taking a final call.

According to a high-level source, S.M. Bali, a member of the six-member steering committee formed by IOA to conduct the 34th National Games, has reported to his bosses that it was "impossible to hold the Games in December, 2008 as scheduled."

The ongoing monsoon has thrown work schedules out of gear at the Games village in Hotwar where only the basic construction of the main stadium is complete.

The state postal department is all set to offer e-postal services that would enable local residents to send instant money orders and speedposts, besides helping them to access detailed information about other services on offer on the web. The postal department has decided to install touchscreen kiosks especially for this purpose.

Cyber cafes are also being set up to help customers. Initially, four post offices in the state will have these Internet joints. These are Doranda head post office, Jamshedpur head post office, Hazaribagh head post office and Madhupur sub-post office. Later, cyber cafes will be opened in 35 other post offices. Browsers will be charged a nominal amount every time they avail of the cyber cafe services. A sources said the minimum rate will be Rs 10 for an hour.

Anil Kumar, the director of postal department, Jharkhand circle, said, "e-services will be provided in several post offices with the help of leased line networking. In the initial phase, the proposal is to provide a computer in each post office. As the workload increases, we will install four computers, including those in the cyber cafés."

Reason: About 996 seats have remained vacant out of 1,700 seats offered by five state engineering colleges, including BIT, Sindri, after the first round of counselling that concluded on August 19.

The Jharkhand Joint Entrance Competitive Examination Board (JJECEB) had called 2,555 students for the first round of counselling.

"For the first time, about 30 seats remained vacant even in government-owned tech institute, BIT, Sindri. Not a single student opted for the Bihar Association-run engineering college in Jamshedpur while only one student opted for Ram Govind Institute of Technology, Koderma.

"Ten students opted for Cambridge Institute of Technology, Tatisilwai (Ranchi). The lure of RVS College of Engineering and Technology, Jamshedpur was somehow better with 43 students opting for seats there," said Omprakash Kumar, the board's administrative officer in charge of counselling.

The state's maiden five-star hotel is set to come up by mid-2009 as the construction work is going on at rapid pace at the posh Kadru Chowk area in the state capital.

The facilities in the upcoming hotel include a Kebab Factory (for Mughlai food lovers), a sports bar-cum-discotheque and a 24-hour-coffee shop among others.

All other facilities, including a multi-cuisine restaurant, a speciality restaurant, state-of-the-art gymnasium, health club with spa facilities, business centres, club lounge for corporate executives, many conference and party rooms and ample car parking space (covering the entire double basement) would also be offered.

Other features would include 112 rooms, six suites, banquet hall for 1,500 persons (approximately), swimming pool with landscaping and lobby bar.

But it is yet to be seen whether the state will benefit from the ambitious Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) that funds various development projects in the capital. So far, most of the projects have been delayed due to the lackadaisical attitude of the government.

The centre had allocated Rs 32 crore to the state for integrated housing of urban poor under the basic services for the urban poor category. But the fund is yet to be utilised.

The detailed project report (DPR) of the sewerage and drainage system for the state capital has been prepared by a Singapore-based consultant, Meinhardt. The project is estimated at Rs 1,145 crore while facilities for drinking water and improvement of water bodies prepared by Nano System Consultants Private Limited is estimated at Rs 284 crore. The solid waste management project would cost Rs 121 crore.

The RMC believes the comprehensive database of images and maps of all 55 wards, prepared by using satellite mapping technology, will help it provide better services to the citizens. It would also help it make property tax collections more efficient.

When civic officials access the system a month from now, not only will they know a building’s exact geographical location — latitude and longitude included — they will also have information on its mode of use — whether residential or commercial — number of floors.

“This will make our task of ensuring civic amenities easier and more efficient,” said R.S. Jaipuriyar, the new RMC chief executive officer. He said he planned to operationalise the system from September.

The JSAC took over two years to complete the satellite mapping of the city. The maps, in digital form, would be handed over to the RMC in a day or two, though hard copies were already with the RMC.

For, the district administration of Latehar, which had constructed it on behalf of the tourism department, has given up its reluctance of three years and is now ready to hand over the plaza for the benefit of state tourism.

"We plan to begin using the tourist plaza early next month," said Arun Kumar Singh, secretary of the state tourism department. To begin with, the state plans to convert the plaza into a one-stop spot for adventure tourism with various activities including hot air ballooning.

It's not clear why the handover took so long. One theory, according to sources, is that the tourism department wasn't happy with the finished product and hence wasn't keen to take it over. But both parties deny this.

In the absence of an engineering cell, the tourism department had asked the district administration to build the plaza. It was ready in 2005, built on a one-acre plot at an approximate cost of Rs 2 crore. But for the last three years, it remained unused with both the Latehar administration and the tourism department showing no willingness to move ahead. In fact, the district administration even floated an open tender on July 25 this year to rent out the structure to private entities. But it had to cancel the tender abruptly three days later after the intervention of the tourism department, which reminded the administration that the property belonged to it.

"The helipad will be constructed in the open ground and would help in carrying patient to and from the hospital in case of emergency," said RIMS director N.N. Agarwal.

Agarwal said that the proposal was pending since the establishment of trauma centre in the institute to properly use the up-to-date facility available at RIMS to save the lives of people.

"The helipad will be linked with trauma centre and used at the time of emergency," Agarwal said.

He, however, did not say anything about the deadline for its construction.

The governing body has also approved the appointment of 66 teachers selected held a few days back, he said.

A Hindi-Ho-English dictionary is coming to their rescue, thanks to the Mysore-based Central Institute of Indian Languages.

This would be the first official compilation in Ho, which belongs to the Austro-Asiatic languages, a family of Southeast Asian languages.

Its script is in Warangkshiti.

"We have compiled 16,000 entries for the dictionary, which will be available in both the manual and the electronic format. It would have one Hindi headword with all grammatical details followed by three entries in English and four entries in Ho. It would also act as a thesaurus," said C.V. Shivaramakrishna, reader-cum-research officer at Central Institute of Indian Languages.

Damyanti Sinku, a close relative of Geeta Koda, the chief minister's wife, has also compiled an un-authenticated version of Ho-Hindi dictionary with about 8,000 entries.

However, the compilation has no grammatical information and entries follow no order.

A special centre that would "coach students for entry into civil services" would be inaugurated at the Ranchi University's postgraduate department of anthropology tomorrow. In its maiden venture, the first batch of 100 aspirants belonging to SC/ST and minority communities would be provided free coaching by senior university teachers, experts and research scholars.

On July 23, RU vice-chancellor A.A. Khan would inaugurate the centre while classes would take off from the next day.

"The aim is to prepare the students of under-privileged category for entry into civil services. The centre would have facility of computer, LCD projectors and library among others. About 100 students have been selected for specialised training from about 300 to 400 students who took the entrance test conducted for the purpose on July 3," said Karma Oraon, the co-ordinator for the centre.

Sources in the Jharkhand Olympic Association (JOA) said about four and a half months are left before the national event is hosted in Hotwar but there has not been any awareness campaign to make people aware of the event and its significance.

"Except office-bearers and members of the various sports associations, no one seems to be even aware that the city is going to host such an important event," said the senior official.

The state Olympic association official vindicated his statement by referring to the way the Olympic Day Run was organised on June 30.

The publicity for Games was kicked off in 2005 with Olympic Day Run but this year's run put a dampener on the show. The route of the run was shortened and there was no hype either, the official said.

Recalling the June 2005 Olympic Day Run, he said: "The publicity drive began in the right manner on June 26, 2005, when a Jharkhand Run was organised. The then chief minister Arjun Munda, the then sports minister Sudesh Mahto and other dignitaries had participated in the event."

According to the plan, all the residential schools under the welfare department would be upgraded to Plus Two. “We are preparing the model of the Plus Two schools, which would be complete in two months’ time,” said B.C. Nigam, the special secretary of welfare department.

Soon after the students complete their Plus Two, the department would train the pupils wanting to become doctors, engineers and IT professionals for the entrance examinations.

The welfare department is making a list of students who have passed either Class X or Class XII. “We will ask each of them about their career choices and accordingly train them or provide them with funds for higher education,” said an official.

Most primitive students drop out after matriculation, upgradation of residential schools would help them continue their higher studies, he explained.

Meanwhile, welfare department is preparing a list of tribal graduates would be offered appointment letters on August 15.

The department, in collaboration with the army, planted saplings at the Dipatoli Cantonment to mark the event.

Chief minister Madhu Koda, along with deputy chief minister Sudhir Mahto and 23rd Infantry Division GOC Major General A.K. Singh, participated in the programme and planted saplings.

The forest department has made the army its partner in the venture to help sustain the project. While the forest department provides different saplings, the army ensures that it nurtures it. The army has assured its full support to the programme to boost the ecology and environment of the state.

The saplings produced by the department would comprise mostly fruit-bearing trees and will be planted along the streets of the capital. The saplings would also be planted on the highways across the state.

The governor-cum-chancellor of universities, Syed Sibtey Razi, inaugurated the same on Saturday during the foundation day celebrations of RU.

The cell, located near multipurpose examination hall on the Morabadi campus of RU, has 27 computers connected through a central server. All the data would be transferred to the centre within a few days, said Girija Shankar Nath Shahdeo, the officer on special duty (examinations) of RU.

Earlier, the cramped tabulation centre at the Central Library building was entrusted with the task of publishing the results after the examination papers were checked by the evaluators.

During a national highway review and progress meeting chaired by Union minister of shipping, road transport and highways (MOSRTH) T.R. Baalu, senior representatives from the state today raised vital issues, including tender process for making NH-33 a four-lane stretch.

Development commissioner A.K. Singh and road construction secretary N.N. Sinha, who represented the state in the meeting, also raised the issue of increasing the lanes of the NH-31 between Barhi and Rajauli in the wake of neighbouring Bihar undertaking an ambitious project of making NH-31 four-lane between Bakhtiyarpur and Rajauli valley bordering Jharkhand.

The state representatives also stressed that the proposed four-lane projects in Jharkhand should include Bahragora to Kharagpur in Bengal on NH-6. The officials also stressed on the need of widening NH-80.

After the Radisson Group's recent decision of setting up a five-star hotel here, it may well be time for Saha Sprague to follow suit.

Saha Sprague is a Mumbai-based company working primarily in the power and energy sector. But of late, it has shown interest in the hospitality sector by taking franchise units of brands, including Pizza Hut, in different parts of the country.

"We intend to come up with a 150-200 room four-star hotel in Ranchi. However, we would not like to disclose any location details just yet. We will be ready to announce that in about eight to 10 weeks," reads an e-mail from Kuna Saha, one of the directors of the company, in response to The Telegraph's query.

Sources in the company, however, divulged that the company is purchasing land in and around Siram Toli locality, which is close to Ranchi railway station. The Birsa Munda airport is within a 4km radius while Albert Ekka Chowk would be 2km away.

A prominent hotelier also confirmed that Saha Sprague has been in constant touch with the management of Lemon Tree group of hotels, spurring speculation that the company is still deciding whether to opt for a franchisee or not.