Human rights violation cases very high in Bihar jails

June 16th, 2009 SAHARSA - A village in Bihar, ravaged by the 2008 devastating floods, has been restored with the help of Haryana. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda, accompanied by his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, inaugurated the Sahpurmusahari village in Saharsa district on Monday.

May 20th, 2009 WELLINGTON - Fiji's military regime, which invoked emergency powers last month, has barred the country's Human Rights Commission from investigating complaints, news reports from the capital Suva said Wednesday. President Ratu Josefa Iloilo - who abolished the constitution April 10 and introduced emergency powers, including media censorship and bans on political meetings - introduced the Human Rights Commission Decree 2009, which prohibits the body from investigating any complaints about the 11 decrees he has issued under the emergency powers.

May 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Call it a paradox of democracy - undertrials lodged in Indian jails can contest elections but cannot vote. Nearly 250,000 undertrials lodged in various jails in the country will not be able to cast their votes this Lok Sabha elections as the law denies them the right to vote.

April 27th, 2009 RANCHI - Twenty-six convicts of a multi-million fodder scam case were Monday awarded three to six years of rigorous imprisonment by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Jharkhand. Judge A.H. Ansari also slapped fine ranging from Rs.1 lakh to Rs .ten lakh on the 26 convicts, who were held guilty by the court last Friday.

April 13th, 2009 BEIJING - China published Monday its first-ever action plan on human rights, pledging to further protect and improve the country's human rights conditions. The National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010), issued by the State Council, or Cabinet, highlighted various human rights goals that would be implemented in less than two years.

April 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US Tuesday said it will join the UN Human Rights Council, a body that was derided by former president George W. Bush as politicized and ineffective.

March 26th, 2009 PATNA - Nearly 500 cases of violation of the model code of conduct have already been reported in Bihar in the run up to the April-May general elections, officials said Thursday. Kumar Anshumali, additional chief electoral officer, said till Wednesday 459 cases of violation had been reported while some more came in Thursday morning.

March 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Election Commission on Monday issued notices to Bihar Director General of Police D. N. Gautam and Addition Director General of Police Neelmani following violation of the Model Code of the conduct as they had called on Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar at his official residence on the day of Holi.

March 1st, 2009 PATNA - Five new cases of polio have been detected in Bihar in the first two months of this year despite immunisation drive, an official in the state health department said Saturday. This is three less than in Uttar Pradesh, which has had the highest incidence of the infection during 2008, a Unicef official said.

March 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Delhi High Court has asked the central government what steps it was taking to secure the release of Indian prisoners who have been languishing in Pakistani jails for over 25 years. The court issued notice last week on the release of 13 such prisoners including that of Sarabjit Singh who is awaiting death sentence in a Pakistani jail for alleged involvement in the 1990 serial bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan.

February 26th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - The Punjab rights commission Wednesday asked the state police to submit a detailed investigation report about the Chand Mohammed-Fiza saga before March 31. A bench of justices R.S.

February 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Around 300 people, including law students, professionals and the family members of Anand Jon, held a candlelight march here to demand fair trial and fresh probe into the charges of rape and sexual harassment for which the US-based Indian designer has been imprisoned. 'Most of the plaintiffs have changed their statements in court more than once and the court has not received any concrete evidence against Anand Jon,' said Shashi Ebraham, his mother, at the protest rally at Jantar Mantar Tuesday.

February 4th, 2009 PANAJI - A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Thursday caused a flutter in the assembly when he used the word 'Bihar' as a simile to describe a 'state of lawlessness'. BJP legislator from Saligao Dilip Parulekar, who was speaking during a calling attention motion, said that Goa seemed to be going the 'Bihar way'.

February 2nd, 2009 RAIPUR - A total of 11,361 prisoners are at present in Chhattisgarh's 27 jails that have a total capacity to hold 5,219, state Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar told the state legislature Tuesday. In a written reply, the minister said the state has been housing 11,361 inmates at 27 jails - five central jails, 10 district jails and 12 sub-jails, of which two sub-jails based at Maoist strongholds Sukma and Narayanpur in Bastar region are at present closed temporarily.

January 17th, 2009 GHAZIABAD - A man who was wanted by the Bihar police for cases of murder and extortion was shot dead in a gunbattle with the police near here early Sunday, officials said. 'Three men near Nizampur locality on National Highway 24, did not stop their car when signalled by the police at about 3 a.m.,' Superintendent of Police (Rural) Jagdish Sharma said.