Mauritian team in Bihar to trace roots

PATNA: The phenomenon of good governance is drawing the attention of people of Bihar origin (PBO) from across the globe. A three-member delegation from Mauritius has arrived here to trace their roots in |Bihar villages.

"We are on a nine-day visit to Bihar to resuscitate our age-old connection with Bihar. Though we are living far away, our emotional attachment with the land of our origin is still intact," former health minister of the republic of Mauritius, Jagdish Govardhan, told TOI.

The three-member delegation will be visiting Bhojpur, Rohtas, Saran and Buxar during their stay. "Our agenda is to meet and interact with Bhojpuri-speaking people and to know about their rituals and traditions," said secretary, Bihar Mauritius Maitri Sangh, Dev Narayan Ojha.

"They want to write a book on their experiences in different parts of the country. They want to experience India from close quarters and have decided to follow the simple life-style which is common to the state they are visiting," said Ojha, who is working as guide.

This delegation is part of a 60-member Mauritian delegation which had come to participate in the recently-concluded 'Pravasi Bhartiya Divas' in New Delhi.

Just after the 'Pravasi Bhartiya Divas', they had been to Aapravasi Ghat in Kolkata. Aapravasi Ghat is the anchor from where the first ship carrying hundreds of Biharis who migrated as indentured labourers had left for Mauritius way back in 1831.

The team visited different places in the city on Monday and will leave for Ara on Tuesday morning. Jagdish Gowardhan is leading the team, which also has Hoshila Rosel and Akhilanand Rosel.
Alok K N Mishra can be contacted at alokknmishra@gmail.com

Ruckus at Patna airport

PATNA: Fliers to and from Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) airport on Sunday had a difficult time as most of the flights operated far behind schedule.

About 90 passengers booked on Go Air's Patna-Delhi (G8-342) morning flight created a ruckus over the abnormal delay in its operation.

"It's hell. We have been left in the lurch. The airline officials are not listening to us," a lady passenger complained.

Go Air's G8-341 was on Monday scheduled to take off from Indira Gandhi International airport (IGI), Delhi at around 9 am. And its return journey from JPNI airport was scheduled at 10.50 am.

As the flight was delayed, passengers wanted to know whether the airline was planning to cancel it. As passengers' queries regarding the status of G8-341 failed to elicit a proper answer from airline officials, bedlam broke out.

Most of the passengers had gone through security check and had to helplessly wait in the security hold area for hours. Poor visibility had delayed the flight's take off from IGI Delhi by around 4 hours. It finally arrived here around 1.45 pm.

According to airport sources, dense fog over Delhi sky had hampered flights operation on Monday morning. "Almost all flights to and from IGI, Delhi were delayed. Normal flight operation resumed only after visibility improved around noon," sources added.

Air India's Delhi-Patna-Delhi flight (IC-409) which was scheduled to arrive around 12 nooon was delayed by around four hours. Indigo's Chennai-Mumbai-Delhi-Patna-Chennai (191), which is scheduled here around 2 pm, and its Delhi-Patna flight (6E-178), which is scheduled to arrive here by 1.55 pm, were also delayed by hours.

Go Air has decided to change the timing of its Delhi-Patna-Delhi (G8 341-342) flight from Tuesday. The flight will take off from IGI, Delhi at 7.20 am and reach JPNI airport by 9 am. Its return flight will depart at 9.25 am and reach Delhi at 10.55 am.

Alok K N Mishra is can be contacted at alokknmishra@gmail.com

Bihar beckons young NRIs

PATNA: "It's amazing. I love Bihar... I love you guys," Keshri Pragg of Trinidad and Tobago thus gushed about Bihar and Biharis.

The 24-year-old is one of the 37 young overseas Indians currently on a tour to the land of their forefathers on an invitation from Bihar Foundation. Hailing from 13 countries, these youngsters have come to the land of Buddha for the first time and would be winding up their 10-day visit later this week.

"The real Bihar is contrary to what media reports say about it," Pragg, a final year student at the University of the West Indies, said and added international media reports usually associate India with hungry beggars waiting to ambush the guests the moment they get out of their hotel. "But I found Bihar as lovely as any other lovely place outside India," said Pragg, a professional Hindustani classical dancer whose ancestors migrated to Trinidad and Tobago 150 years ago.

Andrea Santos, who lives in the coastal city of Vancouver, nodded. "Prior to my visit, I thought I was going to an unsafe state. But no sooner did we reach than we saw cops on roads. And nobody came to snatch my belongings," she said.

The 23-year-old, who like many others in the group prostrated in worship at the Mahavir Mandir near Patna Junction, said she was awed to see people waiting in serpentine queues just to pay obeisance to the Lord. "I haven't seen such a grand display of devotion anywhere in the world. It's unique to Indians," said Andrea, an international studies student at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

"I love my India... I love Bihar," cooed Sanam Isseri, a student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). The 20-year-old professional Indian classical singer, who has performed at several shows in South Africa, wishes to "come home" after she is done with her studies at UKZN. "I would like to teach singing, dancing and English to my Bihari brothers and sisters here," said Isseri, who is fluent in English and also speaks in Hindi, albeit with difficulty.
Isseri said Indians in SA have not shunned their culture and tradition. "We celebrate Diwali, Holi, Makar Sakranti and all other Hindu and Muslim festivals with traditional fervor," she said.

Vinit Vishal Nand, from Fiji, said he knows several Hindu families in Fiji who organize Satya Narayan Vrat Katha.

Before this visit, Alisa Kumar (19), from New Zealand, didn't know much about India except that it was least-affected country during the recent economic recession. "But now I can boast of a first-hand feel of India," said the Massey University student.

The youths originally came to India to participate in the Pravasi Bharatiya Sammelan in New Delhi from January 7 to 9. In Bihar, they visited Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda and Munger's yoga university besides the Golghar and floating restaurant in Patna. On January 23, they are slated to leave for New Delhi where they would watch Republic Day parade before leaving for home, said Satyajit Singh of Bihar Foundation.

A2Z to keep whole city clean



A two lane road stretching through capital of Bihar.

PATNA: A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited, a common sight on sanitation bins in select localities of the city, would soon make its presence felt in the entire state capital.

A2Z is currently responsible for sanitation and waste disposal from nine main roads and 10 of the 72 municipal wards of the city. The state government recently decided to hire the private agency to provide sanitation services to the entire city.

The agency is gearing up to take the bigger responsibility and it recently carried out a survey in the Bankipore and New Capital circles of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC). "We hope to complete the survey in all the PMC circles by the end of next month. And we are likely to expand our area of operations from March this year," A2Z AGM Vikash Jha told TOI.

The agency proposes a door-to-door garbage collection system. "Our workers would collect the garbage from every house in the morning," Jha said and added four large bins would be provided for every 100 households.

The agency has at its disposal in Patna 120 mini trucks and nine large trucks to transport out the garbage collected by its 450-odd workers.

"We have adequate infrastructure for the current workload. We are already on the job to strengthen our workforce and supplement our infrastructure in proportion to the increased workload," Jha said and added A2Z also plans to organise public awareness events on a regular basis to instill civic sense into residents.

As per the agreement with PMC, A2Z currently looks after Fraser Road, Bailey Road, Beerchand Patel Path, Boring Road, Boring Canal Road, Exhibition Road, Ashok Rajpath, Old Bypass Road and Hardinge Road.

However, not everyone is impressed with A2Z performance. Complaints about heaps of garbage in many areas looked after A2Z were a common refrain as TOI spoke to several Patnaites.





Alok K N Mishra can be contacted at 91+9234629956



'Lion' is the king at dog show

PATNA: Lion, a dog of Neapolitan Mastiff breed, owned by one S Bhardwaj, was awarded the first prize in the best of breed category in 'All Breed Championship Dog Show, 2011' held here on Sunday. The show was organised by the Canine Club of Bihar (CCB) at the Veterinary College Campus.

Under the same category, Scoop, a dog of Labrador breed, owned by Jayaprakash, was awarded second prize and Bruno, a dog of Wire haired breed, owned by justice (Retd) U P Singh, was awarded the third prize.

Jenny, a dog of Puppy breed, owned by Sanjay Kumar Singh, was awarded first prize in obedience category. Rocky of Ajay Kumar Singh and Raja of B Tripathy were awarded second and third prizes respectively.

Ravi Kumar and Kriti Rohini were adjudged first and second as best dog trainers. Club secretary Dr Ajit Kumar, in his speech on the occasion said that Patna was now among the few cities known across India for rare and pure breed dogs.

A total of about 195 dogs of 25 breeds from across the city participated in the dog show. CCB has been regularly organizing dog shows in the city since 1996.

Dog breeds like Chihuahua, the smallest dog; Rottweiler, the most dangerous; Pug, the most likeable; St Bernard, Bull Mastiff and English Mastiff (among the world s largest) were the highlights of the show.

Earlier, the show was inaugurated by principal secretary, animal husbandry and fisheries, S K Negi. Delhi-based expert on dogs Ravindra Singh and Kolkata-based expert Vimal Shaw were the judges of the show.

Alok K N Mishra is a Times of India journalist at Patna.

Plan to check cash flow at airport

PATNA: Buoyed by some remarkable achievements of its Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) at Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) Airport here in the past few months, the I-T (investigation) department has sent a proposal to the Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT) for setting up a permanent AIU unit at the Patna airport.

"The success of AIU unit here has encouraged us to ask to convert the temporary unit into a permanent one," an I-T official said, adding that the permanent unit will help officials to a great extent in checking movement of illegal valuables and unaccounted cash.

The AIU unit gains further significance at JPNI airport as it may easily be used by white-collar criminals and smuggling agents to carry cash and other valuables to Nepal through the porous Indo-Nepal border.

The I-T department had set up a temporary AIU unit at the city airport after the Election Commission of India asked it to do so during the recently concluded Bihar assembly elections. The temporary office of the AIU unit was set up in October-November last year.

Soon after setting up of the AIU, I-T sleuths had netted a Congress MP, R C Khuntia, carrying cash to the tune of Rs 12.5 lakh on October 12, 2010. Khuntia, who is also the secretary of the All India Congress Committee, was detained while boarding an Air India flight for Delhi. He had failed to produce documents pertaining to the cash.

AIU officials again seized Rs 33 lakh from a city-based trader, Manish Gandhi, at the Patna airport on November 6. Gandhi had also failed to disclose the source of the money he was taking to Mumbai. The I-T sleuths had reportedly laid a trap following a tip-off which led to the seizure of the money from Gandhi.

The I-T sleuths also seized about 7.5 kg of gold from a Muzaffarpur-based jeweller, Saket Kumar, on Tuesday. Kumar has been asked by I-T officials to furnish details of his I-T returns filed in the past six years.

"Currently, there is no AIU unit here," an official said and added that the AIU unit, which was set up during the Bihar assembly election, has been dismantled as of now.

According to investigation system, I-T sleuths can question anyone carrying cash or other valuables. "Those carrying cash and valuables must be able to verify the source of the same. At the same time, there is no upper limit with regard to carrying cash and valuables which are exempted from income-tax investigation," an I-T source said.

Alok K N Mishra is a Times of India journalist. He can be contacted at 9234629956.

Poor shiver, babus fiddle

PATNA: Bihar s social welfare department (SWD) s proposal to distribute blankets among the weaker section of the society to help them face chilling cold is nothing short of a mockery.

The department has finalized a proposal for distribution of blankets among the poor at a cost of Rs 50 lakh. Under the proposal, which is still awaiting cabinet approval, blankets will be provided to 23,000 people only.

"However, the number of poor people who badly need free blankets in the state is several times higher than 23,000 and Rs 50 lakh is grossly inadequate to meet the demand," principal secretary of social welfare department V K Verma said.

Making a kill at the burning ghat

PATNA: Price rise is killing us, cries the aam admi. Here's more: Price rise won't spare one even after death.

A bereaved Gulab Kishore learned it the tragic way when he visited the city's Baans Ghat last week to perform the last rites of his son. No sooner did Kishore and his kinsmen all with moist eyes reach the burning ghat than Pt Jairam Pandey (name changed) appeared before them and threw a poser, rather plainly, "Kya karwana hai?" He went on, "Main yahan ka pandit hua; main shraddh-karma karwa dunga (I am a priest; can organise the cremation)."

Jairam has the gift of the gab. "It's a tragedy, but death is the sole certainty of life. Have faith in God; things will be okay soon," he consoled Kishore and offered to get "everything" done as per Hindu ritual for a "contract" of Rs 10,000.

"It's too much! Unreasonably high!" said one mourner. While others nodded, Jairam talked about price rise. "You buy puja materials yourself and you will know that I am not demanding the moon," he said.

While the mourners agreed to pay Jairam Rs 10,000, it turned out that one important element remained undecided during the haggling over price. Jairam had quoted the price for cremation in the electric crematorium while Kishore's friends and family members wanted traditional funeral by the river Ganga.

"Traditional style is more time-taking. It also involves huge cost as one needs at least five manas' of woods (one mana' = 40 kg). You will have to pay Rs 15,000 for that," Jairam said, almost non-stop.

The mourners turned him down, and turned to another priest, Ganesh Upadhyay (name changed), who was waiting in the wings to offer his services in case Jairam failed to woo the "customer". "People here are on the prowl. They will loot you if you don't opt for a contract," he advised the "clients". A professional priest as he was, he could soon make out his words were falling on deaf ears. He took out of his pocket a readymade list of materials needed for the cremation, and handed it to one mourner.

TOI found out prices of almost everything have doubled during the last few years. One mana' of mango wood, for instance, now comes for Rs 200 to 250 at Baans Ghat. Even the services of Supan Bhagat, who provides the mandatory fireball for lighting the pyre, come at a premium. It could be anything from Rs 351 to Rs 1.25 lakh, depending on the paying capacity of the mourners. Even the barber's fee, though not as astronomical as the Bhagat's, varies according to the financial status of the mourners. While the Bhagat's fireball is a must, a barber is required to tonsure the head of the relative who lights the pyre.

The cremation of Kishore's son cost the family around Rs 8,000.

There's also an electric crematorium at the Baans Ghat where a cadaver can be burned without spending on woods. Its charge is Rs 300, and it takes some 45 minutes to turn a corpse into ashes.

Death becomes costlier if the cremation takes place at the city's Gulbi Ghat. While the electric crematorium here charges Rs 320 as against Rs 300 at the Baans Ghat, woods etc are also costlier here. There's no one to explain this difference in the same city.

Nor is there anyone to explain why shouldn't there be a government mechanism to maintain order at the burning ghats. Or why has the government looked the other way while arbitrary price tags are flaunted publicly for every service be it the barber's, Bhagat's or priest's at these ghats. "Maybe because no one has complained and brought it (the loot) to our notice that we have not bothered to initiate any action," is all PMC commissioner Manish Kumar could offer to TOI.

The merchants of death' thus have a field day to make a kill.

Alok K N Mishra is with Times of India. He can be contacted at alokmishra.co@gmail.com

Sales soar as tilkut tickle festive taste buds

PATNA: Winter's sweet delight, "tilkut" is tantalising the taste-buds of people here. Though tilkuts are savoured on Makar Sankranti (January 14) along with traditional dahi chura (curd with rice flakes) the delicacy could be seen being sold all over the city in sweet shops, small food joints and makeshift roadside stalls this season.

"Tilkut is also called the sweet of the winter season. And people chomp on the seasonal crunchy sweet with great delight," said R K Gupta, a sweet shop owner, in Boring Canal Road.

Sweet-makers have made arrangements to cater to myriad demands of people. "For the first time we have brought in sugar-free tilkuts for diabetics. Actually, the delicacy endears everyone. But due to diabetes, several people are deprived of the heavenly delight," said Manohar Lal of Sweet Home, situated in Boring Road.

He further said: "We have sugar-free tilkuts, which we prepare at our workshop. Such tilkuts are 100 per cent harmless."

"Sugar-free tilkuts cost Rs 280 per kg. We pack them in hard designer packets to protect their crunchiness and to ensure that they do not crumble before they are used," he added.

Gupta said, "We offer three varieties of tilkuts. We have tilkuts made of khoa, sugar and jaggery. Khoa tilkuts cost Rs 200 per kg and sugar and jaggery tilkuts cost Rs 120 per kg."

Gupta further added: "Special attention has to be given to make sure the tastes of tilkuts remain delicious. One also has to be attentive while preparing tilkuts. One has to be very particular about the timing of the baking and pay attention to other details. Due to the huge demand, several sweet makers have hired confectioners to prepare the delicacy this season.

"The business of tilkut is mainly seasonal. It starts from November and continues till February, but we do good business. I have been trading in tilkut for the past 15 years. As it is a profitable venture, several sweet-makers get involved in the business," added confectioner Vinay Kumar.

A sweet-maker in Kankarbagh, who did not want to be named, said he had hired 12 karigars (confectioners) for the purpose. "We are preparing about 50 kg of tilkut daily. The demand grows between January 10 and 14. We will increase our production as Makar Sankranti draws near," the sweet-maker said.

He added: "Last year we had done a business of around Rs 2 lakh. This year we hope to increase the revenue."
Apart from tilkuts, gajat (a variety of confection like tilkut) is also available in the market. A sweet-maker, Laxman Kumar, at Mithapur, said he had brought the confection from Lucknow.

"We have kaju gajat, jaggery gajat and sugar gajat. They are being sold for Rs 200, Rs 160 and Rs 160 per kg respectively," Kumar added.

Alok K N Mishra is a Times of India journalist. He can be contacted at alokmishra.co@gmail.com.

Security breach at Patna airport

PATNA: In a major breach of security at the Jayapraksh Narayan Interna-tional Airport here on Wednesday, one Kishor Paswan (40) came on to the runway when a plane was about to take off. The incident occurred at around 6:45 pm. There were over 150 passengers on board the G8-344 Go Air Patna-Delhi flight.

Passengers virtually screamed when Paswan reportedly waved at them from outside and tried to touch the plane, sources said.

The pilot immediately pressed the panic button as he informed air safety officials about the incident. Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) per-sonnel then rushed in and took the trespasser into custody.

No illegal object was recovered from him so far. Paswan had his voter ID card with him and a towel, sources said.

Paswan's connection with any militant or terrorist organization has not been established so far. Investigation is on to find out why he ventured inside the airport. The trespasser was reportedly a lunatic.

The man reportedly hails from Begusarai and had boarded a train for Patna on Tuesday. He is said to be a labourer and reportedly alighted at Phulwari Sharif railway station last night. He had sneaked into the airport from Phulwari Sharif railway station at around 5 pm on Wednesday.

An airport official, who dis not want to be quoted, said: Prima facie the incident seems to have occurred due to the negligence of CISF personnel. The incident occurred even as the lighting around the airport perimeter boundary wall has been improved recently.

Paswan was loitering on the turmac for about an hour before running to-wards the plane as soon as it started preparing for take off, a source said.

Go Air s G8-344 flight was a little late to arrive at JPNI Airport on Wednesday. It was scheduled to arrive at 4.25 pm but landed at around 5.45 pm. The incident caused further delay and the flight finally took off at around 7 pm.

Air India s Delhi-Patna (IC 415) and Kingfisher s Kolkata-Patna (IT 4579) had to remain airbourne for over 15 minutes because of the inci-dent.

Paswan was later handed over to airport police station. We have taken the man into custody. He is being interrogated for further information, a senior police official said.

Alok K N Mishra is a Times of India journalist. He can be contacted at 9234629956.