logo
Waste-to-wonder park to showcase state's heritage on JP Ganga Path

Waste-to-wonder park to showcase state's heritage on JP Ganga Path

Time of India6 days ago
1
2
3
4
5
6
Patna: The JP Ganga Path, commonly known as Patna's marine drive, will soon offer visitors a glimpse of Bihar's culture and its famous structures at a soon to be built waste-to-wonder park.
CM Nitish Kumar will lay the foundation stone of the project, christened 'Dr Rajendra Prasad-Bihar Gaurav Park', on JP Ganga Path near Bans Ghat on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, he inspected of the site of the park near the 'samadhi' of Rajendra Prasad, India's first President.
Replicas of famous monuments of the state, made from scraps, will be displayed along the stretch, providing insight into the rich heritage of Bihar.
The initiative, taken by urban development and housing department (UDHD), aims to promote awareness about the state's historical sites, while encouraging sustainable practices through the use of scrap materials like tyres, bangles, broken pipes, electronic waste and bottles among others, in line with the CM's waste-to-wonder vision.
Spanning over 10 acres of land, the park will promote both tourism and environment by utilising funds to the tune of Rs 15 crore.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Learn More - How Donating Plasma May Boost Your Income
SpellRock
Undo
Road construction minister Nitin Nabin said the goal is to develop the Dr Rajendra Prasad-Bihar Gaurav Park in Patna as a permanent and culturally vibrant space. "The park will creatively display Bihar's iconic sites, great personalities, diverse wildlife and traditional handicrafts, paying tribute to the state's glorious past and artistic heritage," said the BJP MLA from Bankipur.
Prototype models of famous monuments of Bihar, including World Peace Pagoda (Vishwa Shanti Stupa, Rajgir), Punaura Dham (Sitamarhi), Nalanda University (ruins), Vikramshila University (Bhagalpur), Barabar Caves (Jehanabad), Vishnupad Temple (Gaya), Sher Shah Suri Tomb (Sasaram), Mundeshwari Temple (Bhabua) and Ashoka Pillar (Vaishali) among others, will be featured.
The park and a food court will be adorned with different forms of Bihar's arts, such as Madhubani painting, Manjusa, Tikuli and Sujni arts.
Besides, statues of personalities like Aryabhatts, 'samrat' Ashoka, Chanakya, Jayaprakash Narayan and Dashrath Manjhi will be put up at the park. Gaur and tiger statues will also be placed. The park will have a kids' play zone area as well.
Nabin said it will be a beautiful, green space, offering recreational activities for people of all ages. "The park will also promote 'Clean India Mission' and be a significant step towards 'Waste to Wealth' initiative. Patna Municipal Corporation will maintain the park and work on a revenue model," the minister said.
The officials of the UDHD said that all the preparations were made for the foundation stone-laying ceremony, after which the construction work will begin.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Seven reasons why Rahul Gandhi's voter fraud claim must be taken with a pinch of salt
Seven reasons why Rahul Gandhi's voter fraud claim must be taken with a pinch of salt

The Print

time4 minutes ago

  • The Print

Seven reasons why Rahul Gandhi's voter fraud claim must be taken with a pinch of salt

While it is fair for Gandhi to point out what may be problematic with one Lok Sabha result, where the BJP won with a margin of 32,707 votes, it is quite unreasonable to allege that the BJP and the ECI were in cahoots. The BJP candidate, PC Mohan, won the seat with a 2.5 per cent margin in a constituency where over 13 lakh votes were cast in the Lok Sabha elections. While the Election Commission of India (ECI) has demanded a signed oath saying all the details provided by him were true, it would do well to actually check out the claims, regardless of the Gandhi scion's arrogant claim that his statement in public constitutes an oath. At the very least, this would show that ECI is not afraid of scrutiny and correcting mistakes—which are sure to exist. Or else, why initiate a SIR in Bihar? An SIR is the only realistic way of validating genuine voters and chucking out the rest. If there can be over one lakh alleged 'fake' voters in just one assembly constituency, potentially deleting 65 lakh voters from the Bihar list hardly sounds unreasonable. Rahul Gandhi's 'atom bomb' provides us with the best justification for a nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls—a process that the Congress and most opposition parties have opposed in Bihar. Speaking in Bengaluru on Thursday, 7 August, he provided what he claimed was evidence proving the existence of over one lakh fake voters in Mahadevapura in Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency. Re-examining fake voters claim Gandhi's broader claim, that the Bengaluru Central result was tantamount to vote-stealing, must be taken with a pinch of salt. He picked the one constituency with a significant number of Muslim voters, and polarisation and counter-polarisation are normal here. He must re-examine his premises for several reasons. First, it is facile to assume that all the 1,00,250 'fake voters' had gone to the BJP. No one can prove that. The caveat is that not all may be fakes, and not all votes may have been cast either. Second, according to Gandhi's analysis, 11,965 'fake voters' were duplicates with names in other states, 40,009 had invalid addresses, 10,452 were bulk voters registered at a single address, 33,692 first-time voters had misused form 6 (used to register first-time voters or make corrections), and 4,132 voter cards did not have valid photos. In Bihar, out of the proposed deletions, 22 lakh were reported deceased, 35 lakh were migrants who may have shifted permanently out of Bihar, and another 7 lakh had their names in multiple state voter lists (ie, the equivalent of Rahul Gandhi's 'duplicate' voters). The Bihar list of likely exclusions hardly sounds unreasonable, but Gandhi won't acknowledge that. Third, the claim that the BJP won the Bengaluru Central seat only because of huge gains in the Mahadevapura (one of eight assembly segments in the Lok Sabha seat, where the BJP won four and the Congress the other four) is questionable. Mahadevapura, despite having many minority voters, has large numbers of migrants and middle-class voters from other states working in the IT services sector. The voter list must indeed be investigated, but it is worth pointing out two realities: these voters usually tend to vote BJP, and Mahadevapura is a BJP stronghold. And if a sharp swing toward one party in one constituency is evidence of possible fraud, then what does one make of the Dhule Lok Sabha result in Maharashtra? In 2024, the BJP led significantly in five assembly constituencies there, but lost badly in the Muslim-dominated Malegaon Central, where the Congress' lead of a massive 1.9 lakh votes was enough to give it a marginal victory despite losing five other assembly segments. Polarisation can lead to such skews. Fourth, while the Congress is at liberty to make its point using the best means at its disposal, any neutral observer cannot ignore this: it chose the one constituency with a large Muslim voter base (around 3.5 lakh), and fielded a Muslim candidate (Rizwan Arshad) to harvest a bulk of minority vote. In the last three elections, the Congress candidate here has always been Muslim, and each time a counter-consolidation helped PC Mohan win, though with declining margins between 2014, 2019, and 2024. Counter-consolidation in Mahadevapura can easily explain Mohan's victory, even assuming there were many fake votes. Given a significant number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, the possibility that some of them were also 'fake' voters in the constituency is difficult to dismiss. Fifth, as I have noted in an earlier article, voter lists—both additions and deletions—are supervised by temporary staff on loan from state governments. Therefore, there's a good chance that lists can be partially manipulated. Party workers (not just BJP, but also Congress) also tend to work closely with the ECI to get their bloc of voters registered. This may skew the lists in one direction or the other. In 2018, a Congress MLA was linked to the discovery of 9,896 voter ID cards in an apartment in Bengaluru's Jalahalli. Both BJP and Congress traded accusations against each other for being responsible for this. Sixth, voter lists can never be totally accurate, given the large number of people moving to the richer southern states for jobs and livelihoods (not to speak of the porous border states of Bihar and West Bengal). Many migrant voters may have trouble showing address proof, which may explain why some addresses may have multiple (even 80) voters registered there. These days, Aadhaar is required in many situations, and for migrants, it makes sense to use a fixed, available address to have their Aadhaar cards delivered. Additionally, when people move from city to city, they may change their voter IDs, but the old IDs may not be deleted. Hence, the possibility of multiple voter IDs remaining on the ECI's books. Seventh, the state and national voter rolls are often left unreconciled, which makes regular deletions or additions difficult to ensure. Also read: Opposition MPs to march from Parliament to ECI office despite no police nod Not malice but incompetence We can conclude the following from Rahul Gandhi's 'atom bomb'. One, there is a problem with voter lists, and fake voters can get onto those lists, but there is no reason to assume that it happened only in favour of one party in one constituency and one state. We should not attribute to malice or malign intent what can easily be explained by the Election Commission's lack of resources and local-level failures or even incompetence. Two, the Election Commission cannot endlessly field accusations about aiding election fraud, whether it is about EVMs or fake voters, without damaging its own credibility. Maybe, just maybe, there can be some kind of parliamentary scrutiny of its actions, scrutiny that does not impinge on its independence. A bipartisan law that ensures the Commission's independence and helps it carry out its duties impartially is the need of the hour. Three, the Election Commission probably needs a larger permanent staff to ensure that it is not solely dependent on state-level part-time officials who may have political leanings. Recently, when the Election Commission ordered the West Bengal Chief Secretary to suspend four electoral registration officers and file FIRs against them for enabling bogus voters to get onto the list, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee fulminated against the order and said she won't allow it. She also reminded block-level officers doing the Commission's work that they are state employees, and not the Election Commission's, which amounts to intimidation of staff working temporarily for the Commission. The Election Commission cannot be expected to produce a foolproof list if state governments have the power to threaten officials working for the Commission. What is good about Rahul Gandhi's 'atom bomb' is that it has alerted us to the possibility of fake voters and how they may tilt close contests. However, nothing can be achieved by pretending that this is solely the work of the BJP or the Election Commission. All parties are complicit in this fraud, and should fix things while they can still be fixed. The Election Commission and the Modi government would do well to take heed and act instead of merely scoring political points against the Gandhi scion. R Jagannathan is the former editorial director, Swarajya magazine. He tweets @TheJaggi. Views are personal. (Edited by Ratan Priya)

No political party has filed claim or objection on electoral rolls till 11 am today: Election Commission
No political party has filed claim or objection on electoral rolls till 11 am today: Election Commission

Time of India

time18 minutes ago

  • Time of India

No political party has filed claim or objection on electoral rolls till 11 am today: Election Commission

Patna: Political parties are yet to file any objection or claim regarding the addition or deletion of voters in the revised draft electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar, as no such claims have come in till 11 AM on Monday, Election Commission of India said. Releasing its daily bulletin today, the poll body said that from August 1 to August 11, over 1,60,813 Booth Level Agents across national and state parties have not filed any objections or claims to the draft roll prepared after the enumeration forms were collected as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. Productivity Tool Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide By Metla Sudha Sekhar View Program Finance Introduction to Technical Analysis & Candlestick Theory By Dinesh Nagpal View Program Finance Financial Literacy i e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By CA Rahul Gupta View Program Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By Neil Patel View Program Finance Technical Analysis Demystified- A Complete Guide to Trading By Kunal Patel View Program Productivity Tool Excel Essentials to Expert: Your Complete Guide By Study at home View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals Batch 2 By Ansh Mehra View Program However, over 10,570 individual electors have submitted their claims and objections within the same time period, with over 127 objections being disposed off after seven days. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Undo The ECI has also received 54,432 Form 6, which pertains to the registration of new electors after they are 18 years of age. The Election Commission, in its daily bulletin has reiterated that "as per SIR orders, no name can be deleted from the draft list publishing on August 1, 2025 without passing a speaking order by the ERO/AERO after conducting an enquiry and after giving a fair and reasonable opportunity." Live Events The Bihar SIR has been repeatedly criticised by the Opposition parties, calling the revision as unconstitutional and alleging that voter list manipulation might happen to favour a particular political party. The Opposition has been protesting against the SIR in and out of Parliament, also planning a march to ECI's AShoka road office from Parliament on Monday. Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has alleged that all the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are filling out "fake forms" in one room while making the announcement for the march. Notably, the ECI has granted an appointment for an interaction at 12 PM with Congress, after the party levied serious allegations of fraud in elections, and the ECI "colluding" with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to "destroy the electoral system in India." The appointment is granted in response to Jairam Ramesh's request on "behalf of certain political parties". The Election Commission has requested to submit the names of upto 30 people along with their vehicle numbers for the interaction due to the limitation of space. The agenda of the meeting is not mentioned in the letter. However, the Opposition has been constantly raising questions over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, accusing the poll body of "vote theft".

Medha Patkar defamation case: SC confirm activist's conviction in defamation case by VK Saxena; sets aside Rs 1 lakh penalty
Medha Patkar defamation case: SC confirm activist's conviction in defamation case by VK Saxena; sets aside Rs 1 lakh penalty

Time of India

time28 minutes ago

  • Time of India

Medha Patkar defamation case: SC confirm activist's conviction in defamation case by VK Saxena; sets aside Rs 1 lakh penalty

Medha Patkar (File photo) NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday confirmed activist Medha Patkar's conviction in a defamation case filed by Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena. The top court set aside a penalty of Rs 1 lakh imposed on Medha Patkar in the case. On April 23 this year, a Delhi court issued a non-bailable warrant against activist Medha Patkar, observing that she was deliberately flouting its sentencing order to submit probation bonds and Rs 1 lakh as fine in Saxena's 2001 defamation case. Additional sessions judge Vishal Singh observed that instead of appearing before the court to comply with the sentencing of April 8, the 70-year-old social activist had remained absent and deliberately failed to comply with the order to avail of the benefit of probation subject to furnishing the compensation amount. "The intention of the convict is apparent. She is deliberately violating the court order; she is avoiding appearing before the court and also avoiding accepting the terms of the sentence passed against her," the judge said on Wednesday. On April 8, the sessions court had released Patkar on "probation for good conduct" in the defamation case against Saxena, who headed an NGO in Gujarat in 2001. The sessions court modified the order of a magisterial court on July 1, 2024, sentencing her to five months of simple imprisonment. It asked her to deposit compensation of Rs 1 lakh, which was to be released to Saxena. Two days later, on April 25, Delhi Police arrested Patkar. However, the Delhi high court, the same afternoon, deferred till May 20 the sentence of Patkar. In July, the Delhi high court upheld the conviction and punishment awarded to activist Medha Patkar and noted that the trial court order, against which Patkar approached the high court, did not require any interference as the challenge was "more in the nature of hair-splitting and hinged on technicalities." The high court pointed out that in the appeal, Patkar did not even refer to the text and context of the defamatory press note that had triggered the defamation suit as it alleged Saxena was "mortgaging" the people of Gujarat and their resources to foreign interests, prompting the trial court to declare it a direct attack on his integrity and public service. "The record suggests that the essential ingredients of Section 499 of the IPC are clearly made out. The imputations made were specific, published in the public domain, and caused harm to the reputation of the respondent," the high court noted in its order, saying it found no illegality in the conclusions reached by the trial court.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store