Cong woos Nitish, Cabinet may approve Rs 12,000 cr Bihar package New Delhi: As the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal United continue to lock horns, the Cabinet is on Thursday likely to announce a special package for Bihar. In what is being seen as the government wooing the JD(U), the Cabinet could give a go ahead for a Rs 12,000 crore special package. Bihar will get this money under the Backward Regions Grant Fund to be implemented in the...  
03:12 PM, Apr 18, 2013

WHO praises Bihar immunisation drive Patna: World Health Organisation (WHO) appreciated the successful implementation of health programmes, particularly anti-polio and immunisation campaigns, in Bihar on Wednesday. The appreciation was expressed by WHO Representative in India Nata Menabde after a meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna. Praising the anti-polio campaign, Menabde said Bihar had not registered a single case of polio in the last three years, an official statement said. On the immunisation programme,...  
05:00 PM, Apr 17, 2013

JDU not bending before BJP for support: Tiwari
by IBN7
New Delhi: The Janata Dal United has now openly challenged its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party following the wrangling over the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. JDU General Secretary Shivanand Tiwari in a strongly worded comment said that his party was not bending before the BJP for support. Tiwari said that that the BJP has always known the party's views on the PM candidate and it...  
12:24 PM, Apr 17, 2013

Nitish Kumar a 'puppet' in Advani's hands, says RJD New Delhi: RJD, arch rival of JD(U) in Bihar, on Tuesday accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of being a "puppet" in the hands of LK Advani and playing the politics of misleading the Muslims. "In the internal quarrels in the top leadership of BJP on the leadership issue, Nitish is a puppet in the hands of Advani....," RJD General Secretary Vijay Krishna said, adding "only communal can protect the communal"....  
02:55 AM, Apr 17, 2013

Lalu Prasad dubs Nitish Kumar as 'parrot of RSS' Madhubani: Describing Nitish Kumar as "parrot of RSS", RJD President Lalu Prasad on Monday said Bihar Chief Minister was opposing Narendra Modi while praising LK Advani, though both are "communalists of the highest order". He told reporters that Kumar was befooling the minority Muslim community on the Modi issue. "Godhra riots took place in 2002 when Nitish was railway minister and he applied all the tricks in his bag to...  
09:05 PM, Apr 15, 2013

Bihar BJP to meet Rajnath after Nitish's veiled threat over Modi New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party is scrambling to tackle Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's ultimatum on its Prime Ministerial candidate. The Bihar BJP core group will meet party chief Rajnath Singh on April 18 in Delhi. The BJP will discuss Nitish's ultimatum on keeping out Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi from the PM race. Top state leaders of the BJP will join the meeting, including Sushil Modi, Mangal Pandey,...  
09:55 AM, Apr 15, 2013

Nitish Kumar's posturing on Modi a charade, says Paswan Patna: Describing senior JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's posturing as 'charade,' LJP supremo Ramvilas Paswan on Sunday claimed that Kumar would never sever ties with the BJP for the sake of power in the state. "Nitish will never sever ties with the BJP on Modi issue or any other matter not only in this life, but in the next seven lives," Paswan told reporters. Kumar's posturing on...  
03:10 AM, Apr 15, 2013

Nitish Kumar praises Vajpayee, calls him an 'inclusive leader' New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday set clear terms for future alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), giving enough hints that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will not be acceptable as the prime ministerial candidate to the JD(U). Nitish praised the virtues of senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee thrice in his speech, saying Vajpayee's 'Raj Dharma' was the way forward. Nitish said, "Under Vaypayee's leadership,...  
03:15 PM, Apr 14, 2013

Nitish takes a dig at Modi's 'Gujarat growth model'
by IANS
New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday took a dig at his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, who has been espousing his model of development as a possible answer to India's ills. The Janata Dal-United leader also told a party meeting in Delhi that his party's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can continue only if "some fundamental issues" were made clear. In an obvious criticism of Modi,...  
02:35 PM, Apr 14, 2013

Bihar clocks 29 per cent hike in commercial tax collection Patna: In another first in the country, tax collection in Bihar in the 2012-13 fiscal jumped to 29 per cent, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said on Saturday. "The achievement becomes all the more impressive considering that the world was witnessing an economic slowdown," Modi, also the Finance minister, told a review meeting of the commercial tax department in Patna. Other states registered a growth rate of 16-17 per...  
12:30 AM, Apr 14, 2013

Bihar official arrested for raping 14-year-old daughter
by IANS
Patna: A Bihar government official was arrested on Saturday for repeatedly raping his 14-year-old daughter, police said. Akhilesh Kumar, a senior deputy collector, was arrested in Patna following a complaint lodged by his wife that he repeatedly raped his daughter. More details are awaited. ...  
06:07 PM, Apr 13, 2013

PM candidate must be named before Bihar polls: JD(U) New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) key ally Janata Dal (United) on Saturday reiterated its demand for a "secular" prime ministerial candidate and said the announcement of the candidate should be made before the Bihar Assembly elections, sources told CNN-IBN. The JD(U) has made it clear that there will be no question of compromising on the basic principals of the alliance with the BJP, sources added. The JD(U) will...  
04:18 PM, Apr 13, 2013

Bihar literacy growth rate much ahead of national average: Sushil Kumar Modi Patna: Educational programmes in Bihar have resulted in pushing literacy growth rate in the state to 16.82 per cent, much ahead of national average of 9.28 per cent, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said on Saturday. Social indices like decline in death rate, universalisation of immunisation scheme and rise in per capita income in Bihar reflects that the state was achieving inclusive growth, he said addressing a function here....  
11:19 AM, Apr 13, 2013

Patna court rejects Hasan Ali Khan's bail plea Patna: A local court in the district rejected the bail application of Pune-based businessman Hasan Ali Khan in a fake passport case. Judicial Magistrate Sunil Kumar passed the order summarily rejecting Khan's bail plea on Friday. The police had last week submitted a chargesheet in the court hearing the fake passport case against the businessman, who is presently lodged in a Mumbai jail. A case was lodged against Khan under...  
03:46 PM, Apr 12, 2013

Bihar: Conjoined twins' family welcomes SC verdict Patna: The Supreme Court's order has come as a huge relief for the parents of the conjoined twins, who are now being taken care by Patna's leading hospital. Following the Supreme Court's order that the Bihar government should take the full responsibility of the conjoined twins' medical treatment, the hospital has been looking after the sisters. The apex court has also asked the state government to pay Rs 5,000 per...  
01:29 PM, Apr 12, 2013

All Mahadalit families must be provided land: Nitish Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday directed the revenue department to provide land by this fiscal to all Mahadalit families in the state for housing. Presiding over a high-level meeting, he directed Principal Secretary (Revenue) C Ashok Bardhan to ensure it. For those Mahadalit families which have been given land but could not construct houses, an action plan should be prepared by a panel headed by the Development...  
04:08 AM, Apr 11, 2013

SC orders Bihar government to take care of conjoined twins
by IBN7
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Bihar government to give financial help to conjoined twins Saba and Farah Saleem and take care of their medical expenses along with regular check up of the twins. Directing the state government to provide financial help to the family of the twins, the court also ordered Patna Medical College and Hospital to undertake regular checkups of Saba and Farah. The Supreme...  
01:50 PM, Apr 10, 2013

Bihar: Call centre in Madhubani a lifeline for farmers Madhubani: A call centre is proving to be quite a lifeline for farmers in Madhubani in Bihar. It is an initiative by Delhi-based Drishti Foundation and is proving to be central to the economy of agriculture in the region. It is a lifeline for the farmers of the Madhubani district, addressing their queries and problems on farming, seed selection, what fertiliser to use and using new-age techniques. The call centre...  
09:56 AM, Apr 10, 2013

Bihar: 3 children burnt to death, 1000 huts gutted Khagaria: Three children were killed when a fire broke out in hutments in Bihar's Khagaria district, police said on Monday. The fire broke out Sunday night in a kitchen and soon spread to other hutments, destroying over 100 thatched huts, Circle Officer Pradeep Sinha said. The children who were killed in the blaze were identified as Anchal Kumari (3), Manisha Kumari (3) and Jitan Kumar (7). The damaged caused by...  
11:47 AM, Apr 08, 2013

Maoists blow up railway track in Bihar to enforce strike
by IANS
Patna: Maoists on Saturday blew up a railway track in Bihar to enforce a two-day strike called by them to protest against the killing of their cadres in Jharkhand, railway police said. Ten Maoists were killed in a gun battle with the Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC), a rival splinter group of the Maoists, in Chatra district of Jharkhand on the intervening night of March 27-28, 2013. "Maoists blew up a...  
05:12 AM, Apr 07, 2013