News Analysis India

Tag: Sanjay Kumar Jha

  • Key Nitish aide mocks Rahul for ‘confusing’ water logging with Bihar floods

    By PTI
    PATNA: A key aide of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for “confusing” with floods the “water-logging” in parts of the state which have been receiving heavy rainfall of late.

    Sanjay Kumar Jha, the water resources minister, however, added that he was “not ruling out” the possibility of floods in Bihar which suffers devastation on account of the calamity almost every year.

    “Dear @RahulGandji ji Looks like you have been wrong fed about floods in Bihar. There is none yet and in the wake of heavy rains we are not ruling it out either. However, you are intelligent enough to distinguish between water-logging and floods. Kindly refrain from confusing the two,” Jha tweeted.

    The senior JD(U) leader, considered a confidant of his boss, was reacting to a tweet, in Hindi, by the former Congress president.

    “I sympathise with flood-affected families of Bihar. It is a big disaster to have struck in the midst of corona pandemic. I appeal to my colleagues in the Congress that they help in relief work. Every step of the Congress must be in the direction of helping the people this is what Congress ideology is known for,” Gandhi had tweeted.

    Thousands of people have been affected by the flood- like situation that prevails in half a dozen districts of north Bihar, especially those situated along the river Gandak.

    The river has been in spate ever since catchment areas in adjoining Nepal were pounded by torrential rainfall a couple of weeks ago.

  • Bihar minister Sanjay Kumar Jha engages in a Twitter war with Chidambaram

    By PTI
    PATNA: A key aide of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday locked horns with senior Congress leader P Chidambaran after the latter expressed outrage, on twitter over a media report depicting shabby condition of a leading government hospital in the state.

    State minister Sanjay Kumar Jha came out with a flurry of angry tweets in response to a twitter post by Chidambaram who had referred to a television news report highlighting shocking and scandalous condition of the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

    The former Union finance minister in his tweet had wondered whether the Chief Minister had visited Darbhanga, where the health facility in question was situated, in the 15 plus years he has been CM.

    In his retaliatory tweets, Jha alleged that Chidambaram’s disconnect with ground (sic) was evident in the latters averment and asserted CM@Nitish Kumar is a self-made mass leader. unlike your leader who has inherited a kursi (position of power) and whom you idolize so brazenly.

    Jha, who holds key portfolios like water resources and information, however refrained from mentioning Rahul Gandhi by name while making the aforementioned oblique comment.

    The minister, who himself belongs to Darbhanga, averred that Kumar has indeed been visiting the north Bihar town and wondered whether Chidambaram was aware that it was now on global aviation map with an airport that became functional last year and was expected to have an AIIMS in future.

    The TV channel grab shows the hospital in a dilapidated state and Covid patients kept in a damp room.

    Refuting allegations that the condition of Darbhanga Medical College Hospital was appalling, Jha asserted the hospital had a state of the art building where COVID 19 patients were receiving the best possible treatment, which was being regularly monitored by the Chief Minister himself.

    I wish you had done a bit of homework before trying to exhibit your ugly politics, snapped the Bihar minister at Chidambaram.

    In yet another tweet, Jha claimed that the ramshackle old DMCH building shown in the news channel report flagged by Chidambaram was symptomatic of many years of misdeeds and misrule of the Congress.

    In a veiled attack on RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, a staunch ally of the Congress, Jha also spoke of your (Chidambarams) cohorts, who ruined Bihar and brought in the proverbial dark age, leaving behind a wretched legacy for Nitish Kumar who came to power in 2005.

  • Water to all Bihar agriculture lands within five years: Sanjay Kumar Jha

    Express News Service
    ATNA: “Bihar will herald another green revolution within 5 years”, claimed minister of water resource Sanjay K Jha, adding that the government will provide water to every agriculture land in next five years.

    Sanjay Kumar Jha made the announcement in the Assembly on Tuesday. “With this task accomplished under the leadership of CM Nitish Kumar, Bihar will be certainly able to herald a new round of Green Revolution”, he claimed. Jha presented the budgetary demand of Rs 4,074.38 crore of his department for the financial year 2021-22.

    “If CM Nitish Kumar ji has promised the people of the state to provide water to every agriculture land, it will be fulfilled in the next five years and will lead to a Green Revolution”, he said. In Bihar, out of a total area of about 93.60 lakh hectares, 56.03 lakh hectare land is in agriculture which receive irrigation from different sources.

    Besides this, he said that the government is also constructing the state’s first rubber-dam to ensure the availability of water in the Phalgu River near the Vishnupad temple in Gaya city, where people from India and abroad gather in large numbers for charity.

    Sanjay Kumar also informed that the water resource department has prepared a website and mobile app namely the ‘Irrigation Nishchay’.

    “A survey is also being carried out across the state for completing the water irrigation project to every agriculture land. And the survey team comprises of officials from five departments including water resources, minor irrigation, agriculture, panchayat raj and energy”, he said.

    He said that Ganga water through pipeline will be supplied in the four cities of historical, tourism and religious importance — namely Rajgir, Bodh Gaya, Gaya and Nawada.

    “For this, 148.77 km pipeline will be laid under the Ganga Water Lift Scheme.  Out of this, 65.72 km pipeline has been laid, which is about 48 percent of the project”, he said.

    In the first phase, the Ganga water will be purified and supplied to Rajgir, Bodh Gaya and Gaya through the pipeline by September 2021 while Nawada would be covered in the second phase. Elaborating further, Jha said that the water from  Ganga would be deposited in various artificial reservoirs during the four months of the monsoon and later supplied by the pipeline.