Monday, October 26, 2009

Tytler to stay at Sadaquat Ashram

TNN 20 October 2009, 06:12am IST

PATNA: The otherwise deserted state Congress headquarters at Sadaquat Ashram will remain abuzz with party activities at least till Jagdish Tytler
is the AICC's incharge, Bihar affairs.

Tytler has announced he would not stay at 5-star hotels during his visits to Patna. "I am going to stay at Sadaquat Ashram and so will other central leaders of the party coming to Bihar," he said.

He said he has already shifted some of his belongings to a room at Sadaquat Ashram. "When Bihar Congress leaders call me up for an appointment at my house in Delhi, I tell them they are welcome to have a cup of tea with me. But if they want to talk about party affairs, they should meet me at Sadaquat Ashram," Tytler said.

Tytler said Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajendra Prasad and several other tall leaders of Congress stayed at Sadaquat Ashram during their visits to Bihar. "However, senior congress leaders later developed the bad habit of staying in posh hotels. The country is facing bad times and we should observe austerity," he said.

Earlier, Tytler had announced installation of video-conferencing facility at Sadaquat Ashram to facilitate direct interaction with partymen from his Delhi residence.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

No exclusive police station for women in state

PATNA: Women in Bihar still fear lodging a case with a male-dominated police station. To date there is no exclusive police station for women in

Bihar where they can lodge their complaints.

Out of the 881 police stations in Bihar, there is not a single separate police station for women. CM Nitish Kumar had initiated a number of measures to ensure women's empowerment, the first being reservation of 50 per cent posts for them in the Panchayati Raj institutions and local bodies.

In a RTI query, state police headquarters admitted there is not a single women police station in Bihar. Out of the 881 police stations, there are only 10 separate police stations for scheduled castes in the state.

The proposal for setting up separate women police stations one each at Patna, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga and Gaya are still under consideration. The home department, in its annual report tabled in the state legislature in the last monsoon session, said that the government is committed to set up separate police stations for women so that they could lodge their complaints without any fear.

The government was also committed to set up psychological support centre and helpline exclusively for women and children.

Incidentally, the government report suggests that incidents of atrocities on women in Bihar witnessed a rise in 2008 especially in the cases related to abduction, dowry-related deaths, molestation, eve-teasing and rape.

According to the figures compiled by the state police headquarters, as many as 6,186 cases of atrocities (1,041 incidents related to rape, 1,494 kidnapping, 1,233 murder for dowry, 2,230 dowry harassment and 188 cases of eve-teasing and molestation) were registered against women across Bihar in 2008.

A comparative study of the figures available clearly indicates there was increase in such incidents in 2008 compared to the corresponding period the previous year. While 1,012 cases were registered in connection with kidnapping of women in 2007, the number went up to 1,494 in 2008.

The number of dowry death rose from 1,226 in 2007 to 1,233 in 2008. Similarly, cases of atrocities perpetrated on women for dowry rose to 2,230 in 2008 from 1,493 in 2007.

Cases relating to eve-teasing and molestation shot up to 188 during 2008, 20 more than the previous year. The recent disrobing of a woman in Patna in full public view on the busy Exhibition Road had put the NDA government on the back foot. CM Nitish Kumar had described the stripping of the woman in public view as a slur on a civilized society.