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TOI : PATNA: Less than half a decade ago jobs available in Patna were limited to a few government recruitment drives. Not any more.

On Friday, the state government’s labour department held a job-cum-career counselling Mela at the S K Memeorial Hall here. Around 26 private companies, including Reliance, HDFC, IBN Daksh, Wipro and ITC, were engaged in recruiting 2,000 youths. Around 10,000 boys and girls clutching their certificates were crowding the various stalls set up on the occasion.

The salaries and benefits offered started from commission and incentive basis and climbed up to Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per month and to Rs 3.2 lakh per year. Several of the companies have kept their salaries under the negotiable bracket.

“When we started three years ago hardly a couple of companies turned up. It was more of a career counselling session than a job providing event. Now with the law and order situation improving many of the companies are flying to Patna and launching their recruitment drive. Earlier, the boys were given jobs in Delhi, Mumbai and other big cities of India,” remarked deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi who inaugurated the event.

Neeraj Agarwal, an executive of one of the leading recruitment agencies, pointed out that his company had opened an office in Patna very reluctantly about four years ago.

“Today the Patna office is one of the most flourishing offices of the country and we have been instrumental in providing jobs to 17,000 youths in Bihar and Jharkhand,” he said.

Old-timers recall the lull in the job market over half a decade ago. For those who could not enter engineering or medical colleges, getting a job became an uphill task with vacancies in public services and college teachers being curtailed. Modi rattled out statistics on Friday and claimed that the NDA government has provided government jobs to 3.11…More

TOI : MUZAFFARPUR: Search for the lost Bhoodan land has been stepped up in this district after the joining of a retired ADM rank officer, A K Chaube on contract basis recently.

At a review meeting convened by Muzaffarpur DM Vipin Kumar here on Friday, it was detected that records of more than 5,646 acres of land donated by landlords 40 to 50 years back to Bhoodan movement are very much available with the administration.

Of this, nearly 3,460 acres of land has been confirmed to be of Bhoodani land involving no controversy at all.
Apart from this, 3,673 acres Bhoodani land had already been distributed and the process of distribution of 118 acres more is presently going on.

Now, the district administration has directed all the circle officers and BDOs concerned of the district to get back into possession 2,187 acres of land from landowners who, anyhow, succeeded in putting such controversial plots in their names after the last survey.

Besides, many such cases have also been found where the landowner had donated only five kathas of land to the Bhoodan movement but later on, it was shown as five bighas. This has created an agrarian agitation between Leftist parties and the landowners in many parts of the district and elsewhere in the state. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI :
PATNA: A girl student Soni (name changed) has been reported missing since Thursday from Rajeev Nagar locality under the Digha police station. Her family members have lodged a complaint, apprehending her abduction.

Digha police station SHO NK Singh said Soni is a management student of Zakeer Hussain Institute. She left her Rajeev Nagar home for the institute around 11 am and did not return home in the evening. As a search for her by her family members failed, they lodged a complaint with the police. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PATNA: Less than half a decade ago jobs available in Patna were limited to a few government recruitment drives. Not any more.

On Friday, the state government’s labour department held a job-cum-career counselling Mela at the S K Memeorial Hall here. Around 26 private companies, including Reliance, HDFC, IBN Daksh, Wipro and ITC, were engaged in recruiting 2,000 youths. Around 10,000 boys and girls clutching their certificates were crowding the various stalls set up on the occasion.

The salaries and benefits offered started from commission and incentive basis and climbed up to Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per month and to Rs 3.2 lakh per year. Several of the companies have kept their salaries under the negotiable bracket.

“When we started three years ago hardly a couple of companies turned up. It was more of a career counselling session than a job providing event. Now with the law and order situation improving many of the companies are flying to Patna and launching their recruitment drive. Earlier, the boys were given jobs in Delhi, Mumbai and other big cities of India,” remarked deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi who inaugurated the event.

Neeraj Agarwal, an executive of one of the leading recruitment agencies, pointed out that his company had opened an office in Patna very reluctantly about four years ago.

“Today the Patna office is one of the most flourishing offices of the country and we have been instrumental in providing jobs to 17,000 youths in Bihar and Jharkhand,” he said.

Old-timers recall the lull in the job market over half a decade ago. For those who could not enter engineering or medical colleges, getting a job became an uphill task with vacancies in public services and college teachers being curtailed. Modi rattled out statistics on Friday and claimed that the NDA government has provided government jobs to 3.11…More

TOI : MUZAFFARPUR: Search for the lost Bhoodan land has been stepped up in this district after the joining of a retired ADM rank officer, A K Chaube on contract basis recently.

At a review meeting convened by Muzaffarpur DM Vipin Kumar here on Friday, it was detected that records of more than 5,646 acres of land donated by landlords 40 to 50 years back to Bhoodan movement are very much available with the administration.

Of this, nearly 3,460 acres of land has been confirmed to be of Bhoodani land involving no controversy at all.
Apart from this, 3,673 acres Bhoodani land had already been distributed and the process of distribution of 118 acres more is presently going on.

Now, the district administration has directed all the circle officers and BDOs concerned of the district to get back into possession 2,187 acres of land from landowners who, anyhow, succeeded in putting such controversial plots in their names after the last survey.

Besides, many such cases have also been found where the landowner had donated only five kathas of land to the Bhoodan movement but later on, it was shown as five bighas. This has created an agrarian agitation between Leftist parties and the landowners in many parts of the district and elsewhere in the state. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI :
PATNA: A girl student Soni (name changed) has been reported missing since Thursday from Rajeev Nagar locality under the Digha police station. Her family members have lodged a complaint, apprehending her abduction.

Digha police station SHO NK Singh said Soni is a management student of Zakeer Hussain Institute. She left her Rajeev Nagar home for the institute around 11 am and did not return home in the evening. As a search for her by her family members failed, they lodged a complaint with the police. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI :
PATNA: A girl student Soni (name changed) has been reported missing since Thursday from Rajeev Nagar locality under the Digha police station. Her family members have lodged a complaint, apprehending her abduction.

Digha police station SHO NK Singh said Soni is a management student of Zakeer Hussain Institute. She left her Rajeev Nagar home for the institute around 11 am and did not return home in the evening. As a search for her by her family members failed, they lodged a complaint with the police. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PATNA: The much publicised super-thermal power project of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) at Barh is in a limbo. It is unlikely to start power generation by 2011.

The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid the foundation stone of this ambitious project (660×3 MW) in 1999 amidst much fanfare at Barh.

The Union ministry of power has set up a committee to look into the irregularities in awarding the contract for purchasing boiler for this plant. A Russia-based company has asked the GOI to sign a fresh contract order at an enhanced rate due to the cost escalation, sources said.

Sources also pointed out that the NTPC had signed a contract on fixed valueprice. Due to delay in the project, the cost of boiler and its equipment haveshot up. So the matter is pending before the Centre. The matter will be expedited only after obtaining the report of the expert committee, said an official.

In fact, the civil work has already been completed at the site. The NTPC hasalready failed to achieve its target of commissioning the first unit of themega power project estimated to cost Rs 8,000 crore by 2005.

The plant is located barely four kilometres east of the Barh town on National Highway-31 in Patna district. The main power plant and the township would be spread over an area of 1,186.01 acres while the remaining 1,733.17 acres of land would be kept for ash dyke.

The legal possession of 1,186.01 acres of land has been acquired for setting up the main power plant and its township which includes 12 villages.

Union minister of state for power Jairam Ramesh during his recent visit to Bihar had visited the plant site. Barh plant is one of the favourite projects of CM Nitish Kumar. During the NDA regime, Vajpayee had laid the foundation…More

TOI : PATNA: The state government has launched a pilot project in four districts to remove the shortcomings afflicting the Public Distribution System (PDS) and reach the benefits to the beneficiaries smoothly.

The project, if found to be successful after its review, would be implemented in other districts.

The four districts are Nalanda, Jamui, Vaishali and Muzaffarpur. A decision in this regard was taken at a review meeting which chief minister Nitish Kumar chaired. Food and consumer protection minister Narendra Singh, chief secretary R J M Pillai, deportment’s secretary Tripurari Sharan and SFC managing director Kundan Kumar also attended the meet.

Nitish reviewed procurement of food grains, distribution of coupons and lifting and distribution of food grains and kerosene, among other beneficiary-centric activities of the department.

As per the pilot project, transporters selected by the SFC would reach the food grains at the doorsteps of dealers, who, in turn, would ensure delivery of the collected items among the beneficiaries.

It is being hoped that the pilot project under implementation would not be marred by corruption and blackmarketing.

Following the review of the food grain procurement exercise of the SFC and lack of godowns for their storage, it was decided to invite and promote private operators to build godowns, which would be used by the SFC on rent, Sharan said.

The government would facilitate bank loans for the identified private investors in the construction of private godowns. According to Sharan, the CM also reviewed the distribution of coupons in various districts.

It was found that the distribution was 90% complete in 17 of the 38 districts - Patna, Nalanda, Aurangabad, Gaya, Siwan, Banka, Bhagalpur, Bhojpur, Gopalganj, Jehanabad, Munger, Khagaria, Kishanganj, Rohtas, Saharsa, Supaul and Arwal.

Meanwhile, general secretary of the Fair Price Dealers’ Association Srikant Labh on Friday reiterated that the indefinite stir of…More

TOI : PUNE: The Maharashtra Energy Development Agency (MEDA), Pune, has imposed a penalty of Rs 485 crore on various power companies in the state during 2007-08 for not distributing ‘green energy’ as mandated by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (Merc).

Addressing a news conference here on Thursday, Mahesh Zagade, director general of MEDA, said, “The aggregate penalty imposed on the energy distribution companies is Rs 485 crore. The companies include the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) which has been fined Rs 199 crore, Reliance (Rs 183 crore) BEST (Rs 90 crore) and Mula-Pravara co-op society.”

Zagade added, “It is a rule by the Merc that all energy distribution companies have to distribute electricity generated from renewable sources like wind energy.” The companies were to distribute 4 per cent green energy out of their total distribution last year, failing which Merc had recommended a fine of Rs 5 per unit for not supplying the required green energy. “The penalty money will be paid by the company from their own pockets and not by charging extra to consumers. The money will be used for developing green energy in the state.”

“We have taken concrete steps for awareness and to disseminate information on energy conservation in all sectors,” Zagade said. The Government of India enacted the Energy Conservation Act in 2001 and had appointed MEDA as the ‘designated agency’ to co-ordinate, regulate and enforce the provisions of the aforesaid Act.

Zagade said MEDA monitors the distribution of green energy and the power distribution companies should have distributed 93,000 million units of green energy in the last financial year.

MEDA has so far identified the highest energy consuming industries that consume more energy equivalent of 30,000 tonne oil per year. Forty-nine industries across Maharashtra as designated consumers for not fulfilling the energy consumption norms and standards prescribed under the Energy Conservation Act,…More