BIHAR

States finance and commercial taxes minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary on Monday tabled Rs43,774 crore supplementary budget in the state assembly to meet expenditures under different central and state governments schemes. It is the first supplementary budget for FY 2023-24.

Of the total amount, Rs25,699 crore would be spent on the annual schemes while Rs 18,071 crore is for the establishment and committed expenditures.

As per the budget estimates, the has made a provision of Rs 6223.01 crore as state share in the Centre-sponsored Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and Rs 436 crore for state share in the Centre-sponsored National Health Mission. A sum of Rs 380 crore has been earmarked as the state share under theMahatma GandhiNational Rural EMPLOYMENT Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

As per the provisions made for the state governments schemes, Rs4,000 crore has been allotted for solid and liquid Waste Management under the Saat Nischay-2 programme, while Rs 2,000 crore has been earmarked for building rural roads under the Mukhya Mantri Gram Sampark Yojana. A sum of Rs 2,000 crore has also been earmarked for construction of roads, bridges and acquisition of land for the road projects.

Similarly, Rs 230 crore has been provisioned for the Patna Metro Project, Rs160 crore for acquisition of land in Mumbai for the construction ofBiharBhawan in Mumbai and Rs 105 crore for building residential quarters for judges.

Under the establishment and committed expenditures, a sum of Rs 4036 crore has been allocated for the consumers subsidy in the electricity bills, while Rs 331 crore has been earmarked for purchasing arms and ammunition by the Home (Police) department.

Chaudharys statement came a day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that the new Population control policy would not help to check the population of the country. Population could be controlled only through Education and awareness of Women.

Bihar is the first state where such a law was introduced in the past. It has helped to control the birth rate in urban areas. As education is lacking in rural areas, such a law should be implemented there to check population.

Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said the government was working on strengthening Bihar Foundation in every country to improve the image of the state. He said the tourism department was also planning to organise exhibitions in South Asian countries and trip packages toBihar.

He further said the government was working on developing the Ganga riverfront as an international tourist spot, which will have a cultural zone, play zone andsportszone. Tourism department secretaryAbhay Kumargave a presentation on important projects they are working on, including theRamayancircuit, Jain circuit, Sufi circuit along with improving ecotourism circuit and Gandhi circuit.

The districts ofMagadhdivision are gearing up to meet the demand of Oxygen in a pandemic like situation or if cases of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) or Japanese Encephalitis (JE) are reported in the coming days. Work onoxygen plantin Gaya is near completion,while Aurangabad also will have an oxygen plant soon.

Work on oxygen plant at Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMMCH) is near completion. Preparations for AES and the JE in pediatrics ward of ANMMCH are going on. During the second wave of Covid, the demand of oxygen increased manifold, which was met through much efforts.

The MFP at Motipur will be developed on 78 acres of land along the national highway. There will be 30 food-processing units inside the park, having the potential to generate a minimum of 5,000 EMPLOYMENT.

A similar park is being developed in the Khagadia district in Bihar.

These two MFPs will be in addition to an Agro-Processing Cluster (APC) which is being developed in the Begusarai district of the state.

Though the central scheme on MFP is being implemented by the ministry of Food Processing industries since 2008, it has now become acomponentof the new central sector umbrella scheme (PMKSY).

The MFP scheme has multiple components including the creation of processing Infrastructure near the farm, transportation, Logistics, centralized processing centres, effluent treatment plant and other enabling facilities such as roads, electricity and water.

ThePatnahigh court on asked the additional chief secretary (Education) to take a decision for framing school safety policy inBihar, which had been envisaged by National Disaster Management guidelines, 2016 for every school in the country. The court also directed the to take steps to install fire extinguishers in different schools in consonance with same guidelines of 2016.

The two judges also directed the three-member committee constituted by the state government in November 2019 to continuously monitor the building safety standards, electric connections and drinking water supply provisions of 74,861 government and aided schools of Bihar and take corrective and remedial measures if any school is facing deficiency in above-mentioned infrastructural facilities.

In its earlier hearings in the matter, the court had sought reports from all 38 districts regarding updated status of school buildings, basic amenities provided therein and safety norms being followed by the school management.

The has directed the administrative heads of 21 districts to appoint nodal officers to manage the functioning of 1,958 unregistered temples in the wake of large scale irregularities over transactions of assets by priests. Instructions have also been issued to furnish revenue records of 2,973 acres of land, worth several crores, belonging to these temples.

It has been seen that caretakers are selling properties donated by our forefathers for temples, he said. We want to strengthen the law to protect religious properties so that they are maintained better and used for social causes, the minister added.After the appointment of the nodal officers, who will be additional collector rank bureaucrats, these unregistered temples will function under the direct supervision of theBihar State Religious Trust Council(BSRTC).

As per the Bihar Hindu Religious Trusts Act 1950, all public temples in the state must be registered with the BSRTC.

TheBihar Industries Association(BIA) welcomed the announcements on tourism and non-conventional energy in the Union Budget.

TheMSMEswould have access to collateral-free loans. Even if there is a limit of Rs2 crore for loan coverage, new MSMEs will gain access to the additional funds of Rs9,000 crores.

Additionally, he said,Biharcan benefit from the country’s plan to construct 50 new . “According to the Economic Survey data, the Average annual national per capita income has increased to Rs1.97 lakh, while the average per capita income of Bihar is approximately Rs50,000. Since last year, this disparity has increased.

Small Industries of India (SIDBI) signed two memoranda of understanding (MoU) with the industries department and its agency,BiharIndustrial Area Development Authority (BIADA), on Wednesday to foster the Growth of the states Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME). Bihar became the 14th state to enter into such an MoU with SIDBI.

As part of the first MoU with the industries department, project management units will be established to assist the State Government in implementing necessary interventions to enable SIDBIs targeted engagement in Bihar to facilitate the development of the MSME ecosystem.
Under the second MoU, SIDBI will work closely with BIADA.

The SIDBI Energy Efficiency plan for MSMEs, according to officials, has already begun in four districts. SIDBI will assist industries in making the transition from inefficient to efficient energy sources, such as Solar Energy and compressed natural gas pipelines that are now available in Bihars major industrial areas.

State-run Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) plans to install at least 900 more electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the country in 2022.

CESL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) – an entity under the Ministry of Power.

In a conversation with IANS, CESL’s MD Mahua Acharya informed that 396 charging stations have already been installed across India.

“As on date, 396 charging stations have been installed across the country, out of which 166 are commissioned,” she said.

“When we see a projection for 2022, we are doing all we can to expand the number of charging stations in the country including install or enable the installation of another 900 more.”

At present, the state-run firm has tied up with various private and public companies to set up public charging .

It has also partnered with Urban Local Bodies to create such infrastructure.

One of the main requirements to set up charging infrastructure is the availability of ‘land’, which in most cases, is provided free of cost by most municipal bodies or firms for public chargers to CESL.