Jharkhand prisoners start meditation course

October 12th, 2009 RANCHI/PATNA - Maoists blew up a stretch of a railway track and set ablaze three trucks in Jharkhand as they began a two-day shutdown in Bihar and Jharkhand in protest against the Centre's alleged effort to put down the CPI (Maoists) movement by force. According to sources, the incident took place at around 2:30 a.m.

September 22nd, 2009 RANCHI - Seven prisoners, including a Maoist commander, escaped from a court lockup from Jharkhand's Khuti district Tuesday evening, police said. Around 20 prisoners were brought to the court premises for hearing in different cases and seven broke the window panes of the lockup and managed to escape, taking advantage of the heavy rainfall in the district.

August 14th, 2009 RANCHI - It has been raining in Jharkhand in the last 36 hours, but that is unlikely to end the drought situation, an official of the Met Department said here Friday. The rainfall occurred when a central team was visiting Jharkhand to assess the drought situation in the state.

August 3rd, 2009 RAIPUR - From Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh downwards, most of the state cabinet is camping in Mt Abu in Rajasthan to attend meditation classes. A Congress legislator who couldn't join the trip wryly commented that "we hope they will come back with new ideas on how to handle insurgents".

August 2nd, 2009 RANCHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party demanded a special package from the central government Sunday, a day after Jharkhand was declared drought-hit. All districts of Jharkhand have been declared as drought-affected areas.

July 26th, 2009 RANCHI - Kateekal Sankaranarayanan was sworn in as governor of Jharkhand at a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan here Sunday. Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra administered the oath of office and secrecy at a ceremony attended by leaders of political parties and other dignitaries.

July 19th, 2009 RANCHI - Officials of the Gumla District Jail in Jharkhand are imparting various handicraft skills to women inmates in a bid to make them self-reliant. Under a programme to empower the women, the Jail authorities have initiated this training with assured hopes that the skills learnt would prove beneficial for these women once they are released after completing their terms behind the bars.

July 7th, 2009 RANCHI - Jharkhand Tuesday declared four of its 24 districts as drought hit, an official said. The four districts which have been declared as drought hit are Palamau, Chatra, Latehar and Garhwa.

June 5th, 2009 PATNA - The Bihar government will launch a special scheme to make 40,000 prisoners in different jails across the state literate, officials said Friday. "A six month course for illiterate prisoners, aged between 15 to 50, would be launched on August 9 this year to make them literate," official sources in the state human resource department said.

March 21st, 2009 RANCHI - The Congress said Saturday that its seat sharing pact for the Lok Sabha election was on with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), brushing aside JMM leader Durga Soren's statement to the contrary. Kishav Rao, the Congress leader in charge of Jharkhand, told IANS from New Delhi: 'The JMM is still part of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) and the seat sharing issue has been finalised with (JMM chief) Shibu Soren.' Durga Soren, the eldest son of Shibu Soren, has claimed that the JMM would field candidates in all the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand.

March 20th, 2009 RANCHI - Four prisoners undergoing treatment at a hospital here escaped Friday by breaking the window panes of the room where they were kept, the police said. The four prisoners, two each from Ranchi and Simdega were admitted in the jail ward of Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS), Ranchi.

March 16th, 2009 RANCHI - Traders here Monday closed their shops till noon to protest the killing of three businessmen in Jharkhand in one month. Black flags were put atop shops as hundreds of businessmen and traders took out a protest march to the governor's house.

March 3rd, 2009 RANCHI - Jharkhand Monday sanctioned a Rs.1.15-billion (Rs.115 crore) investment for expansion of the Birsa Munda airport here, said an official. The decision was taken at a meeting of the advisory committee of the Jharkhand governor, said P.K.

February 26th, 2009 RANCHI - Prisons in Jharkhand will soon have video conferencing facilities to enable relatives of prisoners to talk to jail inmates from even remote areas. 'As per plan, the relatives of the prisoners would not need to travel from villages to jails to meet the prisoners.

February 7th, 2009 RANCHI - At least seven undertrial prisoners were injured in a clash between two criminal groups in Dhanbad jail Sunday, police said. Prisoners Sanjay Mahto and Diwakar Mahto, who were collecting weekly extortion of Rs.500 to Rs.1,000 from each prisoner, thrashed three other prisoners which led to the clash.