Bihar capital soon to have inter-state bus terminal ( ISBT )

Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday approved the development of the inter-state bus terminal (ISBT). It will be spread in 26-acre on Patna-Gaya Road.

The ISBT is estimated to cost Rs 200 crore and it would comprise a commercial complex, waiting lounge, food court and parking lots for taxis and autorickshaws.

According to S Siddharth, secretary, urban development and housing the decision was taken during a departmental review meeting headed by the chief minister on Thursday. The proposed bus stand, to be built on the lines of inter-state bus terminals in Delhi and Chennai and would allow movement of 3,000 buses daily.

The terminal would act as a transit point for buses plying from Patna to various destinations in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal etc.

Official sources said the the project would be executed in the state-funded mode, but would be subject to cabinet approval. Its completion would take over 30 months from the date the project takes off.

source:TNN

It’s the small town girls from samastipur And sitamarhi topping board exams: a silent revolution in Bihar !

 

Patna: there are some changes in Bihar that are outrightly visible. The network of roads wherever you travel, the girls on bicycles you see along the levees and footpaths from a distance, regular movement of people and traffic at night indicating safety. But there are other less visible changes that now need to be taken note of.

These relate to both the growing status and the boldness of the village girls, and of course the rise of small town Bihar, indicated in the facts below. According to recent reports, in this year’s Intermediate of Arts (IA) examination – equivalent to Class XII of the Central Board of School Examination (CBSE) – 19 of the top 20 students are girls. None of them, in fact, belonged to big cities of the state such as Patna. They all studied in little – known institutions in remote towns across the state.

 Announcing the IA results on Wednesday, BSEB chairman Rajmani Prasad Sinha said it was heartening to know that all except one in the top 20 list were girls. He also stated that more girls had appeared in the examinations this year than the boys – a phenomenon not witnessed in previous years.

Of the 3.68 lakh students who took the IA exams, 2.16 lakh appeared to be girls.

The overall topper in the state was Rima Kumari, a student of R. N. Sahu Sarvodaya College located at Ganj Bhadsara in the Naxal- infested Dinara block of Rohtas district. She scored 80.40 per cent. Rima said she had no grudge that she did not live in a bigger city that has better facilities for studies.

“My family has scarified a lot for my studies,” she said. “I would now work harder to become an IAS officer to fulfil the dreams of my father.” Neelam Kumari from Begusarai district and Pooja Kumari from Sitamarhi bagged the second and third position, respectively. The only boy on the list was Mohd Tabish Rahman from Samastipur.

In many ways the pattern duplicates what is happening all over India in several field – small town students show a greater hunger for success and end up accomplishing more than the city counterpart. This is nothing short of s silent revolution in Bihar and elsewhere that is yet to become fully visible.

 Posted by Team Bihardays on Jun 1st, 2013

Dilip Mandal from Purnea : the story of a Bihari labourer turned entrepreneur in Ludhiana.

 
What follows here is a reconstruction of the tale of Dilip Mandal, a Bihari migrant whose story was recently narrated in a news report in the Ludhiana press:

 Dilip Kumar Mandal landed in Ludhiana as an 18-year-old in 1981 with Rs 2 in his pocket. He came from Purnia in Bihar and wanted to make a new life in Ludhiana. Unlike many other migrants he came alone and was not brought there by a contractor, a relative or a village mate. With no money or resources, he slept at the city railway station.

30 years after his arrival, Mandal is now the owner of a cycle spare parts manufacturing factory with an annual turnover running into crores. His company is named DK and Sons Industries. Ludhiana has a large migrant population most of whom come from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other parts of the country. Most of them eke out a meagre living and send their savings home. But Mandal’s success story is something of an exception – that of a common labourer turning into an entrepreneur!.

Mandal came to Ludhiana after completing his Class X looking for work. ”I can never forget the first two days here… I slept on the railway station platform and ate buns with the Rs 2 that I had,” he recalls. On the third day, he was approached by a contractor asking him if he wanted to do some manual labour, to which he agreed. For one year, he polished tools used in cycles and managed to get a place to stay at the factory itself. In 1982, he was made in charge of the polishing department. ”Two years after that, I left my job and purchased two machines and set up my own business,” Mandal says.

Mandal never looked back after that. ”I would go to the factory at 6am and return not before 9pm,” he reminisced. With luck by his side, Mandal kept expanding his business. When he got married in 1990, the foremost thing on his mind was to provide a clean environment to his family. And so, he purchased land for his house in 1990. The year 2003 marked a new phase in the industrialist’s life when he set up a factory on his own land. ”Three of my four houses have servant quarters so that those employed do not have to lead insecure lives. No migrant must sleep on the platform,” he said.

As Mandal’s father had passed away when he was still a little boy, the businessman took over the responsibility of bringing up his four younger siblings. While the brothers were helped to set up businesses, the sisters had to be married off. ”When I started this business in 1984, the company’s turnover was Rs 10 lakh but now it is over Rs 1 crore.” His firm now manufactures brakes for bicycles.

”I wish my son Prashant takes forward the enterprise that I so lovingly set up and venture into exports,” Mandal said.

Today, Mandal has a flourishing business and four houses in the city. Although Mandal manufactures brakes for the bicycles, his own life has known no stops!

 Posted by Team Bihardays on Jul 6th, 2011

Bihar's own BICYCLE brand's factory in Aurangabad is ready for production. Chief Minister to inaugurate the factory

Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday inaugurated a new cycle factory at the Industrial Area premises at Aurangabad, about 140km from here. The factory will produce 3 lakh cycles per annum.

Addressing a public meeting after inaugurating the factory, the CM said Bihar has an estimated market of over 20 lakh cycles per annum, of which around 14 lakh cycles are required every year for the students of government-run schools in the state. The cycles produced in the factory will reach the market in the next 15 days, he said.

"The state government allocates fund for the purchase of around 14 lakh cycles per annum for boys and girls studying in class IX of all government-run schools. Thus, there is huge scope for the growth of cycle industry in the state," Nitish said.

Highlighting the importance of the cycle scheme for schoolchildren, the CM said this scheme has become a 'symbol of change' in Bihar. "It is now being replicated by other states. Today, girls from every village are going to school on bicycles. No other government scheme has brought such a remarkable change in rural society. The positive impact of cycle scheme has been hailed even by foreign institutions."

He added, "When I started the cycle scheme for class IX girls in 2007, the number of girl students in the state's high schools was 1.70 lakh. By 2013, this number rose to above six lakh. Later, when we learnt about disappointment among boys, the scheme was extended to boys also. Today, a total of 14 lakh boys and girls are being provided cycles by the state government."

The CM said private investors had invested over Rs 6,000 crore in the state in recent years. "But we require more private investment. If the Centre gives us necessary support, more investments will come to Bihar and it will create employment opportunities for lakhs of youth. We have been demanding special status for Bihar because it would provide different tax concessions to attract industries to the state," he said.

JD (U) MPs Sushil Kumar Singh and Mahabali Singh also addressed the function. Aurangabad DM Abhay Kumar Singh delivered welcome address.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                              source:TNN

Farmers of a village in Bihar's Nalanda district are planning to go global. Potatoes, pumpkins, garlics, chillis and ladyfingers, among other vegetables, produced in Sohdih village are all set to make their way to kitchens in Europe.

The farmers are eyeing to export organic vegetables to Britain, France, Germany and other European Union countries after their village was awarded the prestigious C3 certificate by the Ecocert, France-based inspection and certification body.

The organic vegetable growers in this village are overjoyed as theirs is the first village in Bihar to obtain the fully organic status.

"It is bound to provide us a lifetime opportunity to send our produce, mainly organic vegetables, to international and national markets. We also hope to earn more," Rakesh Kumar, a farmer, told IANS..

Another peasant Ritesh Prasad said he too was looking forward to "prosperity from export of organic vegetables".

District Horticulture Officer Dev Narayan Mahto said Ecocert had awarded its certificate to 180 hectares of the village, providing their produce with 100 percent organic status.

Mahto told IANS by telephone that it took nearly two years for the farmers to move from chemical to organic farming.

"Their hard work has paid off, now they can export organic vegetables," he said.

R.K. Sohane, director extension education, Bihar Agriculture University, Sabour, said that it will change the face of the village and its neighbourhood.

"Now the farmers of this village will get a chance to have tie-ups with export companies of international firms to sell their produce," he said.

According to district agriculture officials, it is a matter of pride for the state that a village had got such a certificate.

"It is not a mean achievement. The farm produce are tested for 118 chemicals, pesticides and fertiliser with chemicals like endosulfan, chlordane and lindane. The certificate is given only when no residual traces are found," they said.

Kumar said that some Mumbai- and Kolkata-based companies dealing in organic products had started placing enhanced orders for vegetables, including potato, pumpkin, garlic, chilli and ladyfinger with the farmers associated with Sher-e-Bihar Sohdih Krishakhit Samuh.

Mahto said that application for C3 status for over 900 hectares is pending .C1 and C2 certificates are given in the first and second year after chemical use on land is stopped by farmers.

After Ecocert certification, a few Mumbai- and Kolkata-based companies have shown interest for setting up their procurement and collection centres at Biharsharif, the district headquarters, and in Patna, he said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is keen to promote organic farming in Nalanda, his home district, about 100 km from Patna.

Bihar is turning its attention to popularising and promoting organic farming in the state to usher in a new "Green Revolution" in agriculture.

Nitish Kumar's government has decided to promote organic farming in at least one village of the state's 37 districts. It launched an "organic farming promotion programme" over a year ago, intended to develop organic 'grams' (villages).

A sum of Rs.255 crore ($50 million) has been sanctioned for the development of organic farming, said an official of the agriculture department.

"Initially, the farmers were reluctant to adopt organic farming despite the state government providing free seeds, fertiliser and experts to guide them. But now more farmers have shown interest in it," said a district official in Nalanda.

Last year, a young farmer of Darveshpura village in Nalanda district set a world record in potato production through organic farming. Earlier, farmers of the same village had created a world record by producing 224 quintals of paddy per hectare.

The chief minister has repeatedly said that he wants to have one or two agriculture products from the state on the plate of every Indian in the coming years.

"Several steps, including promotion of modern techniques of farming, organic farming and use of improved seeds, have been taken in the last two-three years, but it is still a long way to go in developing the agriculture sector," said an agriculture department official.

Agriculture is the backbone of Bihar's economy, employing 81 percent of workforce and generating nearly 42 percent of the state's domestic product, according to the state government.