President visits Viswa Shanti Stupa in Rajgir
President Ram Nath Kovind, accompanied by Bihar Governor Fagu Chauhan and CM Nitish Kumar, attended the golden jubilee celebration of the Viswa Shanti Stupa (world peace pagoda) at Rajgir in Bihar. Speaking on the occasion, he said that Gautam Buddha’s teachings and ideologies are still relevant for peace in the world. He said peace is the soul of prosperity for humanity. The peace pagoda was built by a Buddhist monk from Japan Nichidatsu Fuji in 1965 on the top of Ratnagiri hill.
48,000 students to be groomed as police cadets
Following the Kerala-model, the Bihar Education Project Council has launched the MHA-sponsored Student Police Cadet (SPC) project to groom 48,400 cadets in the next two years. The SPC aims to build a bridge between the police and the public through students by inculcating values and ethics among them.
The Bihar Education Project Council has started piloting this project with students from nearly 1,100 high schools. It was first launched in Kerala on August 2 in 2010 followed by other states Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Odisha. State Project Officer of community mobilisation of Bihar Education Project Bibha Kumari said: “Around 48,400 students from classes 8 and 9 will be groomed as cadets in next two years under this project”.
13 poor children to travel to France
Thirteen children from underprivileged families in Gaya will fly to France to learn French. A 79-year-old French woman, Jeanne Pere, who runs a school in Bodh Gaya, will take these children to France. These children have learnt the basics of French but will get full exposure to the language in France. Pere had earlier worked with Missionaries of Charity under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Mother Teresa. Pere has set up a residential school, with the help of a charitable trust, where such children can receive primary education.
1.5 lakh availed services under Ayushman Bharat
Around 1.5 lakh people diagnosed with various diseases have availed medical services worth Rs 102 crore under the National Health Protection Scheme. In a move to provide facilities under this scheme, 22 new private healthcare centres have been empanelled. Now, the total number of hospitals empanelled has reached 734. Officials said that 565 government-run hospitals are among the country’s 18,000 government-run hospitals for providing medical services to the beneficiaries of this scheme.