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Bihar Times
News
Bihar:
saying Yes for Children
This October, the Bihar Legislative Council was readied for a session of a unique kind. 170 children aged 10 to 17, drawn from different states of Bihar took over the special assembly hall to hold their own day long session with Bihar Legislative Council Chairman Jabir Hussain as observer. Chief Minister Rabri Devi inaugurated the session and her husband, former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal [National People's Group] President Laloo Prasad Yadav spoke a few words.
The exercise was jointly organised by UNICEF and the State Legislative Council in order to foster citizenship values among children. In line with the Global Movement for Children and its thrust to "Change the World with children", the session, the first exercise of its kind to be held in India, had children focussing on issues that affected them, and putting up viewpoints from their own perspective.
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58 lakh children outside school ambit
Around 58 lakh children of Bihar in the age group of 6 to 14 years remain outside the ambit of schools. There are around 166 lakh children in the state in the referred age group.
Of the children enrolled in schools, about 10 lakh are studying in private schools and the rest in ill-equipped primary government schools known for their lack of teachers, buildings, blackboards and even chalk and dusters.
Presently, there are 37,366 primary schools and 7,764 middle schools in Bihar, resulting into a middle to primary school ratio of 1:4. The national ratio is 1:2.
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Centre releases Rs 56.61 crore for primary school buildings
3,303 government primary schools have been running without buildings for long in various districts of Bihar.
The 11th Finance Commission has given thrust to constructing school buildings and providing basic structures, specially in rural areas. They include provision of toilet and water facilities in these schools. On its recommendations, the Centre has released Rs 56.61 for providing pucca buildings in 1,609 of the 3,303 building-less government primary schools.
The Centre has allocated the sum for constructing school buildings between 2001 and 2004. The state government has prepared a three-phase programme for constructing primary school buildings, 835 buildings in 2001-2002, 477 in 2002-2003 and 296 school buildings in 2003-2004. The cost of construction of these school buildings would be met entirely under this Central scheme.
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Country's
first elephant reserve in Jharkhand
Jharkhand has become the first state in the country to set up an elephant reserve or Elephant Safari Project in the country.
Under the project, the central government has sanctioned Rs 6.25 crore for setting up the project and reconstruction of the habitat of elephants in Ranchi, Singhbhum, Gumla, Hazaribagh, Chatra, Latehar and Daltonganj.
Under the scheme, large-sale bamboo plantation will be done and big reservoirs for storing drinking water for elephants made. The Union government will bear the entire cost of the project which will be looked after by the Jharkhand governemnt. The sanction amount will be spent in five years and if more funds are required the Centre will meet the cost.
Jharkhand has 12 sanctuaries and a national park, together covering an area of 5000 sq miles out of the 23,6000 miles forest area in the whole state. Thus the forest area in Jharkhand stands at 20 per cent of the total area of the state against the national average of 15 per cent.
In these sanctuaries, the habitat of elephants will be preserved. According to a recent census, Jharkhand has about 550 elephants.
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Bihar
to have 9 regional diagnostic centres
With the 11th Finance Commission recommending the release of Rs 27 crore to the state government, decks have been cleared for establishment of nine regional diagnostic centres (RDCs) in Bihar.
The state government has made a budgetary provision of Rs 13.57 crore for enabling the health department to start the construction work for these RDCs during the current financial year itself.
The RDCs will be located at Gaya, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Ara, Saharsa, Munger, Motihari, Chapra and Purnia. The Gaya, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur RDCs will be located on the government medical college hospital campuses as the sophisticated instruments to be installed at the centres are not available at these hospitals. The three RDCs will, however, have separate boundary walls.
The nine RDCs will have blood bank, CT scan, X-ray and pathological test facilities each. UNICEF is likely to give a generator set to each of these centres. The government will be spending Rs 3 crore on the establishment of each of these centres, including the cost of instruments to be purchased.
A mother and child health centre will also be set up at each of these RDCs with a view to providing better health care facilities to pregnant women and children. UNICEF has shown its willingness to release Rs 75 lakh for establishment of each of these nine mother and child health centres.
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