Animal exchange
Authorities of the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park (SGBP) in Patna will, in June, swap a white tigress with a female zebra from the Alipore Zoological Park in Kolkata as part of an annual animal exchange programme. SGBP will also send six blackbuck deer to Alipore. Amit Kumar, director, SGBP, said the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) recently granted permission for the exchange. The female zebra will get be paired with SGBP’s own 10-year-old male.
Workshop on NAAC accreditation
A two-day workshop on ‘NAAC accreditation’ will be organised for the first time at the Governor House on April 4 and 5. Bihar Governor–cum-Chancellor Lalji Tandon will interact with attendees after inaugurating the workshop while the chairman of National Assessment and Accreditation Council has been invited to address vice-chancellors and principals of Bihar’s government colleges and universities. National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation is essential for varsities to secure funding and autonomy from the Centre. The ranking also has an impact on the courses that the varsity is able to offer.
Men held in women’s compartments
Stepping up drives to check the illegal entry of male passengers in coaches reserved for women in trains, the Railway Protection Forces (RPF) of East Central Railway arrested more than 11,000 male passengers in 2018. Railway Police Force IG RPF Ravindra Verma said: “Around 11,446 male passengers were arrested and a huge sum of D36.82 lakh was realised in fine from them by the railway in 2018 in Bihar”, Verma said, adding that now women cops of railways have been deployed to prevent entry of male passengers into coaches reserved for women.
‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ t-shirt sales booming
With the polls approaching, sales of T-shirts and merchandise branded with PM Narendra Modi’s slogan of ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ have spiked over the past 10-15 days. Satyanarayan Prasad, a vendor, said nearly 15,000 T-shirts were sold by him in the last 10 days. According to him, the clothing is being bought not only by BJP supporters, but by all youngsters. The t-shirts are priced between D120 and D250. “Never in last few Lok sabha elections, were the sales of T-shirts on so high,” Munna Kumar at Birchanpatel path said.