Bihar has 2,60,612 local representatives

Bihar has approved a proposal to introduce e-governance in all its 8,479 panchayats at a cost of Rs.252 million. If implemented, this effort would surely build the capacity of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) to ensure transparency and accountability.

The plan entails linking eight government departments, including the chief minister secretariat to the State-wide Area Network.

Top administrative officials and ministers have been provided with laptops as part of the e-governance drive. Video-conferencing facility has also been set up in the state's 38 district headquarters.

In the aftermath of independence, the first Act of Panchayt Raj, under the provisions of Bihar Panchayat Raj Adhiniyam 1947 was introduced, elections were held, and Panchayats were constituted. In 1961 Bihar Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parisad Act was enacted and in 1978,.

In the light of 73rd Amendment, Bihar Panchayat Raj Act 1993 was made but elections
couldn’t take place before 2001.

The present Bihar Panchayat Raj Act 2006, is unique in many ways. It has ensured 50% reservation for women in all the categories. 20% reservation has been given to Annexure- I category of Backward Community. The provision of Gram Kachahri has also been made a part of the Act.

Statistics of PRI
No. of Gram Panchayats in Bihar : 8463
No. of Panchayat Samiti (Block) : 531
No. of Zila Parishad : 38


Number of PRI Representatives

Member Gram Panchayat 115479
Mukhiya 8463
Panch 115479
Sarpanch 8463
Member Panchayat Samiti 11566
Member Zila Parishad 1162
Total 2,60,612

Will Nitish Government change Ara's plight

Arrah is a city and municipality in Bhojpur district in the state of Bihar, India. It is the district headquarters of Bhojpur district and is located 36 miles from Patna. It was constituted a municipality in 1865. Sulabh started in 1973 in this very municipality. Desite this insanitary conditions prevail in Arrah that can cause epidemic outbreak at any point time. So far Bihar Urban Development Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey has not been able do do much.

Now the state has received a sum of Rs 38 crore from the centre for solid waste management. Choubey has initiated steps for setting up a plant to generate 9.5 MW of power from 33 metric tonnes of waste. If this plant is based on highly polluting incineration technology than it is fraught with serious environmental consequences. This technology creates public health hazards which would be worse than the current mess.

Bihar is the first state in the country Bihar has abolished the Urban Land Ceiling Act and Agriculture Product Marketing Act. It has adopted the Model Municipal Act.

Will the new municipal act of Bihar and quick fix technologies for municipal waste change the state of affairs with respect to sanitation?

P.S: As per 2001 India census Arrah had a population of 203,395. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Arrah has an average literacy rate of 67%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with 60% of the males and 40% of females literate.

Mughalsarai stampede exposes Railway Ministry

Country's biggest railway junction. On October 5, a three-member inquiry team began investigations into October 3rd stampede at Mughalsarai station, where 15 women were killed and 48 people injured.

The team has been constituted by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. The team is led by Chief Commercial Manager Rajendra Prasad Bharadwaj, has CMO R P Singh and Deputy Chief Security Officer Tariq Ahamed as its other members.

The incident occurred when there was a sudden surge of people who came out of two trains, arriving almost simultaneously, on the staircase of an over bridge.

Fasting women had alighted from trains to go to Varanasi, 20 km away from Mughalsarai, for a bath in the Ganges on the occasion of 'jivit putrika vrat', a local festival.
A large number of women observe fast for their husbands’ long life. They had arrived from various places in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh to visit Varanasi.The mishap occurred when Gaya Passenger and Varanasi Ghazipur DMU arrived almost together at around 1.45 p.m. on platforms five and six, leading to a stampede on the overbridge.

They were on their way to take a holy dip in the Ganga at Varanasi The mishap was reportedly caused due to the railways authorities changing the platform of a train at the last moment.

Lalu Prasad Yadav reached the Divisional Railway Hospital at Mughalsarai and met those injured in the stampede and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the family of those killed in the stampede, besides giving railway jobs to at least one of their dependents.

Railway Ministry should pay more attention to expanding and upgrading it infrastructure. Asbestos roofs, congested and rickety staircases, waste mismanagement dot this public transport system, it is high time it is brought on track by taking administrative decisions beyond announcing ex-gratia.

Death Sentence in Krishnaiah Murder Case

More than 30 percent of lawmakers aged between 36 and 45 years faced criminal charges..

A former MP and JD-U leader Anand Mohan was sentenced to death by a local court in Patna which also awarded life imprisonment to his wife, also an ex-MP, on Wednesday in a murder case where the then Gopalganj District Magistrate was lynched by a mob 13 years back.

In a landmark verdict that is bound to have political ramifications, Additional Sessions Judge, Ram Krishna Rai also awarded Capital punishment to two others - Akhlaq Ahmed, a former MLA from Bikramganj and RJD leader and Arun Kumar in connection with the brutal killing of G Krishnaiah on December 5, 1994.

Besides Anand's wife - Lovely Anand, a former MP from Vaishali - those who got life term are Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla, a sitting JD(U) MLA from Lalganj, Shashi Shekhar and Harendra Kumar.

Anand Mohan, a former MP from Sheohar who was leader of the then Bihar People's Party (BPP) at the time of the murder, and his wife were accused of inciting a mob to lynch Krishnaiah.

It is for the first time that a former MP was being sent to gallows.

The Court on Monday held all the seven accused guilty under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (rioting) and 427 (mischief causing damage).

''I am not very happy, because the conviction in an IAS officer's death case takes 13 years. Then you can imagine what the plight of an ordinary man would be like,'' said Uma Krishnaiah, wife of Krishnaiah.

Krishnaiah was lynched by a mob accompanying the cortege of a BPP leader Chotan Shukla on December 5, 1994.

The officer was pulled out of a car, beaten up mercilessly and then shot dead. The BPP is now defunct.

Underworld don

All the seven convicted were also fined Rs 25,000. The judge acquitted 29 of the 36 accused in the case giving them benefit of doubt.

Krishnaiah was done to death near Khabra, on the outskirts of Muzaffarpur town by the mob that was enraged over the gunning down of Chotan Shukla, an underworld don with political ambitions, and three others on December 4, 1994 when they were returning from election campaign for the 1995 assembly polls.

The seven convicts, all present in the court, soon after being sentenced complained about shabby treatment being meted out to them at the Beur Central Jail where they are lodged.

Anand Mohan said he, Akhlaq Ahmed and Arun Kumar were locked up in a cell without even a fan, while his wife Lovely Anand was kept in a ward along with mentally deranged women.

''As long as we are alive the court should ensure that we exist like humans'', Mohan told the judge, who said he would write to the jail superintendent and Patna district magistrate to see to it that they got amenties in accordance with the law.

Later speaking to the media, Mohan said if the 15 inspectors and two sub-divisional officers accompanying the funeral procession of Chotan Shukla could not save the life of the district magistrate ''what could I have done.''

Munna Shukla said he was with the body of his slain brother in the front of the funeral procession while the district magistrate was lynched by the mob in the rear.

''I simply do no not know who killed Krishnaiah,'' he said. (With PTI inputs)

Gopalganj District Magistrate Murder Case

On 1st October, a Patna court found Janata Dal(U) leader Anand Mohan and six others guilty of murdering the then Gopalganj district magistrate, G. Krishnaiyah, 13 years ago.

The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence on 3rd October.

Besides Mohan, the others convicted are his wife and former Vaishali MP, Lovely Anand, JD(U) legislator Vijay Shukla alias Munna Shukla, former MLA Akhlaq Ahmad, former MP and JD(U) leader Arun Kumar and JD(U) leaders S.S. Thakur and Harendra Kumar.

Additional district and session’s judge (ADJ-1), Ramsreshtha Rai, ruled the accused persons guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 147 (rioting). All of have been remanded to judicial custody and sent to Beur central jail.

“We will challenge the verdict in the higher court. We are not guilty. The truth will come out in higher courts,” said Mohan.

No one from the JD (U), which is now in power in the state, was willing to comment on the convictions.

On December 5, 1994, Krishnaiyah was lynched and shot in the head by a mob carrying the body of Chhotan Shukla, a dreaded don and Bihar Peoples’ Party leader, who had been gunned down in a gang war the previous night near Muzaffarpur.

Krishnaiyah, a native of Andhra Pradesh who was in the IAS’s Bihar cadre, was on way to Gopalganj from Hajipur via Muzaffarpur after attending a meeting.

The frenzied followers of the don, led by Anand Mohan and Lovely Anand, then the Vaishali MP, stopped the IAS officer’s car near Khabra on the outskirts of Muzaffarpur, 60km north of Patna, on National Highway 28.

They dragged out Krishnaiyah, hurled stones at him and thrashed him with batons, farm tools and whatever else they had with them.

As the DM lay on the streets, Chhotan’s younger brother Bhutkun Shukla (another criminal who was later killed in a gangwar) shot him thrice in the head.

The trial of the case was going on in a Muzaffarpur court. But on the instructions of Patna High Court the case was recently transferred to the sessions court in the state capital for speedy trial.

Assault of Bhojpuri Wit on Union Home Minister

Media mostly blanked out the sharp attack on the Home Minister Shivraj Patil unleashed by Prabhunath Singh, JD(U)MP from Maharajganj who initiated the debate on the adjournment motion on the Hyderabad blasts in the Lok Sabha. He used rural wit and humour. Patil is known to pay more attention to his wardrobe than to the various bomb blasts and other unfortunate incidents in the country.



Here are two samples of Singh's wit, which duly hit the intended target, given the angry response of the ruling party members. Referring to the set pattern of minister's response to such acts of terror before getting back to `business as usual.

He said, Home Minister "is here and I am sure in his reply he will read out, like the Satya Narain Katha, whatever speech his officials have written for him and then wash his hands off the entire problem of terrorism." This had a number of Congress MPs on their feet, objecting to the reference to `Satya Narain Katha'. Amidst the bedlam, Singh explained that `Satya Narain is another name for Lord Vishnu and that it was an annual ritual in Bihar to have a pundit read out the story of Satya Narain before everyone goes back to doing whatever one normally does.

Later, Singh referred to the annual animal fair in Sonepur in Bihar and said how a cow, which gave 20 litres of milk, was sold for Rs 20,000 while another one with a calf thrown in went for Rs 25,000. "However everyone was surprised when a good-looking cow went for Rs 30,000, even though it yielded neither milk nor had a calf to go with it." On being asked the reason for such a high price for the barren cow, Singh said amidst loud laughter, "that that cow, like our Home Minister, did precious little but was good to look at."

Story of Ajit singh, Sunil Pandey, MPs & MLAs from Bhojpur

Bhojpur falls under three Lok Shabha constituencies. The MPs from these constituencies are:

Arrah- Kanti Singh (RJD)

Buxer- Lalmuni Chowbey (BJP)

Bikramganj-Late Dr Ajit Singh (JDU)



Dr Ajit Singh, the first time MP from Bikramganj passed away on August 1st, 2007 in “mysterious” circumstances. He was Chairman, National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED), since 1998.
Press Trust of India reported that he was killed in a road accident at Sarsar village in Siwan district. Singh (45), a first time MP and chairman of NAFED, was critically injured when a private bus hit him and three others, including former Congress MLA Umashanker Singh, when the two leaders were standing on the road, police said. Bleeding profusely, the MP was taken to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries during an operation."Singh had great blood loss and suffered a heart attack during the operation. We could not save him," doctors attending on him said.

Police said, the MP was on way to Gopalganj when he saw Umashanker Singh, ex-MLA coming from the opposite direction. The two stopped their vehicles for a talk when the bus rammed into them. Umashanker Singh alongwith the MP's driver and body guard were injured in the accident but, were stated to be out of danger. Ajit Singh was the younger son of late Tapeshwar Singh, a veteran Congressman.

Janata Dal (United) President Sharad Yadav has sought a CBI probe into the “mysterious” death of party MP Ajit Singh, who was also the Chairman NAFED.Singh was knocked down by an empty bus while he was standing on a footpath and talking to an ex-MLA. Addressing a press conference here on 9 August, 2007, Ydav said Dr. Singh had twice expressed to him apprehension about danger to his life. He had even hired a bodyguard recently after he reportedly received threatening phone calls in the "multi-crore scam." Yadav alleged that after NAFED modified its mandate to funding public-private partnerships big money laundering had taken place and some individuals benefited with the help of bureaucracy. "Rules were bent and norms flouted to lend crore of rupees to such individuals."

“The CBI enquiry into the corruption (in NAFED) is going on and Ajit Singh was helping the CBI to book the culprits. In fact, he took steps to recover the Government’s (NAFED’s) money from the individuals who apparently have links with the underworld. All this should be investigated and the country’s money should be recovered.”He said although NAFED was meant to safeguard the interests of farmers and consumers, its management changed the policy, to invest in trade and industry for earning extra money.

Brief Overview of the Bhojpur Politicians



Bhojpur district has seven assembly constituencies.


Given below are the names of the MLAs from these Vidhan Sabha regions:

Sandesh - Vijendra Yadav (RJD)
Barhara - Asha Devi (JDU)
Arrah - Amrendra Pratap Singh (BJP)
Shahpur - Munni Devi (BJP)
Jagdishpur- Sri Bhagwan Singh (JDU)
Piro - Narendra Kumar Pandey [Sunil Pandey] (JDU)
Sahar - Ram Naresh Ram (CPI-ML)

In one of the cases, Sunil Pandey has been accused of barging into a police station and threatening Officer-In-Charge R P Sinha with dire consequences for refusing to provide him police security. Sinha had himself lodged an FIR. Charges were framed against the MLA in April 2005 in which six policemen, including the complainant and the Investigating Officer (IO), were witnesses. The court sent summons followed by warrants of arrest but none of the policemen turned up. Finally, in September, 2007 the court absolved the MLA for lack of evidence.

In another case , the MLA was charged with abusing and assaulting officers deputed to conduct the election of a school chairperson. The FIR was lodged by Labour Officer Siya Ram Singh, a designated Magistrate. Despite summons from the trial court, neither the complainant nor the IO appeared in the court .

Yet another case concerning assault and illegal confinement of a Dalit over a property dispute met the same fate as the IO refrained from turning up in court.
When contacted, Rohtas SP N H Khan acknowledged the lapse and said he would file a review petition for re-trial in at least one case. “I am personally probing the lapses. Responsibilities would be fixed,” Khan said.

The SP said that apart from the policemen, he is also probing the role of government’s Assistant Public Prosecutor Ravindra Prasad, who was handling all the three cases.