Nitish assures AMU centre of help
The Kishanganj centre of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), struggling to resolve a range of issues for years, has been assured help by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The Kishanganj centre faces questions from the National Green Tribunal over allegations that the land transferred to it by the Nitish Kumar-led government in 2011 falls in the Mahananda riverbed and floodplains. Besides, the BEd. course offered at the centre is yet to be approved by the National Council for Teacher Education. Nitish Kumar recently assured the AMU vice-chancellor of all cooperation in resolving these issues expeditiously.
Vehicle thefts worry police
For Patna Police, the unabated theft of vehicles remains a major cause of worry. Around 200 vehicles, including four-wheelers and motorcycles, get stolen in the capital city of Bihar every month, and the police manage to recover barely ten per cent of them. Kankarbagh and Patrakar Nagar police station areas in the city are the worst affected, as about 25 vehicles, including 15 motorcycles, get stolen there every month.
The thieves seem to have a special liking for Hero Passion and TVS Apache motorcycles, say the police. About 15,000 new motorcycles are sold in Patna every month, and barely 5,000 of them have high-security registration plates. Most of the stolen motorcycles are smuggled to Nepal and Bangladesh, police say.
More people paying power bills online
Consumers of electricity in Bihar are increasingly paying their power bills online. In the latest national survey of payment of power bills through the online mode, Bihar was ranked ninth among the best performing states. As many as 21.7 per cent of the state’s electricity consumers are making their payments online. South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited, with 25.3 per cent of its consumers preferring online payments, stands seventh in the country. North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited, 15.8 per cent of whose consumers pay bills online, stands 20th in the country.
No bike to be sold without a helmet
Starting New Year’s Day, no bike can be sold by dealers in Bihar without the customer buying a high-quality helmet certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards. With nearly half of the 5,000 deaths in road accidents in Bihar every year being caused due to bikers not wearing helmets, the state government has tightened the rules.
All district magistrates, SPs and district transport officers have been asked to make it mandatory for dealers to sell a helmet with every new bike. This is part of the government’s aim to strictly implement the provisions of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, said Bihar transport secretary Sanjay Kumar Agrawal.