Bihar Current Affairs January 2022
■ Monthly Current Affairs
■ Bihar government is all set to implement an online Works Accounts
Management Information System (WAMIS) from April 1 in the nine departments for effective monitoring of the physical and financial progress of infrastructure projects.
Bihar is the fifth state after Jharkhand, Tripura, Odisha and
Maharashtra to implement the system.
About WAMIS
WAMIS is software developed by the C-DAC
(Centre For Development of Advanced Computing) for e-governance. It’s an
innovative initiative for simplification of the complex procedures of works and
infrastructure management of the State. WAMIS assists in the overall project management
and financial management.
WAMIS application covers the entire lifecycle of a
typical construction project work, right from its inception to its final
completion and includes functionalities such as administrative approvals,
technical sanctions, e-measurement book (eMB), billing, mobile application for
survey/inspection etc. The new system will not only complement the Comprehensive
Financial Management System (CFMS) but also assist in effective management and
monitoring of projects.
All work management-related functionalities, such as
expenditure sanction, first bill, running bill etc. in CFMS will cease to
function from April 1, 2022. All new works should be mandatorily created in
WAMIS from the cut-off date. Functionality related to creation of new works in
CFMS will cease to function from March 1, 2022. This is required for seamless
migration of works related data.
Source: C-DAC
■ In the recent ranking published by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Patna was ranked 53rd and has climbed 12 spots among the country’s 100 smart cities.
The Patna Smart
City Limited (PSCL) received an
overall score of 14.87 out of 100. The state capital got 10 points for project
work ordered, 5.19 for fund utilisation, 3.8 for fund transfer, and 4.22 for
work completed. Due to the city’s success in completing projects, it earned the
state’s second-ranking. Meanwhile, Bhagalpur has been ranked 50th, Muzaffarpur 54th,
and Biharsharif
59th.
■ The proposed Dagmara Hydropower and Solar Energy Integrated
Project in Supaul
district across the river Kosi has been decided to close after nearly 56 years. The Dagmara project was first talked
about in 1965 when Kanwarsen, the then chairman of the Central Water
Commission, emphasized the need for a second barrage at Dagmara for the Kosi
area.
The Central Electricity Authority decided to shut down
due to several factors including the cost of the project and the high cost of
power generation. Through this project, it was being said that a large area of
Kosi would be freed from the ravages of annual floods and electricity would
also be generated.
Earlier on 14 June 2021, an Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) was signed between NHPC
and Bihar State Hydel Power Corporation
(BSHPC) to establish the Dagmara multipurpose hydel power plant (130.1 MW) across river Kosi in Supaul
district with an investment of ₹2,500 crores.
©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
■ Governor Phagu
Chauhan unfurled the tricolour during the 73rd
Republic Day celebration at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. A ceremonial parade of 14
contingents led by Kamya Mishra and a display of tableaux
representing 8
government departments were part of the main function.
It’s worth noting that in the year 2002, Sheila Irani,
the first woman IPS of Bihar, became the first woman
IPS to lead the Republic Day parade and in 2013 the Independence day parade.
■ The indigenous visual art form of Bhagalpur-Manjusha painting was
displayed at Rajpath during the Republic Day celebration in New Delhi.
The 16-metre long painting scroll was painted by
Manjusha guru Manoj
Pandit and his disciple Aman Sagar. It depicted Tilka Manjhi, Anand Mohan
Sahay, Satish Chandra Jha, Mahendra Gope, Deep Narayan Singh as five of the illustrious son of the soils who
made sacrifices during the freedom movement.
©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
■ Two Bihar boys among 29 children have been
conferred the prestigious Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar-2022. Dhiraj Kumar
from West Champaran has got the
award under the ‘bravery’ category
and Pal Sakshi
from Saran has been awarded under
the ‘social service’ category.
Both the awardees got the digital certificates, medals
and the cash prize of ₹1,00,000 each.
In the year 2021, Jyoti Kumari from Darbhanga was awarded Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar-2021 under
the ‘bravery’ category.
■ Bihar Cabinet gave its sanction to the government's
proposal to draw ₹125 crore from the contingency fund in two chunks for the ex-gratia
payment to the next of kin of the persons who died due to the COVID-19 or will
succumb to the infection caused by it during the FY-2021-22.
An amount of ₹105 crore would be spent on making the ex-gratia
payment of ₹4
lakh against each deceased person. The remaining chunk of ₹20 crore
will be used for the payment of ₹50,000 to the next of kin of the deceased.
©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
■ The state election office recently sent a
recommendation to the Election Commission for holding the polls for the 24 council
seats, which have been vacant since July 16, 2021 as the previously elected Members
of Legislative Council (MLCs) completed their six years’ term.
The election could not be held on time because of non-completion of the Electoral College
due to the delay in the panchayat elections. At present, there are 51 MLCs against the total strength of 75 in
the Upper House.
As per the rules, the elected panchayat representatives like mukhiyas, ward members,
panchayat samiti members, district board members, ward members of different
urban local bodies like municipal corporation, nagar parishad and nagar panchayat as well as the elected
members of the cantonment board cast votes in the council’s local authorities’
constituencies.
■ Union minister of state for environment forests and
climate change Ashwini Kumar Choubey said the second Tiger Reserve in Bihar (after Valmiki Tiger Reserve, VTR) would be set up in Kaimur.
Discussions in this regard were held at the 19th
meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) chaired by union
forests minister Bhupendra Yadav in New Delhi.
Till now, tiger spotting in Bihar has been confined to
either VTR in West Champaran or Patna zoo. VTR, the lone tiger reserve in
Bihar, has a good number of 31 tigers as per the last tiger census.
Forests department officials had found evidences of
arrival of the tiger to Kaimur wildlife sanctuary from Sanjay Dhubri-Panna Tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh. A tiger reserve in Kaimur will be good for the promotion of tourism in the Shahabad
region.
©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
■ Bihar’s first Model Floriculture Center will be built at Bhaganbigha
in Nalanda
district. It is expected that the work will be completed in four to five
months.
A hi-tech nursery
will be set up to prepare improved seedlings of flower crop. Flowers will be
cultivated throughout the year. The saplings will be sent to the farmers of all
the districts of the state. Plants will be provided to the farmers on grant
till the doorstep. Farmers will be made aware of various aspects of farming and
methods of making rose water and perfume from the juice of flowers will also be
shared.
Poly houses (SHEDNET) will be set up for floriculture.
Lotus and other aquatic flowers will also be cultivated in a pond. About ₹2.80 crore
will be spent on the scheme.
The Model Floriculture Center will be equipped with
modern facilities on the lines of Center of Excellence for Vegetables (CoE) at Chandi (Nalanda) and Center of Excellence for Fruits at Desiri (Vaishali).
The centre will run on Public-Private Partnership mode. If the Horticulture Department
will take care, then Seal Biotech Company will prepare the plants.
Bhaganbigha is situated on the bank of NH 20, 7 km
away from the district headquarter Biharsharif.
■ Union food processing industry minister Pashupati
Kumar Paras inaugurated the office of Capacity Enhancement Centre (CEC) at Patna for training entrepreneurs
from Bihar and northeastern states interested in food processing activities.
The CEC office at Patna was established under the
guidance of the National Institute of Food
Technology Entrepreneurship Management (NIFTEM) based at Kundli,
Sonepat.
Paras also launched the ‘Makhana King’ under One District One
Product (ODOP) programme, which is part of the PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing
Enterprises (PMFMFPE).
©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
■ Bihar ranked 6th
with 4 Gold
and total 13 winners in the India Skills 2021 National Competition, the
country’s biggest skill competition, organised by the National Skill
Development Corporation (NSDC) in New Delhi.
Participants from 26 states/ union territories
displayed their talent in 54 skills. Odisha topped the chart with 51 winners. 270
winners of India Skills 2021 National Competition felicitated with 61 gold, 77
silver, 53 bronze and 79 medallions of excellence.
The winners of India Skills 2021 Nationals will get a
chance to represent the country at World Skills International Competition to be
held in Shanghai, China in October
2022.
■ According to data released by the Reserve Bank of India in its Handbook of Statistics of Indian states, Bihar has a 46% deficit of super specialists in government healthcare systems. In Bihar against the required 228 (Surgeons, Obstetrician-Gynaecologists, Physicians & Paediatricians) posts there are only 104 posts filled.
Among all states, only Mizoram fares worse with a 100% shortfall against the requirement of 36 super-specialists.
©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
■ Social scientist and political economist Dr Shaibal Gupta
from Bihar has been conferred with the Padma Shri award (2022) posthumously for his
contribution in the field of literature and education.
He passed away on January 28 last year at the age of
67 following a prolonged illness. Besides being a renowned social scientist, he
was the founder and member secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute
(ADRI)
at Patna.
ADRI was founded in 1991 with the goal of bringing
scholars from diverse ideologies together to work for the state’s development.
Soon it will be transformed into a world-class university.
©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
■ Acharya Chandnaji of Bihar has been conferred with the Padma Shri award (2022) for social work.
Acharya Chandanaji, 84, was born in Maharashtra
but spent a major part of her life in Bihar doing social work. Acharya
Chandanaji, fondly called ‘Tai Maharaj’, had founded Veerayatan, a religious organisation
based on the principles of Jainism, at Rajgir in 1973.
Veerayatan stands on the three pillars of Seva (service to humanity), Shiksha (education for all), and Sadhana (self-development) to inspire
and empower lives. The organization, founded on the occasion of Lord Mahavira’s
2500th Nirvana Mahotsava, operates hospitals, schools, colleges, and
vocational training programs for the underprivileged throughout India.
She also became the first Jain woman to receive the
title of ‘Acharya’ in 1987.
■ Under the government-run Mahadalit, Dalit and Minority
and Extremely Backward Class Akshar Anchal Yojana, the programme ‘Koi bacha piche
nahi, mata bhi chute nahi’ will now be implemented in the whole of Bihar.
Presently this program is going on in Nalanda,
Vaishali, Arwal, Jehanabad, Katihar, Kishanganj, Araria, Purnia and Supaul
districts.
Seeing the positive results of the programme, Education
Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary directed the Directorate of Public Education to
enter into an agreement with Pratham to run this program in the remaining 29
districts as well.
©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
■ Bihar
government has appointed former judge of Patna High Court, Justice Sanjay
Kumar, as the Chairman of
State Commission
for Backward Classes, from 5 January 2022, for a period of three years.
■ Om Prakash Gujela, resident of Parsbigha in Jehanabad
has been awarded the Young Scientist Award -2021 by VD Good Professional Association, a
prestigious institute working in the field of research. Along with Om Prakash
Gujela, his wife Vidhatri Gujela has also been honoured with the Young Scientist
Award at the same ceremony.
Om Prakash is working as an assistant professor in the
Department of Electrical and Electronics at Bakhtiyarpur Engineering College.
In the past too, he has received the Best Student Paper Award by the 3M Nano
International Conference in Shanghai, China.
■ Dr Abhishek Raj from Nawada has received the National Choice
Award as an emerging young writer. He has been selected as one of
India's 100 emerging writers and academics jointly under the aegis of The
Tribune Publishing Group and Radio City.
■ Bihar Governor Fagu Chauhan has approved the Bihar Municipality (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022 on 13 January 2022, facilitating direct election of heads of Urban Local Bodies (mayors) and their deputies. The state cabinet had approved the proposal in this regard on December 29.
This means mayor and deputy mayor in municipal
corporations, chief councillors and deputy chief councillors in city councils
and chairman and deputy chairman of in nagar panchayats will now be elected by voters of the respective urban bodies.
It’s a key shift from the prevalent practice of indirect elections in which only
elected representatives in these bodies form the electorate. With the issuance
of the Gazette Notification of the Bihar Municipal (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022,
the old system of election of Mayor-Deputy Mayor or President-Vice President in
municipal bodies has ended. Moreover, there was a system to remove them by the
majority of the ward councillors, but now in the event of death, resignation or
dismissal of the person sitting on these posts, only the elected person from
among the public will take these posts for the remaining period. Ward
councillors will not be able to remove them from office on the basis of majority
by bringing a no-confidence motion against the Mayor-Deputy Mayor or the
President-Vice President.
The state government will introduce the Bihar
Municipal (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022 as the Bihar Municipal (Amendment) Bill,
which will be called the Bihar Municipal (Amendment) Act, 2022 after it is
passed, in the next session of the Assembly. Amendments have been made in Section 23
and Section 25
of the Bihar
Municipal Act, 2007.
Elections for as many as 263 ULBs, which include 19
municipal corporations, 89 nagar parishads and 155 nagar panchayats, are
scheduled to be held in May-June this year.
©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
■ Bihar cabinet sanctioned the constitution of a new Urban Local
Body at Asarganj in Munger district. Also, the cabinet approved the area expansion
of the Muzaffarpur
Municipal Corporation, besides the two Nagar Panchayats of Biraul and
Ghanshyampur
in Darbhanga
district.
■ Bihar government has decided to provide exemption in motor
vehicle tax on the purchase of new vehicles instead of declaring old
vehicles as junk.
Under this, 25 per cent tax exemption will be given on the
purchase of private
vehicles and 15 per cent on the purchase of commercial vehicles.
This is in line with the vehicle scrapping policy that
was announced by the Central Government in March 2021, under which State governments have
been advised to provide road-tax exemption
of up to 25 per cent for private vehicles and 15 per cent for commercial vehicles
to provide incentives to owners of old vehicles to scrap old and unserviceable vehicles.
©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
■ In Bihar, public contributions to the Chief Minister’s
Relief Fund (CMRF) increased almost 52 times in the last 15
years.
A sum of around ₹29 crore was received in the CMRF in
the Financial Year 2006-07, which now has increased to ₹1,502 crore in FY 2021-22.
Of total ₹1,502 crore available in the CMRF, ₹ 859
crore were spent, and currently ₹665 crores are available in the fund.
From the CMRF a total of ₹148.16 crore has been released at a
rate of ₹4 lakh each, to the net kin of each of 3708 deceased person, who died
of COVID-19 in the state.
Moreover, during the COVID lockdown an amount of ₹1000
each was transferred in the bank accounts of total 21 lakh people of Bihar
origins.
About Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF)
Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) was established in
the year 1971
for heping people in distress. The fund is recognized as a Trust and its income is exempted for
return purposes under sections 12A and 139 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.The CMRF
accepts only voluntary
donations by individuals and institutions. Contributions to the CMRF have been
notified for 100% deduction from taxable income under Section 80(G) of the
Income Tax Act. The corpus of the fund is invested with banks in fixed
deposits. Disbursements are made with the approval of the Chief
Minister. The Chief Minister is the Chairman of CMRF and is assisted by
Officers/Staff on honorary basis.
The resources of the CMRF are utilized primarily to
render immediate relief to families of those killed in natural calamities like
floods, cyclones and earthquakes, etc. and to the victims of the major accidents
and riots. Assistance from the CMRF is also rendered, to partially meet the
expenses for medical treatment like heart surgeries, kidney transplantation and
cancer treatment.
©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
■ Bihar ranks third in the country in terms of completion of Pradhan Mantri Awas
Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G). The national average for the completion of
this scheme in the country is about 78 per cent, while that of Bihar is about 86 per cent.
Principal Secretary, Arvind Kumar Chaudhary, (Rural Development Department, Bihar) said,
so far 26,94,118 houses have been sanctioned under PMAY-G. While under Mukhyamantri Gramin
Awas Yojana (MMGAY), so far 13,199 houses have been sanctioned
and out of which 8,753 have been completed.
■ CM Nitish Kumar while chairing a meeting to review
the progress of PMAY-G and MMGAY, said that the beneficiaries whose houses have
been approved under PMAY-G and do not have their own land, would be provided
assistance of ₹60,000
under the Mukhya
Mantri Vaas-Sthal Kray Sahayata Yojana (Chief Minister Homestead Land
Purchase Assistance Scheme).
CM also said, the families which have been rendered
homeless because of the anti-encroachment drive on the public lands like Aahar,
pynes and ponds under the Jal-Jeevan-Haryali Abhiyan, would also be provided
benefits of the either of the two housing schemes or the Mukhya Mantri
Vaas-Sthal Kray Sahayata Yojana.
*** ©https://bpscexampreparation.blogspot.com/
