Bodhgaya News

February 2003 Stories

Police Recover Stolen Statues Gaya 28 February (Dainik Jagran). Today the police recovered the stolen statues of Surya-Vishnu and Ram from near Kaldaspur village in the Chandauti precinct. All three statues were stolen by criminals from a temple situated in Sahabajpur village last month.
The local village community were quite agitated in their demand that the statues be recovered and the criminals caught. The villagers attracted the attention of the administration by pickets, demonstrations, and road blocks. The police superintendent Ravindran Shankaran charged the deputy superintendent Ratnamuni Sanjiv with the responsibility of maintaining law and order. Under Mr Sanjiv's leadership the police have conducted raids in several surrounding villages in the last few days. The police received considerable aid from "The Bowl". A devotee with a miraculous "bowl" was brought from Nawada to Gaya in the last few days. The said devotee had given police considerable aid in recovering the statues of Lakshman and Sita in the last few days. "The Bowl" was taken to Sahabajapur village. He announced that the bowl was capable of causing the criminals to have bloody vomit and diarrhoea. The criminals were struck by fear and throwing the statues away near Kaldaspur village early this morning fled. The image were found with mud and sand on them. Police Superintendent Ravindran Shankaran today announced that the forces of law and order lead by Deputy superintendent Ratnamuni Sanjiv and Chandauti Precinct in-charge Madhusudan Prasad along with other police officers had today recovered the statues.

Small Shops being built in front of Vishnupad Temple Gaya 26 February (Dainik Jagran). Shops are being constructed at the eastern entrance to the sacred Vishnupad temple. The community of Gayapal Brahmin priests are opposed to this development. Today at the site of the constructions several members of the community accused the head and secretary of the Temple Committee of illegal construction. Today the construction works are in their seventh day.
Four shops are being built at the main eastern entrance to the temple. Two in front of Lalita Mai's temple and two below Hanuman's temple. This construction is being carried out by the Vishnupad temple committee. This route is the main entrance to the temple for pilgrims coming from inner Gaya and Deva Ghat. Several stalls were already in existence by the side of the entrance, which were later rebuilt as pakka constructions. Concerning this matter there is once again tension in the Priestly community. The community is roughly equally divided into those who support, and oppose the construction. [Story continues with details of how since at least 1997 this dispute has been ongoing. At that time it was ruled that the new shops would spoil the appearance of the temples they are in front of. But despite the earlier rulings that no new constructions should be made the present committee has changed its policy and authorised the construction of the shops.]

Central Tourism Minister Will Take part in a High Level Meeting in Bodhgaya Today Gaya 25 February (Dainik Jagran). The Central Tourism Minister will address a high level meeting in Bodhgaya tomorrow. Today architects from Hudco [Hudco website] inspected Bodhgaya and surrounding areas. The District Commissioner Brajesh Mehotra said the architects were inspecting Bodhgaya in light of the "Mahabodhi Scheme". Due to the Mahabodhi temple having been named in the World Heritage list it was appropriate that Bodhgaya be developed on the world map. Mr Mehotra said that several issues had been discussed. He said that tomorrow the Central Tourism Minister would address a high level meeting in Bodhgaya. [long list of participants in the meeting] All arrangements had been made for the District commission's proposals to be presented to the meeting and to the Central Tourism Minister. He also said that after the meeting the Minister would inspect other Buddhist sites in the state.

Railway Manager Promises New Gifts to Buddhists Bodhgaya 22 February (Dainik Jagran). Mr S. C. Gupta General Manager of North Eastern Railways on a tour of Bodhgaya on Thursday promised two new gifts to Buddhists in the new year. Giving this information the secretary of the Temple Committee Kalicaran Singh Yadav said that Mr Gupta had promised a new train from Gauhati to Sarnath via Gaya. Along with this he had said the Chennai Bokaro train would be extended to Gaya.

Search for Statue Thieves helped by Bowl Gaya 21 February (Dainik Jagran). In the area around Kujapi near to Gaya town hundreds of villagers today followed a bowl around the area. The villagers were trying to find the statue thieves through the means of a bowl. The said bowl had helped police in the case of the theft of statues in Nawada district. Surendra Prasad of Kujapi in Chandauti precinct had called "Bhagatji" from Nawada. Bhagatji claims to find offenders through the means of his bowl. Today the bowl was set to work. The bowl set off from Aradih the bowl first set off and went up a hill and then ran down into a ravine type area. Due to the presence of rain water in the ravine it could not get any further. There was no positive outcome due to this today. But the bowl and the Bhagatji were the talk of the area today.

Fight in Minority Family, Six named Tankuppa (Gaya) 20 February (Dainik Jagran). Some members of the minority community forced their way into the house of other members of the minority community in Pippra village of Fatehpur precinct and badly beat up the inhabitants. In the fight the head of the household Anvari Khatum was severely injured with head wounds. He was treated in the local hospital. A case concerning the incident has been registered at the Fatehpur police station in which six people are named.

Several Passengers Condition Worsens after eating Cockroach Contaminated Food on Purushottom Express Gaya 17 February (Dainik Jagran). Due to the contamination of food with cockroaches in the pantry car of the Purushottam Express Train several passengers began to vomit today. The health of several started to deteriorate. The afflicted passengers and others raised an outcry on Gaya station today about this. People demanded that the food be sealed and tested. In regard to this matter the train remained at Gaya station for over 20 minutes. After assurance of appropriate action the train continued on its way. [full story on Dainik Jagran website]

Rail Transport Suspended on Gaya-Kiul Section after Navada Massacre Gaya, 16 February (Dainik Jagran). After the communal massacre on the border of the Navada district today on the Gaya-Kiul railway line transport remained suspended today. Today the 806 Down Gaya Rampur Hath Passenger became a special at Kashicak station and returned to Gaya. [full story on Dainik Jagran website]

BJP Protests at Maitreya Statue Project in UP Lucknow, 16 February. (Indian Express). The BJP and the BSP have again locked horns in Uttar Pradesh. This time over Chief Minister Mayawati’s move to acquire a plot of land, measuring 750 acres, near Kushinagar for the installation of a 500-ft bronze statue of Lord Buddha.
Full story on Indian Express Website

Two Statues stolen from Temple
Gaya, 15 February (Dainik Jagran). Last night in the Cherki precinct area of the district two statues were stolen from a temple. Unknown crimminals stole an image of Shiva and of Parvati from the temple s.Situated inthe Parsavan village of Cherki precinct. The police were not successful in recovering the images and have not caught the offenders so far. [full story on Dainik Jagran website]

Union Protests at Dismal of Workers
Gaya, 14 February (Dainik Jagran). A special meeting of the Bihar Medical and Healthworkers union was held in the assembly hall of the Anugrah Narayan Medical College. At the meeting the leaders discussed the question of whether there was a plot afoot to dismiss all the medical workers appointed since 1980.
[full story on Dainik Jagran website]

[no Dainik Jagran Gaya news for 14 February.]

One Killed, two Injured, in shooting between MCC and Ranvir Sena
Gaya, 12 February (Dainik Jagran). Last Tuesday night near Nevda village in the terrorist effected Conch area of the District in firing between the MCC and the Ranvir Sena an MCC supporter called Jitendra Yadav was shot dead and two others were injured.
[full story on Dainik Jagran website]

New DSP of Homeguards takes office
Gaya, 11 February (Dainik Jagran). For the last few years the post of DSP of the homeguards has been occupied by Lalji Prasad. Yesterday the new DSP Jayant Kumar presented his credentials. The former District Head of the Bihar volunteer Homeguard force Mr Manoj Kumar said whilst giving this information that the home guards were happy at Mr Singh accepting the position. [full story on Dainik Jagran website]

[no Dainik Jagran Gaya news on 11 February.]

Police Recover Woman's body buried in Ground Gaya 9 February (Dainik Jagran). The police today dug up the body of a woman from ground in Saidpur village in Alipur Precinct. The police sent the body for post mortem. [full story on Dainik Jagran website]

MCC Kill two Abductees and Cut of Hands of Two Gaya 8 February (Dainik Jagran). The Banned terrorist organisation the MCC today killed two adbuctees and cut of the hands of two more before releasing them. [full story on Dainik Jagran website]

Political Parties support Indefinate Strike in favour of Prisoners' rights Gaya 7 February (Dainik Jagran). The boycott of courts by the Central Committee for prisoners welfare today reached its 17th day. Transport vehicles for prisoners arrived and left court empty. [full story on Dainik Jagran website]

One Injured in Road Accident Belaganj (Gaya) 6 February (Dainik Jagran). In a collision between a jeep and a motorcycle this evening the motor cyclist was injured and the jeep's driver was successful in absconding with his jeep. [full story on Dainik Jagran website]

Ten members, incuding a woman, of an Interstate Con Gang arrested. Gaya 5 February (Dainik Jagran). Under the leadership of Police Superintendent Ravindran Shankaran a raid last night in Bageshvari Suburb was carried out. The police arrested ten members of a con gang with several kilos of false gold and silver. [full story on Dainik Jagran website]

Forty Million Rupees exchanged at Gaya Airport Gaya 4 February (Dainik Jagran). The Vaishya bank has provided foreign exchange to pilgrims going on the Haj at Gaya airport. All the pilgrims have been provided with Saudi Riyals to the value of around 4 crore (40 million) Rupees. [full story on Dainik Jagran website]

One Arrested Over Ramsheela Case
Gaya 3 February (Dainik Jagran). The Police have arrested somebody over the destruction of images in the temple on Ramsheela Hill and taken him into custody for questioning. The arrested youth, Kamlesh Pande of Patva Tola, is half mad. [full story on Dainik Jagran website]

Student Council Criticises Arrest of Underage Student Gaya 2 February (Dainik Jagran). The All India Student Council has criticised the arrest of an innocent underage student at Naugarh. The Student Council has said while the District Administration has failed to catch the anti-social elements who have been defacing religious statues it is arresting innocent underage students.[ Full story on Dainik Jagran Website]

Railway Enquiry Office Besieged By Complaints
Gaya, 1 February (Dainik Jagran). Nowadays the Railway Enquiry office at Gaya station is besieged with complaints. Passengers are not being given accurate information at this office. Due to which passengers can often be seen to be angered. Day by day the situation is getting worse.[Full story on Dainik Jagran Website]

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