Saturday 11 June 2011

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News


Bihar stands second in terms of growth in income tax collection

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 08:30 PM PDT

PATNA: Bihar has grabbed the second position in the country in terms of percentage growth rate in income-tax collection. In the financial year 2010-2011, the growth rate has been 26.9%. It has been a commendable feat as compared to last fiscal when Bihar stood fifth with 19.8% growth rate.

As per the figures made available by the department, net I-T collection of Bihar and Jharkhand region during the financial year 2010-11 stood at Rs 4,263 crores against the budget target of Rs 4,079 crore. During the previous year (2009-10), the collection was Rs 3,358 crores against the target of Rs 3,170 crores. Thus, the tax collection shows a 27% growth against the last year’s 19.8%.

A unique feature about Bihar’s income-tax collection is that the contribution of tax deduction at source (TDS) has been remarkable. While TDS contributes 30% of the total tax collection in the country, its contribution is as high as 70% in Bihar. This represents a growth of 43% in 2010-11 against 24% growth rate in 2009-10 as per the statistics available with the I-T department.

As against the budget’s target of TDS collection of Rs 2,553 crore in the year 2010-2011 for the region, the actual receipt has been Rs 3,046 crore. The percentage increase with reference to the target was 19.33% as compared to last year’s 8.84% only.

Describing it as an encouraging sign, an I-T official said, “Good TDS collection is the main driving force behind catapulting Bihar to the second position from the fifth position it earlier held in terms of percentage growth of income-tax collection.”

Explaining the reasons for growth, a department official said, “The main reasons are the economic policies of the state government and the unprecedented growth in economic activities in the state. The robust growth in TDS collection is due to a number of awareness meetings with government deductors, trade associations and corporate deductors. This drive carried on regularly since 2008 has yielded positive results. In 81 cases, the non-filers were persuaded to file their returns. More than 3,000 notices were also issued to various deductors in Bihar and Jharkhand, said the official.

Bihar tourism shine, over 6 lakh foreign tourists in a year

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 08:27 PM PDT

PATNA: Over six lakh foreign tourists came to Bihar in 2010, an official said here Thursday.

“The number of foreign tourists has increased from 63,321 in 2005-06 to over six lakh in 2010,” state Tourism Minister Sunil Kumar Pinto told reporters.

Pinto said the government has decided to focus on tourism sector as it has potential to generate employment to business opportunities for the locals

Bihar getting ready with flood safety measures

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 08:25 PM PDT

Patna, Jun 9 (PTI) With the monsoon knocking around, Water Resources Minister Vijay Chaudhary today directed the engineers of his department to complete all flood safety measures in Bihar by June 15.Presiding a meeting with the chief engineers to review progress of various flood control projects, he said that all safety projects must be completed by June 15.The engineers should also ensure round-the-clock monitoring of the embankments and be vigilant about safety of the embankments, he said.The minister directed the engineers to identity small irrigation projects in their respective administrative jurisdiction and seek permission from the planning department for execution of these projects at the earliest.

Bihar to provide biometric e-shakti cards to all its people

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 08:24 PM PDT

PATNA: Bihar government has decided to provide e-Shakti biometric card to each of its 10 crore citizens. The department of rural development is working on this project to fulfil the desire of chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Minister of rural development Nitish Mishra said an empowered committee held a meeting on Wednesday under development commissioner K C Saha and decided to go for a common survey of people for both the e-Shakti and Unique Identification (UID) cards. “After cabinet approval, tenders will be floated to launch the project across the state,” Mishra told TOI on Thursday.

The minister said the project would cost somewhere between Rs 750 to Rs 1,000 crore and will take a minimum of two years to complete. “The e-Shakti cards will be as good as UID ones. This multipurpose card will not only be an identity card but various schemes and services will also be linked to it,” said Mishra. The card will be prepared on the basis of the 2011 census.

Bihar’s dream project, e-Shakti, was launched by CM Nitish Kumar in February 2009 as an evidence of his government’s resolve to take ‘sushasan’ to the rural masses. The scheme impressed all including the Planning Commission, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and UIDAI head Nandan Nilekani. The project was termed as the precursor to UID’s ‘Aadhar’. Bihar’s ‘e-Shakti’ was chosen by the UIDAI as an example for ‘Aadhar’ in the country.

However, the scheme hit a roadblock for reasons best known to bureaucracy. For the past six months, no headway was made in the project. Mishra said, “The project has been delayed as work on it was stalled. The problem was that there was no clarity in developing the ownership when it was decided to integrate ‘Aadhar’ with ‘e-Shakti’ in the state.”

Sources said all progress on ‘e-Shakti’ came to a standstill in anticipation of a unified model for data collection that would cater to the requirements of both the projects. Incidentally, rural development department is steering both of these initiatives.

Mishra said now this issue has been resolved and a common survey for both projects has been decided. He said the ‘e-Shakti’ vendor, Smaarftech Technologies, had been awarded tender for making 2.5 crore biometric cards. In the fresh bid, the present vendor will have the first right of refusal, he added. For making 10 crore cards, about nine more agencies would be involved to collect biometric and demographic data, the minister said.

A spokesman of Smaarftech, stressing the need to revisit the scope and mandate for integrating the two projects, said while efforts to integrate UIDAI’s ‘Aadhar’ and ‘e-Shakti’ might have some ground, they do not have any relevance beyond data collection exercise. “It must be ensured that there are no undue fallouts of this integration for any of ‘e-Shakti’ process other than data collection,” he said.

The agency, which claims to have collected records of about 40 lakh residents of four districts, lamented the inordinate delays, saying it has already dented the project’s continuity. As a matter of fact, sources said, the ‘e-Shakti’ provided foundation for the concept of UID. CM Nitish Kumar at the NDC meeting in February last had commented, “Bihar’s e-Shakti project has been a front-runner to UID, and the UID must leverage the start made by e-Shakti.”

BMP to have its own anthem soon

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 08:22 PM PDT

Hum Bihar ki sainya police hain, shaan badhana hum jaane;
Kartavyon ki balivedi par, jaan lutana hum jaane!
Hamen na chinta sheet ghaam ki, fikr nahin kuchh subah sham ki;
Dhun ke pakke hum matwale, sada lakshya par badhne waale!

PATNA: These lines are part of the song, “Veer Sipahi”, which is being considered for being selected as the anthem of Bihar Military Police (BMP). If everything goes well, BMP jawans will be humming these lines by the end of this month.

Penned by the present SP, Bagaha, Anil Kumar Singh, the song was written when the officer was posted as BMP commandant. “I was witness to the hardships being faced by my jawans, who were ready to work under extreme conditions. They would toil without complaining under the scorching heat, cold and the rains,” Singh told TOI adding “I wanted to give a poetic shape to their daily ventures.” Talking about his passion, the officer said, “I have been writing ghazals and poems since long.”

The anthem was conceptualized and rendered to the tune by A C Verma, ADG BMP. “The song is a completely home-grown production,” he said adding “when I came to know about the hidden talent in one of our officers, I asked him to create something tuneful for us too. And here is the wonderful piece of writing coming from SP Bagaha.”

Talking about its theme, the ADG added, “It has been written to inspire and motivate our policemen. It will definitely impart them an identity.” The song will be sung in each of the 16 battalions which finds its mention in the lyrics too: “Hum sahyogi hum sahbhagi; solah bhuja badi balshali.” Police ‘sabhas’ that are held every month will also conclude with the same chorus, rather than the national anthem, he said.

Music of the song has been composed by Antu Kumar, a BMP-I jawan. Lending their voice to the song are also the jawans of the BMP.

The anthem is also being filmed, which will be complete within a fortnight. Every aspect of policing – equestrianism, firing, combat in jungles, raids and parades – all will be incorporated into the film. “Since we wanted to picturise the ‘biguel’ against the rising sun, the shooting starts at 5am,” Verma said.

At present, the song has been sent to the DGP, Neelmani, for his final approval.

No comments:

Post a Comment