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MP PR Deptt. should utilise all means of publicity: P. C. Sharma

MP PR Deptt. should utilise all means of publicity: P. C. Sharma

Madhya Pradesh Minister for Public Relations, Law & Legislative Affairs P.C. Sharma gathering information about departmental structure while interacting with the Commissioner and Secretary of Public Relations P. Narhari.

Madhya Pradesh Minister for Public Relations, Law & Legislative Affairs P.C. Sharma gathering information about departmental structure while interacting with the Commissioner and Secretary of Public Relations P. Narhari.

By Pervez Bari, Maeeshat.in,

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Minister for Public Relations, Law and Legislative Affairs P. C. Sharma gathered information about departmental structure, working procedure and activities during the first meeting of the Public Relations Department at Mantralaya (State Secretariat) on Friday.

Sharma said that department should adopt advance means of publicity and implement departmental points of manifesto in effective manner.

He took a meeting of departmental officers at Mantralaya after assuming the charge of the Public Relations Department today. He mentioned that department should act according to the intention of the government and activities of the government should be publicized effectively on social-digital media including all the means of publicity. He reportedly told that the timing of “Soochna Kendra” (Library) situated at G.T.B. Complex, New Market should be increased.

The Commissioner and Secretary of Public Relations P. Narhari informed about the departmental activities and structure in detail through presentation. He asserted that work on all the points of manifesto related to the department has already been started and proposals in this regard will be presented soon.

In the morning, upon reaching his chamber situated at Mantralaya, Minister Sharma was accorded warm welcome with bouquet by the Secretary and Commissioner Public Relations P. Narhari and other officers. Sharma also received introduction from the officers.

Journalists’ Committees to be reconstituted

Meanwhile, the State Government has taken a decision to reconstitute State and Division level Committee, Patrakaar Sanchaar Kalyan Samiti for accreditation at State, District and Tahsil level, committees constituted to select various awards and committees formed to study difficulties of journalists. Therefore, all the present committees have been dissolved with immediate effect.

MP Govt. forms new Spirituality Department

MP Govt. forms new Spirituality Department

MP Govt. forms new Spirituality DepartmentBy Pervez Bari, Maeeshat.in,

Bhopal : Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath has decided to form a new Spiritual Department as per the Congress manifesto.

The Religious Trust and Endowments and Happiness Department will be merged in the new department. Directorate of Religious Trusts and Endowments, Pilgrimage and Fair Authority, Directorate of Mukhya Mantri Teerth-Darshan Yojana and Rajya Anand Sansthan working till now will also be included in the new department.

New department to be made for Sarvadharma Sambhav

The objective of the formation of Spiritual Department is to strengthen inter-communal harmony and Sarvadharma Sambhav in the state covering all religions, sects and faiths. In many countries the Department of Spiritual Affairs is working under different names in America, England, Argentina, Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Myanmar, Tunisia, Indonesia, Denmark etc.

The functions of Religious Trust and Endowment Department include restoration of government-controlled temples, honorarium to priests, construction of Dharmashalas, tours to religious places, work of pilgrimage and fair development. The objective of the Happiness Department is also to provide a prosperous and complete life to the citizens. This objective will also be included in the proposed Spiritual Department itself. Spirituality is not anti-religion, but it emphasizes the experience of a divine and universal consciousness. There is a Department of Spiritual Care in different hospitals in developed countries also.

Objectives of Spirituality Department

The objectives of the proposed Spiritual Department include the development of a common vision and apathy in all communities, developing mutual understanding and harmony while respecting the diversity of people of different backgrounds and circumstances, development of responsible citizens, embryo killings, cleanliness mission and maintaining peace during communal tension, inspiration from various religious leaders on subjects like “Gau-vansh” protection, creative use of strength of saints, proper management of Public Trust, Auqaf, religious fairs, pilgrimages, etc. planning, policy fixation and implementation of the concept of Happiness.

Main functions of Spirituality Department

The main functions of the proposed Spirituality Department include sustained efforts for the development of composite culture of Madhya Pradesh and India, development of peace and friendly atmosphere among various communities, strength of saints power of various religions to obtain important social and citizen targets, proper maintenance of movable-immovable properties of government “devasthans” and conservation and development of religious places, scientific evaluation of places of worship, development of socio-economic presence of places of worship, coordination with Tourism Department to encourage religious tourism, arrangement of honorarium to priests, Sevadar, Mujabirs, formation of welfare schemes, administration of religious and former trusts, revival of temple gardens in collaboration with the Department of Horticulture and the revival of temple sarovars in collaboration with the Rural Development Department, development of Maa Narmada Trust Act and various legal systems etc.

Also, the proceedings of the formation of Suryaputri Maa Tapti River, Maa Mandakini River and Maa Kshipra River Trust will also be carried out. Law will be made to make holy rivers of the state a living unit. Special package for the maintenance of government and historical places of worship, development of the districts falling in the state of Rampatha Gaman, crowd and security management at fairs organized on religious sites, coordination of Revenue and Urban Administration Department to free the properties of the shrines from encroachments, travel and management of pilgrim sites identified outside the state and within the state, identification of norms and programmes of happiness measurement, coordination between various departments to spread happiness and working as a knowledge resource centre for the subject of Happiness.

Kamal Nath asks Muslim Congress workers for ‘90% polling’; BJP calls it ‘disgusting’

Kamal Nath asks Muslim Congress workers for ‘90% polling’; BJP calls it ‘disgusting’

Kamal Nath

Kamal Nath

New Delhi : In a video which went viral on social media on Wednesday, Madhya Pradesh state Congress President Kamal Nath is seen asking Muslim workers of his party to ensure “90 per cent polling” in the community-dominated booths to “save” the party from a “big loss”.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was quick to give a communal colour to the video and terms the video as “disgusting and divisive”.

The video purportedly shows Nath asking workers to take out the figures from last elections and do a “postmortem” as to why the polling percentage was only 50-60 per cent in the Muslim majority booths.

“Resolve today that you would ensure 80-90 per cent polling in your booths. If we don’t get 90 per cent votes of the Muslim community, we may suffer a big loss,” he is seen telling the workers.

“…You (Muslim Congress workers) will have to take care of your own society, not just for the Congress but for the whole state,” he said.

The meeting where the video was shot apparently took place in October.

Reacting to the video, BJP Spokesman Sambit Patra accused the Congress of indulging in “politics of appeasement”.

“It is absolutely disgusting and divisive. What Kamal Nath is saying is just an extrapolation of what his party President Rahul Gandhi has said during a meeting with Muslim intellectuals that Congress is indeed a party of the Muslims,” Patra said in Indore.

Madhya Pradesh will vote on November 28 in a single phase to elect a new Assembly.

—IANS

Raza’s love for nature and how art found utterance in a small town (Art Feature)

Raza’s love for nature and how art found utterance in a small town (Art Feature)

Raza's love for nature and how art found utterance in a small town (Art Feature)By Siddhi Jain,

Mandla : It was at this quiet riverside town of Madhya Pradesh that one of India’s best known modern artists, S.H. Raza, fell in love with nature and began to find pleasure in it. Nine decades on and the picturesque sight — lush with green foliage and river Narmadas nurture — emanates a calm, meditative energy that Mandlas son held close throughout his life.

Mandla lies at the end of a long, serpentining road from Jabalpur, is dotted with villages and small towns, sprawling green farmlands and low hills. It may not top the lists of possible tour destinations but on a closer look, one finds a rawness about the place that the renowned artist drew inspiration from.

The immediate surrounding, still lulled in yesteryear’s charm, and blessed with nature’s bounty come across as something soft and subtle for the traveller, calming one’s mind — just as one can imagine them calming Raza’s.

And it was not a coincidence that Raza was born here. More like a plan of destiny, Raza’s old and well known family from Delhi, had lived in what would later become India’s capital, till the first war of independence in 1857. But they knew that they must leave Delhi as they had opposed the British rule.

Some of his family members left for Bundelkhand, Raza recalled in “Itinerary” (originally written in French in 2003), and began a new life there while his grandfather’s love for forests pulled him to Mandla. His father also loved forests and would later become the Deputy Forest Ranger in the region.

But art found Raza, or rather Raza found art, in Mandla. A dusty enrollment register in a village, where Raza and his two brothers were schooled for a brief while, still holds their names in beautifully written Hindi letters.

It was here that his most iconic and widely recognised motif of the “bindu” was born. When asked to concentrate on a small dot made on the school wall by his teacher Nandlal Jharia, Raza first deemed it only to be a exercise in self-discipline.

However, later he began to meditate on the bindu, and as he writes: “One night, in Gorbio, in the south of France, I had the enlightenment about bindu which was a starting point for me.”

Before going to Nagpur School of Art, and later Mumbai’s J.J. School of Art, the iconic painter’s tryst with all things artistic had already found utterance. He had begun to paint what he saw around him — the rivers, the gardens and villages.

The painter would later shift to France in 1950s and return in 2010 but all through this journey, he made it a point to regularly visit India, and often Mandla, which seemed to replenish his love and gratitude for the place.

“I opened my eyes in the village of Kakaiya, in Madhya Pradesh. My most vivid memories are those of the forest of Mandla. It is there that I began to see,” he had written.

“The ghats were superb. There was a Gond fortress, some splendid temples with statues. Our residence was on the edge of the city, from where the forest began, without any construction between the two, and one could see the Narmada. It was very beautiful.”

What meanders through clusters of these forests is the linchpin of life in the small town populated by just several thousand people — Narmada. The deep connection Raza shared with Narmada stayed with him through most of his life.

He writes of Narmada as nearly encircling the city of Mandla like a “pushpanjali” or an offering of flowers. He also called the river floods supernatural and incredible, and later wrote about his fascination with it as something that “could become a source of anguish, could even kill”.

Even after nine decades of his childhood encounters with the nature, the forest villages surrounding Mandla are bereft of indicators of modernity and commercialisation, and emanate stillness and pristinity. The unpolluted air, a pristine environment, and a sustenance-based rural lifestyle seem to be nature’s way of painting its own virgin and unadulterated beauty.

The Raza Foundation, set up by the late painter himself in 2001, recently organised “Raza Smriti” a five-day multiarts event. The programme sought to bring art out of silos and engage locals in the creation of art, as a way of remembering him on his second death anniversary.

Participatory workshops and musical programmes held at the Narmada’s shore turned out to be interesting outlets for creativity and arts appreciation among locals.

Raza was awarded the Padma Shri in 1981, the Padma Bhushan in 2007, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2013. He was conferred with the highest French civilian honour, the Commandeur de la Legion d’honneur (Legion of Honour) on July 14, 2015.

He passed away in July 2016 at the age of 94 and upon his will, now lies buried in a small graveyard in Mandla, next to his father.

(Siddhi Jain was in Mandla at the invitation of the Raza Foundation. She can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in )

—IANS

One killed on cow slaughter allegation, four held

One killed on cow slaughter allegation, four held

One killed on cow slaughter allegation, four heldSatna (Madhya Pradesh) : Two Muslim youth were badly beaten up by villagers in this Madhya Pradesh village on accusation of slaughtering a cow, leading to the death of one of them, police said on Sunday. Four accused have been arrested.

According to police, the incident happened in Amgaar village of the district on Friday morning when the village residents caught the two youth, identified as Siraj and Shakeel, with a quantity of meat. Suspecting it to be beef, they accused the duo of cow-slaughter.

A crowd soon gathered at the spot and the two youth were beaten up with sticks.

They were taken to the local district hospital where Siraj succumbed to his injuries while Shakeel was referred to Jabalpur for treatment, Badera police station Inspector Rajendra Pathak told IANS.

Pathak also said that it was yet to be ascertained which meat the two were actually carrying and samples would be sent to a Hyderabad lab for identification. Meanwhile, two sacks of meat have been seized.

He said four people have been taken into custody for the crime and further investigations were underway.

There was tension in the village following the incident and additional police force has been deployed there, said Pathak, adding the situation was now fully under control.

—IANS