THE ECHO OF INDIA• SILIGURI
2 Downtown/State
Saturday April 11, 2015
Centre working to rebuild ancient Vikramshila Varsity
PATNA, APRIL 10 /--/
The Centre is mulling to rebuild
the
ancient
Vikramashila University in
Bihar to revive its historical importance on the lines
of Nalanda University, Union minister of state for human resource development
(HRD) Upendra Kushwaha
said today.
"Serious discussion is
going on in the HRD ministry to revive the ancient
Vikramshila University in
Bihar's Bhagalpur district,"
Kushw aha
told
news
agency PTI. He said the effort was aimed to bring
back ancient glory of the
university, which had
fetched good image of the
country as seat of learning
in the ancient times. The
MoS, HRD, said inspiration
to the project came from
construction of Nalanda International University on
the lines of ruin of that ancient university near it.
Vikramshila University
was one of the two most important centres of Bud-
dhist learning in India during the Pala empire,along
with Nalanda University.
Vikramashila University was established by
King Dharmapala during
the eighth century period
in response to a supposed
decline in the quality of
scholarship at Nalanda.
Bhaktiyar Khilji had de-
Excise officials attacked in Malda
while recovering spurious liquor
EOI CORRESPONDENT
MALDA, APR 10/-/ Officials of state excise department were assaulted and
their vehicle was ransacked on Thursday night
in a bid to seize large quantities of spurious liquor
from an unauthorized pub
at Gobindapur village of
Pandua gram panchayat in
Gazole Police station,
nearly 20 km from here
where a folk fair was being
organized.
As many as 16 state excise
officials
were
gheraoed by aggrieved people and two of them were
abducted and later rescued
by police. After the excise
officials lodged a written
complaint with Gazole police station, the folk-fair
committee members fled
from the locality.
Police sources informed that acting on a tip
off the officials and employees of state excise department raided an illegal
pub opened at the fair
ground. Two persons were
detained and 60 bottles of
fake foreign and country
liquor were seized by them.
Soon they were mobbed
by the locals and the fair organizers who gheraoed the
excise
officials
and
dragged them to the village
demanding the release of
the two persons arrested.
‘nLocate’, search
app for Nepal
KATHMANDU, APR 10/-/ Nepal has launched an app
with the name of ‘nLocate’ which it seems is making it’s way
on to the mobile devices of every person living in the city.
nLocate is a free search app that helps people locate any
nearby places in the region from parking spots, cinema
halls, restaurants, and hospitals to ATM’s. The developers
of the app aims to provide a hassle free life to the citizens
of the city and outsiders who run from pole to post in search
of a specific address.
Some of the characteristic features of the app are that
it directly allows surfers to see which doctors are available
at what hospitals, even acronyms such as KMC, TU, can be
used for searching, most recent searches are automatically
used for offline use, and most importantly, one can even add
their business platforms in the search app and also suggest
places they know to add to the database. The app can be
downloaded from Google Play and the AppStore for free.
According to sources, nLocate will soon be integrated
into a new version of Google Local to build a superior location aware product that gives to users what they are looking for in the most convenient way. (HS)
Man, woman found
hanging at Gayerkata TG
JALPAIGURI, APR 10/-/ Two unidentified bodies of a
man and a woman were found hanging on Friday morning
at Gayerkata tea garden under Banarhat police station in
Dooars. Police have retrieved the bodies and sent for post
mortem. Local sources said some of the tea workers of the
garden spotted the bodies hanging inside the weighing room
at the section no- 22 under the Hindupara division of the
garden early this morning. They immediately called the
other co-workers and soon after Banarhat police was informed. Banarhat police station inspector in charge
Debashis Ghosh said, “The bodies could not be identified.
They are possibly outsiders. We have talked to the locals but
they denied to have seen them before. We have started investigation to know their whereabouts and the reason behind their death.” (HS)
CBI raids chit fund
company in Cooch Behar
COOCH BEHAR, APR 10/-/ CBI officials on Friday conducted several raids against ‘Royal International’ a chit
fund company in Cooch Behar. A CBI team raided the resident of Manik Saha, a top of ficial of the company, at
Subhashpally area at Cooch Behar. The sleuths interrogated
the family members of Saha and also inspected his office.
According to a CBI official, many vital documents and evidences were seized from the company’s office during the
raid. The chit fund company which headquartered in
Cooch Bihar had spread its net in the whole state and a few
metropolitans of the country. It is accused of defrauding
about Rs 500 crores from investors across the state. (HS)
40-yr old run over by train
SILIGURI, APR 10/-/ A 40 yr old man was run over and
killed by a train on Friday at the Mahabirsthan rail-gate
area, said police. The deceased identified as Rajesh Hella
(40), resident of Tikiapara and a sweeper by profession was
hit when the Capital Express was moving down towards the
NJP platform. The body has been sent to North Bengal
Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) for post mortem.
The train was delayed for over two hours. (HS)
The sports utility vehicle
(SUV) of the excise department was badly rancked
too.
As one of the officials
managed to contact police
through his mobile phone,
a large contingent of police reached the spot to rescue the excise officials. But
the two arrested persons
were snatched away by the
villagers. They even took
away the seized bottles of
liquor.
Assistant superintendent of district excise department
Eklabya
Chakraborty said, “When
we were about to return
with two accused of illegally selling liquor and
large number of bottles of
counterfeit liquor, we were
attacked by the some organizers of the fair committee and the locals.
Four of our officials
and 12 employees of the department were manhandled. Our vehicle was ransacked. Later, police recovered us. We have lodg ed a
written police complaint.”
SP Prasun Banerjee
said: “Police have been
raiding the fair ground and
neighbouring villages after
receiving the complaint
from the state excuise officials . The accused have
scampered away. Raid will
continue to arrest the accused.”
Housewife
commits
suicide
MALDA,
APR 10/-/
Housewife
Shefali
Mandal(23) from Thakurpur
village in Kaliachak police
station allegedly committed
suicide after giving birth to
two daughters in a row. Her
husband Manoj Mandal, a
migrant labourer was out of
station at the time of incident. Sabitri Mandal,
mother-in-law of the deceased housewife said that
Shefali was gripped by depression after she delivered
a baby girl four days back
and hanged herself last
night. Police recovered the
body today and sent for post
mortem. (EOIC)
Trinamool’s
NERPAP to end on April 12 poll flex torn
GANGTOK, APR 10/-/ The National Electoral Rolls Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP), started
by election commission on March 3 to make corrections and
add other necessary details into the electoral roll, will complete on April 12. The EC, through the programme, is also
incorporating Aadhar card number and mobile phone
number in the electoral roll. In order to make sure these
numbers are added in the electoral roll, the EC has directed
each and every state in the country to hold special camp on
April 12 in every Gram Sabha Wards under Gram
Panchayat areas and corporation wards under municipality areas falling under a polling station.
It is mandatory for the voters to visit these camps and
make sure they provide the necessary details so that it can
be updated in the new electoral roll. The voters can also remove names of people who have passed away, correct mistakes and transfer name from the list of constituency to the
other during the camp. For the benefit of the people, a booth
level electoral official will be present at each centre where
the camp will be held.(HS)
MALDA, APR10/-/ Excitement gripped Krishnapally
area in English Bazaar police station after a flex-board
of Trinamool Congress was
found tor n on F riday.
Trinamool candidate from
ward 29 of English Bazaar
municipality Sumita Sarkar
in a written complaint to police alleged that the flex was
ripped by CPM backed
goons. CPM candidate
Jhumjhum Sinha however
denied the allegation. Inspector in charge of English
Bazaar police station Dilip
Karmakar said that a probe
into the matter was
underway after Trinamul
candidate lodged a complaint. (EOIC)
Chamling inaugurates Plant
Conservatory Area in Bulbulay APCTA to
GANGTOK, APR 10/-/ Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan
Chamling on Friday inaugurated the Plant Conservatory
Area in Bulbulay area of Gangtok. The facility has been
developed by Department of Forest Environment and Wildlife Management under Sikkim Biodiversity Conservation
and Forest Management Project in association with Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The main aim of the Plant Conservatory Area is to Conservatory strengthen biodiversity conservation activities
and forest management capacity, and to improve livelihood
for the local people who are dependent on forests by promoting sustainable biodiversity conservation, afforestation
and income generation activities including eco-tourism for
the community development, thereby contributing environment conservation and harmonized socio-economic development of Sikkim.
The Chief Minister also planted a special species of
Rhododendron in the area to mark the event. He also
launched an Anroid Customized Mobile App as part of the
government’s efforts to modernize vigilance in forest
check-posts. The App will be used in 20 forest check-posts
across the state. The main aim of the mobile application is
to ensure proper connectivity between forest officials, better vigilance of forests and proper management of accounts among others. The programme was also attended by
ministers, East District Panchayat President, Secretaries,
departmental heads and other officials. (HS)
52yr old dies in bike-truck collision
ALIPURDUAR, APR 10/ -/ A 52yr old motor cycle rider
was killed on the spot in a collision between his two-wheeler
and a lorry carrying pebbles on Mission Road near Turturi
area under the Shamuktala police station on Friday morning. According to police, the deceased Bura Uraw, a PSI
worker, was riding on a bike, when the lorry coming from
Mainabi hit him straightaway killing him on spot at around
11am. A case has been registered in this connection at the
Shamuktala police station and the truck has been taken into
custody. The driver of the lorry is absconding, while efforts
are on to nab him, said a police source.After the incident,
the agitated locals gheraoed the area till Maina Road, which
was later removed by the police. (HS)
boycott coming
exams, stage dharna
ITANAGAR, APRIL 10 /-/ Concerned over physical
assaults on college teachers,
the Arunachal Pradesh College Teachers Association
(APCTA) today decided to
boycott the forthcoming examinations and stage
dharna in the college campus. The decision was taken
in the backdrop of the April
7 assault case at Dera
Natung Government College here and another incident at J N College, Pasighat
in East Siang district yesterday, the APCTA said. Associate professor Dr K K Rai was
physically assaulted allegedly by one Ngurang Tati, a
first year student of the college during examination
when he was prevented to
use unfair means, while Dr
Punia Tao of J N College
Pasighat was assaulted by a
student on T hursday.
"Enough is enough. Teachers cannot be treated as a
punching bag by the students", APCTA president Dr
Jommi Loyi said in a press
conference here.
Dr Loyi alleged that despite several pleas, the state
government failed to provide security to the teaching community who were
serving the state with utmost dedication. "Assault on
teachers is not a new trend
in the state.
stroyed the university in
the
12th
Century.
Vikramashila is located at
about 45 km east of
Bhagalpur and about 12 km
north-east of Kahalgaon. A
team of researchers from
Patna University had conducted excavation at the
ancient Vikramshila University site from 1960 to
1969. Another excavation
was conducted in about 100
acres land of the ruin of
Vikramshila University by
Archaeological Survey of
India under V S Ver ma
from 1972-82. A large
number of Buddhist and
Hindu stupas besides a library with air-condition
like facility was found dur-
ing the excavation.
Kushwaha, who is general secretary of the
Rashtriya Lok Samata
Party, an ally of the BJP-led
NDA, slammed the Nitish
Kumar government for not
initiating any step to bring
back the ancient glory of
Vikramshila Univer sity.
(PTI)
13 killed, 30 hurt in
Burdwan bus mishap
CM announces Rs 2 lakh
compensation for victims' keen
BURDWAN, APRIL 10 /-/ Thirteen people were
killed and at least 30 passengers injured when a bus
overturned on the BurdwanKatwa road, near here today. T he mishap occurred
when the bus driver, while
trying to overtake two other
buses, lost control of the vehicle, at Dewandighi area,
about two km from Burdwan
town, police said. The bus
was carrying about 70 passengers who were travelling
to Mayapur in Nadia district, police said, adding, the
other two buses also carried
people
of
the
same
Khudkuri village. Upon
hearing cries for help, locals
rushed to the area and tried
to rescue the trapped passengers by pulling the overturned bus with the help of
tractors. The villagers and
the police rushed the injured to Burdwan Medical
College and Hospital.
While 10 passengers
were declared 'brought
dead' at the hospital, three
passengers later succumbed
to injuries, according to a
bulletin issued by the staterun hospital. Among the
victims were two children,
it said. The condition of
three of the injured patients
was very serious, the bulletin said. Chief minister
Mamata Banerjee has directed district magistrate to
pay Rs two lakh as compensation to the next of the kin
of the victims, state minister Swapan Debnath told reporters at the hospital. The
chief minister also announced that the state government will bear the cost
of treatment of the injured
and the cremation of the
victims, the minister said.
The driver is absconding after the accident, police official said. (PTI)